Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Family of Liars by E. Lockhart

13 reviews

sophie_hans's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Sexual harassment

_eleanorgreen8_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book - much more than We Were Liars. It was a good holiday read and incredibly absorbing, but also pretty dark and troubling. E Lockhart's writing so skilfully conjures emotions and a sense of place, and the use of description and listing is so satisfying. I felt totally involved in the narrator's world, as her thoughts and emotions were constantly being expressed and explained. The one thing I liked less about the book was the plot twist at the end - I felt it didn't make sense and wasn't really necessary, though i guess it did add another layer to the story. Overall, this book was gripping and thought provoking and I definitely would recommend. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Grief

stitchbooks22's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

This was garbage, but still not the worst thing I’ve ever read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Body horror, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Child death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Antisemitism, Child death, Colonisation, Blood, Classism, Lesbophobia, Religious bigotry, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Cultural appropriation, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

guivx5's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

 When I reviewed
We Were Liars,
I said:
"I still have the sequel to read, and I hope it doesn't suck."
Well,
I'm glad to say it didn't!

Lockhart had a terribly doomed job here: to write a worthy new story based on the universe of a success she wrote almost ten years ago, a book that was so unique in it's style it would be hard to avenge. Thankfully, the task was accomplished, and now we have more lies to be shocked of.

I see Family of Liars as a great expansion of the first book's universe. The Sinclair family has a twisted charm to their tale that guaranteed my interest here, no matter what. You simply want to know more about them, it's undeniable. But then, what could she write? After the shocking story of Cadence and her friends, the broken family full of intrigue and ambition? We Were Liars was an ambitious story itself. I had to find out what's up with their past. Turns out, it wasn't pretty.

Now, let's talk about reading experience here. This book has less strength than it's older brother, simply because it doesn't benefit of the surprise factor. That was taken away by the first story, so it is an inevitable fragility. But I do think Lockhart handled well with this weakness, and soothed it as much as she could, which made the story still full of surprises. The characters, both old and new, were as intriguing as ever, and the plots involving the long-known family of liars were really good. I feel like the second third of the story could do with a bit more of clues and intrigue, but that's just me. Overall, the story is as well built as the first one in terms of consistency. But I do have a big caveat:

Spoiler

Rosemary

 

Spoiler

This could be just me playing with my frustrated expectations, but I do feel like Rosemary deserved a better plot. I mean, it's The Sinclair Family we are talking about, I don't believe she just died on an accident. Her presence could be more meaningful, specially revolving around her motives to visit Carrie. Even if she just died like that, even if this is really her only motive, to look out for her sister, I feel like this wasn't developed enough. It should be brought up more during the chapters. But sorry Lockhart, the only way to redeem yourself here is to write a third book, a prequel where we learn the origins of Harris and Tipper and how they were the real guilty ones behind Rosemary's death. You just have to do it, or I won't raise my rating on this book on my next reread.

Again, I think Lockhart gives us mystery and suspense done right. And this is a great expansion upon the first novel, maybe with a few hiccups towards the middle and in the need of a little more development here and there. It is, ultimately, worth reading if you liked the first book.

Now, how long do you guys think she'll take before deciding to write another prequel? I don't want to reread this too much before she releases it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Grief, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexism

dancing_on_ur_muml0l's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Spoiler

Pfeff can stay at the bottom of the ocean and die idc

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Murder, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Rape, Infidelity, Drug use, Blood, Alcohol, and Addiction

Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, and Cursing

Spoiler

pfeff more like pfuck off

dalek_caan's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

I loved this book almost as much as I loved We Were Liars. I was really impressed by the author's ability to tell a story just as captivating as the previous book, in a prequel no less. I would definitely recommend this book BUT I recommend reading the other book first because this book will spoil We Were Liars.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Biphobia, Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

Minor: Fatphobia

safety_pin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Self harm

Moderate: Alcohol and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Outing

malena26's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Child death, Sexual harassment, Murder, and Infidelity

zoemain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

1.25

Objectively this book isn’t bad, but it pales in comparison to the sequel We Were Liars and I personally didn’t enjoy it.
To me a lot of this book felt like filler, ESPECIALLY the entire plot with Rosemary, the dead little sister. OMG, I swear I reread the same scene with Rosemary the ghost 100 times. It goes like this:
Carrie: “Rosemary, why and how are you haunting me?”
Rosemary: “I don’t know.”
Carrie: “Okay.”
Rosemary: “Want to make bracelets and snuggle?”
Carrie: “I’d rather be hanging out with my boyfriend rather than my dead little sister, but I feel guilty, so sure.”
Imagine this, but painfully dragged over two pages and on about ten different occasions. UUGGHHH!
And why is nobody mentioning that you never even learn why Carrie is seeing ghosts! There is no explanation. None! I suffered through so many Rosemary scenes and I don’t have a reason as to why. That really bothered me.
Moving on, the characters were all quite one-dimensional and uninteresting. Carrie is the addict. Penny is the princess. Bess is the little sister. Pfeff is the player. You’ll learn nothing else about the characters other than what I just told you.
I did like some of the mini plot twists but the main plot twist

Spoiler

(Carrie murdering Pfeff)

was so predictable.

Spoiler

Especially because this book follows the exact same formula as the Sequel.

I could go on and on but I’ll stop here. This book was a lazy version of We Were Liars. I won’t be recommending it to anyone.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Child death, Death, and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content