Reviews with content warning for Death - #murdertrending

Reviews tagging 'Death'

#murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil

18 reviews

literarycavy's review

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dark funny 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? No

3.75

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outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? N/A

4.25

17-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse & realizes with growing horror that she is about to star in the reality TV hit, Alcatraz 2.0. Justice has been outsourced to the private sector & a shadowy figure, known only as The Postman, is the controller of a show where convicted killers are shipped to Treasure Island in San Francisco's Bay area & picked off one by one by a group of masked serial killers who act as executioners. Everything is streamed live to the outside world & is unbelievably popular. Dee was found guilty of murdering her stepsister & people want to see her pay - only Dee is innocent, she didn't kill Monica & as she gets to know some of the others on the island, it seems that she may not be only innocent person there.

Well this was a blast! From the off there's a blistering pace, nonstop action, & lots of over the top violence. The premise neatly skewers the fascination with reality TV & why so many people believe everything they see is the gospel truth. I think the popularity of many reality shows, except for maybe Love Island & Strictly, has waned a little now but it still holds up. Dee is a great main character, one who the reader can identify with & get behind. Can she trust the other members of the "Death Row Breakfast Club" (Nyles, Griselda, Ethan, & Mara)? I thought they were good too although Ethan was a bit more of a caricature than the others with his obsession with quoting lines from action films. I also thought the ending was little bit too convenient which is why I haven't given it full marks.

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mels_reading_log's review

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

I don’t normally read horror books but this one was the perfect amount of scary for me. No jump scares, a really creepy premise and a lot of mystery. The main premise is that the US has decided to turn Alcatraz into a town where death row inmates live until they are theatrically murdered by masked seri killers. The whole thing is filmed and shown to the country as the ultimate reality show. The main character, Dee, is convicted of murdering her step sister and sent there to live out her sentence. But she says she didn’t do it, and so do all the other young, beautiful people there. Is something weird going on?

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