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rhgrimes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bringmybooks's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
B̷R̷I̷N̷G̷ ✨ 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ✨ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷
1. The Only Survivors (2023)
2. The Perfect Stranger (2017)
3. All the Missing Girls (2016)
4. The Last House Guest (2019)
5. The Last to Vanish (2022)
6. Such a Quiet Place (2021)
Well, there you have it. 6 Megan Miranda books in 6 days. OOF.
(Even as I have them organized as I do, I would recommend any one of these if someone asked - but if you had interest in the plots of the ones towards the bottom, I would just advise you read those first so that they can just get better and better as you go!)
The Last House Guest just so happened to be my Last Megan Miranda book (for the time being) and I think it was a really nice one to go out on. I liked the way it kept going back and forth with the competing timelines, and I was genuinely shocked a number of times.
I love how the author manages to sneak in so many inconsequential details about things that are actually SUPER consequential and when those things come back around you find yourself going, "How did I not see that coming???" when in fact even if you had been looking she went about it in a way that made it easy to miss.
I believed in these characters, and in the story that she told. I believed in the motivations, I believed in the practicality of it, I believed in the plausibility of it. There were a couple of character relationships I would have liked to see a bit more backstory / depth / conclusion on, but when you look at the way the novel is set up I truly believe she closed out all the paths that were relevant to the main character in relation to her story & arc at this time, and ultimately I'm just gonna let it slide!
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
minimicropup's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
2.0
Narration: 👍
Narrator voice was good. Not monotonous and able to pick up on different characters w/o being overdone.
Atmosphere: 🤔
Pretty well described, but flat. You could imagine any place with water, a cliff, and some trees. The town is repetitively described as an entity to the point of being assigned human traits. Hard to locate myself and if I let my imagination run wild it’d be smashed randomly. Lots of me going ‘wait, they ran past A to get to B… isn’t B on the other side of the town in the opposite direction?’
POV: 🥴
-MC is a young adult with some trauma and grief in their recent past and a bit obsessive/naively intrusive with their friend’s family. They’re making questionable decisions due to the trauma and lack of experience
-The MCs experiences are recounted late summer at a party, and then a year later. Same characters (er, minus one) and setting so it gets SO confusing as the timelines jump around AND it isn’t chronological within each year. I was lost for which year we were in if I missed the chapter heading or took a break. Easily could have written most of this chronologically in 2 parts (year 1 and 2).
Reading Journey: 😵💫
Scenic road trip to a cottage weekend, turns into “omg wtf why are you taking us this route” arguments, turns into getting there late with everyone cranky and tired.
Growls and Howls: 🐺
Overall it was a good plot but the writing style and “villain”destroyed it. There were a lot of annoying world salads …kinda like “she took in the ocean breeze as a reminder of the town and it’s salty hold on those who crossed it’s path, like Sadie and so many of the memories she left behind”. The “divide” between townies and tourists was overly done trying to put the friendship between Avery and Sadie on Romeo and Juliet levels.
Show’n’tell: 🥴
Mostly show, but weirdly. Like bringing a crayon on bring-your-pet-to-school day (is that still a thing?)
Good match if you like:
-late summer vibes
-party mysteries
-naive characters lacking self awareness (I love MCs like this)
-rich people behaving badly
-corruption
-villain monologue (for me, this instantly transforms an entire novel into a poorly animated children’s cartoon)
Vibes: ☺️🤨🫤
Format: Audible and Library E-book via Libby
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Suicide, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcohol
katrinarose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Classism
Minor: Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail