Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh

43 reviews

pomoevareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

What a thrill ride! I have been reading lots of character driven family stories lately (my go to genre) and needed a good thriller to give me a jump start. This one did the trick.

As the title implies, two people meet and agree to kill someone for the other. And then there is a hiccup that catches the breath of one of the characters and makes her see things differently. I won’t say more than that, just know that there are a few good twists, the pace is on point, and if you can let go of some less than realistic excitement and just fall into the fun, then this book will offer you a great escape.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death and Torture

tspice24's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jewelsbookopinions's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed how gripping this was, but I did feel wanting more for the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Vomit, Dementia, and Trafficking

bettinab's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

A very engrossing, fast-paced thriller I read on one long sitting. The story is layered, albeit a bit far-fetched, but nevertheless interesting and engaging. There are plenty of excellent twists and many caught me off guard. You definitely keep going, hoping to figure out what the hell is going on. The only part that didn't work for me is the ending. I saw the final twist coming, which per se is no big deal. But without giving anything away, that twist and the subsequent last few chapters felt unfinished on two dimensions. A couple of more chapters to tie up the story would have been needed. So while everything else worked for me and this was a great pageturner, the last 5% left me not quite satisfied. Still, fully recommend this read, the good reviews are well deserved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

shesflippinpages's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

novellearts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, and Murder

_amandawells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

holy shit….

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Gaslighting

hey_abijo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Women reeling from severe loss and trauma take us along for the ride on their hunt for vengeance. The story is based on this premise: two women, connected only by their shared suffering and constant grief, agree to swap murders— but their plans go haywire. Multiple engaging POVs, some clichès and predictability, moderate suspense, and many plot twists. Author Steve Cavanagh knows how to write suspense and mystery, but his skills are less aptly applied in matters of artful detail, emotion, sensitivity, and tact.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood and Alcohol

The author is not sensitive in his relaying of details that are highly uncomfortable and triggering. Mentions of kidnapping, rape, child sexual abuse, pedophilia, stalking, violent attacks, and murder are blunt and recurring.

honey_coated_chapters's review against another edition

5.0

°:. *₊ ° . ° .•
𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 4/5
𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔: 352
𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: mystery/crime 
𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆: revenge plots served extra hot and loose ends. 
———————————————————————
This hooked me in from the first chapter. There’s alternating POVs per chapter (3-4 POVs in total) and each one ended on a cliffhanger that just had me at the edge of my seat. The twists and connections are honestly riveting, this author may be up there with Alice Feeney for best twists. But, I also didn’t totally mind it because the story was still put together neatly. The “swapping murders” premise was such a thrilling concept, I know it’s not entirely original but the execution was near perfect. The way our characters describe their thought process along with their motives, it honestly hard to put down. I liked the detail that went in to each of their chapters, it’s not totally gory but there is descriptions of crime scenes that provide just enough information to give you some chills but not too much to where you’re turned off entirely. There’s a crime aspect that I appreciated while we were able to see how another character (detective) makes his connections. I will say that I had to suspend my belief just a little bit — some parts are over the top, I didn’t mind but it’s worth mentioning if you like your thrillers true to life. Aside from that, 4 stars is just for my own selfishness because we don’t get answers! We don’t know why certain ~things~ happened. 
🧸

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicide, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

alimdaniels's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Rape, and Sexual assault