Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

A Flicker in the Dark: A Novel by Stacy Willingham, Stacy Willingham

69 reviews

aparker89's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

bookscatcoffee's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

2.5

This was a struggle for me.  I did not care for how the author discussed and described other women.  I figured out the twist pretty early, but I didn’t really care by the time it arrived.  The MC was a mess that never really resolved.  Just not my favorite.  2.5 stars

Mystery

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

tamsin_emma's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Excellent murder mystery. Kept me on the edge of my seat. Was a bit disappointed that the main character didn't have a happier ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction

jennaviolet's review against another edition

dark slow-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

0.5

Please don’t read this. There’s a lot of telling and no showing, no getting to the point. You can’t have all of the twists happen it makes no sense. It feels like this author read Sharp Objects, Where the Crawdads Sing, and other similar but better books and just took each plot point she liked and mixed them together. There is such a thing as too much detail. And none of these character relationships or explanations for even minor occurrences make sense or seem researched to even be plausible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Violence

sierrabowers's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really liked this book! It was a great mystery/thriller that kept me guessing until the end. I really thought I had it figured out at about 50% of the way through, and I did have my suspicions about the actual ending as well. But it was very satisfying to piece everything together in the end! The only reason I didn’t give it a 5 stars is because I didn’t like the narrator of the audiobook, but the book itself is a 5!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

decafdirtychai's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

 Another painful read about family and the horrors thereof! I think of “The Push” by Ashley Audrain. Incredible job of capturing the inherent exhaustion of being a woman. Almost five stars but not because I had trouble visualizing some scenes and the chapters were super short, like the reading equivalent of ending every sentence with an exclamation point 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

cdkm9's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

A good suspenseful novel that kept me guessing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit

hanej24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Minor: Domestic abuse and Self harm

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

3.5

This was enjoyable! I was correct with who I thought did it and felt like it was so obvious. This book just felt so similar and like I’ve read it before. I can’t think of the book, but I read another book with the same plot basically. 
I did not see one thing coming, but I feel like that wasn’t the biggest reveal. This kept me entertained, but it was nothing amazing. The main character was kind of annoying and made stupid decisions. I also didn’t love the ending. 

I think if you’re new to thrillers this one is good, but if you’re read a few or a lot this would be nothing special. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Gaslighting

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

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

4.0

When Chloe is 12, her father is arrested for the murder of 6 teenage girls in their small town. 20 years later, Chloe is engaged and working as a psychologist. Her life is thrown back into turmoil when local girls start to go missing again. 

Our narrator, Chloe, is super unreliable. She has PTSD, mental health and trust issues, and has a tendency to mix alcohol and prescription drugs. The entire time I was questioning everything she said and believed to be true. It was pretty clear pretty early on that her focus was going to be on Daniel, but everything seemed to be too convenient. 

Her trust issues mixed with this couples lack of communication makes me understand why her focus went straight to him. Men let her down, they always have let her down, why would Daniel be any different? Had they just been open, honest, and communicated with each other, they probably would have caught the killer much earlier. 

Daniel

is such a genuinely kind and sweet man. He loved Chloe so much, but was not completely honest with her. Yes, he did it for an understandable reason, but if you can't tell your fiance everything about yourself, who can you? It turns out that his sister who "disappeared" when she was 13, was actually alive and well. Their father was an abusive drunk and to save her from his abuse, Daniel arranged for her to "run-away" from home. He keeps this a secret from Chloe.

Cooper

was the obvious suspect from the start. He seemed a bit off from the beginning. We find out that it was actually him from the beginning. His father took the fall for him. In the present he manipulates a local man to impersonate a reporter in order to get close to Chloe. He manipulates and gaslights Chloe into believing her fiance is a killer by planting evidence and targeting girls close to her. He hates that Daniel is taking his sister's attention from him and wants him out of her life. Creepy. 

Overall, it is a gripping a twisty thriller with an unreliable narrator. You never really know where the story is leading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail