Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Last Thing He Told Me

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

127 reviews

bexxhenders's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-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? It's complicated

2.5

This wasn't a bad book, but it didn't really match up to the book that was described. A huge bug bear of mine is a book that promises plot twists, which turn out to be more of an unraveling. And I really didn't like the ending! I think it would make a good TV adaptation though, so I'm looking forward to checking out the series on Apple+.

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chelsea_shelves's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

There were things I really liked about this book and things I didn’t. It was tough for me because I found the premise so promising and engaging, but the story lacking. I loved the focus on the stepmother-stepdaughter relationship. I liked the protagonist’s backstory and how it all tied back in with the decision she makes at the end. But, I don’t love her decision and am not convinced it was necessary. We don’t get enough in my opinion to believe that there is real danger. It doesn’t work for me. I loved the last line though. That touched me and brought tears to my eyes. Having said that I think throughout the book there was too much moralizing and explaining. The characterization was good and I would have had even more emotional response just hearing their story without the excessive reflection. Why can’t we just let a story speak for itself? The mystery and search kept me rapt though. It was good. The resolution just didn’t match up to me. Maybe we needed more details or just a different way to come to the same conclusion.

Also I realized while reading this that I just don’t like 1st person present tense narrative. It grates on me. Past tense feels more natural and third person even more so. But that’s just my preference.

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maryconney's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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bookwitch's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Solid thriller. One of the fastest reads of the year for me, so much so I was able to squeeze in TWO extra "just for me" reads between my "required" reading.
Generally speaking, I had a perfectly fine time with this, but it was a book club read, so hashing it out with the group changed my opinion by just a little bit (that and watching the show immediately after finishing it). I don't think the story was super predictable, I was curious the whole time where it was going to go (and at no point did I really have THAT as the reason) BUT, there were some weaker parts too; the characters were not particularly loveable, I wasn't "rooting" for them per say, just more curious what the heck was going on. And the book club and I agreed that the ending was kind of unrealistic, and a bit of a copout. But regardless, not the worst thing I've read this year.

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vannahcabana's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

This story is quite the mystery. I overall really enjoyed Laura Dave’s book. I wasn’t quite expecting the last couple chapters to happen the way they did so bonus points for that. I’m not a big mystery book fan, but this one kept my interest as it’s fairly fast paced.

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jessb915's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

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_ingrah's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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ju_harue's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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? It's complicated

1.0

Eu estava curiosa para ler, já que fez parte do clube da Reese Whiterspoon e ganhou o Goodreads de 2021 de Mistério e Thriller. Porém não foi uma leitura que me ganhou. Não consegui me conectar com os personagens, parecia que o tempo todo eu ia entendê-los mais, mas isso não ocorreu. O enredo em si, até achei interessante, mas o desenrolar me pareceu meio raso, até o final. Ainda assim, não é um livro péssimo, mas definitivamente não foi pra mim... ainda quero assistir a adaptação da série.

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bek_p87's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I liked, but didn't love, this thriller. It was interesting, and I was definitely engrossed in the mystery. I just felt like it was all resolved and over so quickly, the tension wasn't really allowed to develop.

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matcha_pages's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This is definitely a mixed bag for me. I think the start and ending were really strong. There's times when the book really nailed something (like Bailey's misdirected anger as a teen) and times when lack of basic research showed (you can't build an app in HTML).

I wasn't a fan of always being in Hannah's head. She does this thing where she explains in detail what she expected/hoped another character would do, but the character actually does something different. It also lead to a lot of summarizing and hand-holding the reader to make sure the message wasn't lost.

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