Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

13 reviews

m1923's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

2.25

 Finished reading: July 2nd 2023

“Don’t let yourself get caught up in what-ifs. That way madness lies.”

WARNING: it's unpopular opinion time again!!

I somehow tend to have a love-hate relationship with Ruth Ware's books. Some of her titles are on my list of favorites, while others fail to hit the mark completely instead... I tend to love her gothic thrillers most, so part of me was a bit hesitant to pick up The It Girl because I wasn't sure how I would react to it. Most people seemed to enjoy the story and I did like the sound of the blurb, so I still had hopes that I would enjoy it... But in the end it just wasn't ment to be. I think part of the issue was that the pace is considerably slow, and it took a LONG time for anything substantial to happen. Add the fact that I didn't like any of the characters, which is always an issue in a character-driven story, and I struggled considerably to find the motivation to keep reading. Sure, we have the mystery around April's death, but I honestly couldn't care less who did it and I personally thought she had it coming. Hannah was very frustrating as a character, both the past and present chapters. The It Girl is mostly a story of toxic friendships, characters not standing up for themselves, infidelity and a not exactly credible hunt for the truth in the present. By the time things got a little more tense near the end, I had already long given up on the story... And I didn't find the reveals exactly worth the wait either. In short, The It Girl was overlong, way too slow and had a disappointing cast of unlikeable and frustrating characters. This is probably one of my least favorite Ruth Ware stories to date... I do hope she will return to the gothic thrillers at some point, because otherwise I might just have to leave her books be in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, Bullying, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Stalking, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Classism, Kidnapping, and Violence

uhhlexiconic's review

dark mysterious tense 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

Despite the sour note of the treatment of the original suspect, the It Girl is a hard to put down thriller that manages to make each of its suspects feel plausible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Murder, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

cpratreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

I liked this book! Ruth Ware is my vacation go-to author and she didn't dissapoint with this one either. 

This is the first book of hers (I've read 2 others) where I didn't guess the outcome so that was fun! It did feel like it went a little quickly once the reveal happened but it was a fun ride. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Death, and Sexual assault

doreyghc's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Drug use, Blood, Bullying, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

Minor: Vomit, Cancer, Cursing, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Panic attacks/disorders

bleepbloop's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.5

boring. only one main suspect the entire time with no real compelling evidence for anyone else until the final act. the plot of the current timeline and the past timeline were both uninteresting. the main characters were all annoying and there was no character development.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Stalking, and Gaslighting

kelseyr713's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

Ruth Ware has done it again, crafting a compelling mystery with a main character I really felt for. Hannah is extremely likeable and sympathetic, and I understood her need to solve the mystery, even all these years later. I enjoyed the split timeline narrative and had a hard time putting this one down to go to sleep, especially towards the end!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pregnancy, Murder, Child death, Infidelity, Stalking, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Drug use, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Dementia, and Sexual assault

kimveach's review

dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Drug use, Grief, Stalking, Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

undersea's review

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

1.0

Ruth Ware is an instant buy for me. But holy cow this book is bad. It feels like someone’s first novel. Her characters are usually so real & have such depth but not this one. Everyone was annoying with truly bizarre motivations. The “twist” was easily guessed and the pace was entirely torturously slow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Gaslighting

limabean21's review

dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit