Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Ward D

I liked this one fine, and it had the patented Frieda McFadden twists. But god damn, you would think this was written 40 years ago for how it talked about mental health! Super judgy and exclusive terms about people being crazy and unstable and like animals. It felt like McFadden had never met a mentally ill person. Folks in overnight facilities are all trying their best. No one wants to live with a brain that tortures them. Everyone is deserving of care. And I feel like if one of Amy's doctors had read this book, she would get a severe talking to about how she refers to mentally ill patients. Also, she needs to get her head out of her ass about this whole I-was-dumped-for-a-test thing. People make mistakes! They get really stressed about life-changing tests and they screw up their priorities! But don't spend the whole book

hating your ex and then suddenly feel all bad when he's dead.

McFadden has written female characters that were way easier to support than Amy.

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ashleyreadsnrambles's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

libbijade13's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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jazlynenns's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

2.5

Plot was ok, but it felt immature and predictable. The main character was gullible and believed anything anyone told her, which resulted in her being manipulated pretty much the whole book. I didn’t love the stigmatizing vocabulary regarding mental illness (ex: crazy, insane), and think this could’ve been written to be more accurate of experience in a mental health facility. Was an easy read and got through it pretty fast.

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alexisvv14's review against another edition

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mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I enjoyed the fact that the author made me distrust every single character that I’m still not entirely sure I even believe the ending. Great book.

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madelynowil's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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grace33's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.25

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courtnetto's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Freida does it again! Another 5 star read for me. I just couldn't put this book down and had to continue reading to find out what happened next. I was unable to guess any of the plot twists in this one which really made this book that little bit more shocking for me!
This book centres around Amy, a medical student, who is doing a night shift on the psychiatric ward (Ward D). Except, Amy knows one of the patients that are on this ward... we meet an array of characters along the way, some of which just suddenly disappear without a trace, but why?
Amy is working with her ex-boyfriend, Cameron, which she is not at all happy about, especially after the way that he dumped her. We also meet Damon, who is believed to be in Seclusion One for being an extremely dangerous person, except not is all as it seems. We also meet Jade, which is the person that Amy knows, as this was her kindergarten best friend! Jade ends up going down a completely different path to Amy, hence why she ends up on the psychiatric ward...
We also meet Will, who is a reporter for a local newspaper and is pretending to be dealing with schizophrenia just so he can see what really goes on in the ward after hearing different people's reports of the things that go on there. Except, Jade makes Amy believe that Will is her boyfriend, is a compulsive liar and can't be trusted. But we soon find out the truth and Will is actually a very honest person and not the compulsive liar that he was made out to be.
We also get flashbacks to eight years prior to this day on the ward, where Amy reminisces about times when Jade has tried to make her do things she doesn't wish to do, to the point Amy has gone to the police about a crime that Jade has wanted to commit. Which plays a part in the reason why Jade is in the psychiatric ward.
This book is really the roller-coaster of emotions and I just couldn't put it down!!

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