Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

19 reviews

sadie_hawkins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Started out and went on great but the ending was truly not it. Felt like an afterthought, no originality, not suprising. I really wasn't satisfied with it. Therefore not a mystery but a psychological thriller, and even though it was about such a sad thing, I really found it captivating. I found the writing quality high enough until the part she was found. I am still happy I read it, would recommend, just don't expect a good ending lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Murder

jkar7's review

slow-paced

3.0

I could not have predicted how this would go. Also... sorry but

Annie and Gary sleeping together was beyond inappropriate. I mean, i get it, but it rubbed me the wrong way for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, and Panic attacks/disorders

tilly_is_not_here's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Pregnancy

zumpers's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Car accident, and Death of parent

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

To say I liked/enjoyed this book feels wrong because this book was very heavy. Let's just say this is the first ever thriller where I was shedding tears. It did take me some time to get into (about 60 pages, but after that, I was hooked) because of how the story was formatted. So, just to prepare you the story is told through therapy sessions where only the main character speaks, and in these sessions, she starts off talking about a detail/event that happened to her in the present then goes into what happened to her then it ends off with her in the present again (that's how each chapter starts and ends). The first 50-60% of this book is her (Annie) recounting what happened to her and how she escapes. And my gosh it's so heartbreaking to read. 

Something I want to point out is that I personally like how the author presented Annie's personality through how she acts and speaks because you really get a feel into the type of person she is and how this experience has shaped who she's become. I think the author did a good job in presenting what an experience like this can take from someone and something as tragic as this creates deep scars into someone; scars that may never go away. 

The rest of the novel explores the present-day investigation into who did this to her and why. Now I personally feel very indifferent towards the twist. I understood the twist, however, I understand why many people feel like it was a cop-out and that it lacked luster. Especially because I don't think we got enough closure especially pertaining to certain characters like Luke (I really felt for him; he was so kind). 

I did not like Christina and I'm glad Annie finally let her go. I can't believe she even forgave her the first time. It still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that she and Luke slept together while Annie was out being tortured by "The Freak".

  Overall, if you do think about reading this I really do suggest checking those trigger warnings. I've never cried in a thriller until I read this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Vomit, and Car accident

mayflower828's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Rape

smixter88's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I can't use my normal rating scale for this book. It's extremely heavy and chock full of trigger warnings. It tosses them right in from the word go. I gave this book four stars because this author kept me until the very end. I was disgusted, sad, hopeful, and just sympathetic the entire time. It was a brutal read. I had a love/hate relationship with the ending, which is why I took one star away. I wanted Annie to have more closure. I thought she deserved more. I can't say I'd recommend this book to many people. Read at your own risk. If you have any trigger warnings, check them out, and don't take them lightly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

cateyeschloe's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, despite it being a thematically difficult read.

The story opens on a normal day with our main character, and she honestly wasn’t super likeable to me at the start (my opinion of which did improve as much as it could as the book progressed). However, the story pretty much immediately jumps into her kidnapping, and it gets very intense very fast. 

I cannot stress enough how pervasive and horrifying the misogyny is in this book! It is integral to the plot, but parts are really difficult to stomach. 

Overall, this was a really interesting story, and I enjoyed the perspective the author used to present it. The twists were engaging and interesting with an ending that satisfied me nicely! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fatphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence

Rape is very pervasive in this book, as well as the after effects of it.

The abuse is very intense and focuses heavily on psychological manipulation, along with physical abuse.

Child abuse and child death is a big, extremely tragic and upsetting part of this book, involving a weeks old infant.

Forced pregnancy happens due to kidnapping, confinement, and continuous rape.

A lot of examples of PTSD, panic attacks, anxiety, paranoia, etc. are present throughout.

Someone shoots a duck in the head. A deer is killed off scene and then on page is gutted. A scene is described of someone hitting a cat with a car.

juliaaa02's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy