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strawberrymivvy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was at times quite a challenging book, as we see how quickly a seemingly respectable person's life can spiral out of control when they are thrown a curveball.
Emma seems to have it all, a great career, a loving husband and son, and is recovering from her difficult childhood, having lost her parents at a young age. When her son is diagnosed with a serious cancer, and the prognosis looks bad, their medical bills soon spiral out of control and she finds herself selling opioids to pay the bills and get him the treatment he needs.
This was pretty well-written and kept the pages turning, but it all seemed to happen a bit too quickly for my liking, and I'm not sure how realistic the time scale of her descent really was.
A good eye-opener to not just the opioid crisis, but more importantly the farce that is the US medical system that would see a young child die if the family doesn't have hundreds of thousands of dollars available.
Emma seems to have it all, a great career, a loving husband and son, and is recovering from her difficult childhood, having lost her parents at a young age. When her son is diagnosed with a serious cancer, and the prognosis looks bad, their medical bills soon spiral out of control and she finds herself selling opioids to pay the bills and get him the treatment he needs.
This was pretty well-written and kept the pages turning, but it all seemed to happen a bit too quickly for my liking, and I'm not sure how realistic the time scale of her descent really was.
A good eye-opener to not just the opioid crisis, but more importantly the farce that is the US medical system that would see a young child die if the family doesn't have hundreds of thousands of dollars available.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse and Murder
happiestwhenreading's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was my first book by Christina McDonald so I can’t compare this to her other work. All of my thoughts are my first impressions of her and her writing. I want to start by saying that this book has A LOT going on in it – parent loss, sick child, addiction, an opioid crisis, and several murder investigations. It kind of felt like she threw a whole bunch of things into one story – and it was just kind of a lot. I didn’t love it. It felt like McDonald couldn’t really focus on a cohesive plot because she had so many plot lines to connect and tie together.
Having said that, I was compelled to read it in a day. I wanted to know what was happening and who was responsible! McDonald actually did a pretty good job keeping it all together and I think I only remember one thing that kind of didn’t make sense and got overlooked. But just because she did a good job keeping it all together doesn’t mean it worked well for me. Some of the twists irritated me and frustrated me. I didn’t love how it ended and it felt sort of like a cop out.
This book did remind me why thrillers work for me – they’re generally quick reads, and because it’s not my favorite genre, I feel like I am able to just throw myself into the story regardless of it’s overall impact. I’m in the middle of five different books right now – none of which are quick or easy – so this was a great escape for me right now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Drug use, and Medical content
Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder
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