Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Rabbit Hole

Tough topics like grief and tragedy can be used to explore the harsh realities of life, and I knew they would feature prominently in this book. Unfortunately, it went overboard as if trying to be controversial or edgy, but instead felt heavy-handed and repetitive. As a result, it took me out of the story, and instead of being heart-wrenching, it became uninteresting. If you can look past what I couldn’t, you may find a story worth reading here.

Energy: Acerbic. Insincere. Pessimistic.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in Maine, USA

Perspective: We follow a high school teacher who has experienced a lot of tragedy. Their sister went missing in high school, their sister’s dog is dying of cancer, and their father died by suicide. While clearing their father’s office, they unearth information about their sister’s disappearance.

🐺 Growls: Cliché or gratuitous use of ‘shocking’ language and events that overshadow the commentary and character study.

🐕 Howls: Spinning wheels and stalling out the plot. The synopsis is the B-plot at best.

🐩 Tail Wags: The writing itself wasn’t bad.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

Using a dog’s illness in this plot could have been effective, but the repetitive descriptions of its suffering felt excessive. The same can be said for the dog’s death and all the random cat torture and cruelty. This made me think it was trying too hard to get a reaction, like a child acting up to get attention.

This seemed more like a deep-dive character study exploring Teddy’s descent into madness and whether it was due to tragedy or inherent in her personality. Teddy’s increasingly destructive behaviour caused her to engage in reckless activities. I was here for it initially, but unfortunately, it suffered from the same repetitive tendencies. The sex scenes were often clinical descriptions of what to do to come, which made it seem like they were there to make some readers feel shocked or uncomfortable without any purpose or substance.

The synopsis also misleads how little online and social media is involved in the plot.

Ultimately, this story could have included meaningless sex, a dying dog, Reddit trolls, and an increasingly unhinged main character in a way that was impactful, even if discomforting. Instead, it was trying to use unpopular tropes but not confident enough to do so without regularly pointing them out in a disruptive way that overshadowed any meaningful exploration of heavy themes like grief and true crime toxicity.

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Content Heads-Up: Animal cruelty and death (cats, dogs). Suicide. Suicidal ideation. Loss of a sibling. Grief. Loss of a parent. Loss of a child (teen). Loss of a spouse. Sexual content (consenting, intoxicated, addictive/destructive). Sexual assault. Addiction. Drug use.

📚 Format: Paperback

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

Content Warnings

syellico's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

catriona176's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

If you like your mysteries resolved I would advise to avoid this one! Otherwise it’s a decent contemplation of the loss of a sibling and to some extent a parent.

Content Warnings