Reviews

This book is marketed as a gothic mystery, but that is not what I got. Instead it is a slow paced fiction novel. That in itself wasn’t terrible, but the way relationships are portrayed was. Our protagonist who has a special needs son is very weak when it comes to him and her manipulative husband. Also, adultery is portrayed to be excusable in certain circumstances her and I’m not ok with that. All of these things combined made this not the boom for me. If I was not reading an ARC for review, I would have dnf’d this one. I gave this two stars instead of one because the historical part about the Tudor era of England was of interest to me.

shxlby98's review against another edition

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3.0

This is a very very slow atmospheric read. There were times that I thought the plot would never pick up and I would be stuck but it picked up at the end.

Perfect for a slow winter evening but not a beach read

cate_with_a_c's review against another edition

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2.0

UGH

Who talks like this? Who talks like the main character would.
It’s cool she basically wrote an Autistic child, but everything else was whiny. I found myself skipping over parts because it trudged along.

kelsey_vanna's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

murphy_overbooked's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

branwynnemay's review

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dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The ending felt a little awkward but overall I really appreciated this story. The themes of being/thinking differently, what we can and can’t control about ourselves and society, the beauty and danger of being different, of being free or caged and our complicity in that state, or lack thereof, was moving. It meant a lot to me.

sls0369's review

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3.5

I'm pretty sure my whole review is a spoiler, so I'm marking it as such.

Spoiler

I enjoyed this book overall, though there were some things that annoyed me.

Kevin is an ASSHOLE. I hate the "it's ok if you have sex with someone of your own gender, but if you have sex with someone of another gender, that's cheating" attitude. Also, way to give bisexuals a bad name, Kevin.
I HATED Hannah's constant "all good mothers give up their own wants/needs/desires in order to give everything to their children. That's an attitude I've seen so often since having children, and it's just not true, and it puts mothers who strive to have their own lives as well as raise happy, healthy children in a bad light. It seems like she kind of got past this by the end of the book, but, man, was that painful. Martyr!Mothers are the worst.

I appreciated how the characters dealt with Nicky. I don't think I could have been so good with him, but I know that's a flaw in myself.

I enjoyed reading about the process of figuring out who Isabella was.

I enjoyed the audiobook version of this book. The narrator was fantastic, and brought all of the characters to life through her voices. To be able to voice an elderly man, a middle-aged woman, and a 10-year-old boy, not to mention different accents, distinctly is a real skill.

Content Warnings

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