Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

28 reviews

mdavis26's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

nialiversuch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

micaelamariem's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 

I always surprise myself when I opt to pick up a thriller/mystery, and I surprise myself even more when I actually like it. Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney, published by Flatiron Books, was my Book of the Month choice from last summer. 

I think most people, if you aren't me, have heard of Alice Feeney. She was a BBC reporter for fifteen years before finding success in her writing. Since then, her novels have found international success. Daisy Darker is her fifth novel. 

Daisy Darkeris a locked room mystery. When the Darker family returns to a tiny tidal island off of Cornwall to celebrate Nana's 80th birthday, a storm brews both outside and in. At midnight, Nana is found dead. An hour later, the next family member follows. The remaining Darker family need to figure out who is behind the murders or risk not surviving the night. 

"Don't spend all your ambition on other people's dreams." 

This book is clearly a retelling of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, and it reminded me of that the whole read. However, some other books that might be similar are The Guest List by Lucy Foley, One by One by Ruth Ware, and The Family Game by Catherine Steadman.  

I really enjoyed this book, despite my general aversion to mysteries. This one was exciting. But beyond that, Alice Feeney has a very prolific writing style. Her sentences are beautiful and calls to something deeper. She is able to have the main character reflect on past traumas and her dysfunctional family and find a deeper meaning in that, even while something nefarious is going on around her. 

Don't get me wrong--even while the main character looks for redeemable qualities in her family, they are still mostly unlikable. Perhaps that is a necessary quality so that the reader doesn't get too sad when/if one of them dies. It did make me sad for the main character however, and the trauma she grew up with. 

The way the plot twist is set up is also very clever. I'm not going to spoil anything, but it's those kind of books where things might start to make sense if you go back through a second time. I'm tempted to. However, I still didn't like the plot twist--it seemed a bit far-fetched and fantastical and I wasn't expecting it (I suppose that's the point of a plot twist--but it was so unexpected that it jerked me out of the story). 

I also loved the parallel of the past and the present so we can see how the whole family got to be as broken as it was. Plus, the flashbacks do provide some vital clues to the killer and motive. Though, I must say, I completely missed it. 

So....due to me being gripped by the story the whole way, the beautiful writing, intense characters but somewhat disappointing plot twist I give this book four stars. And I still do highly recommend it to locked room thriller lovers and anyone that likes things a little creepy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I was extremely into this story, and I appreciated the story the whole way through. The writing may have had a tiny edit for my preference, but I will definitely read this author again. Love a twisty tale.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Classism

natasyareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Body shaming, Gun violence, Rape, and Alcohol

ejoymiller11's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Rounded up from 3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book and found it entertaining, but I do think it could’ve been better. The flashbacks to Daisy’s childhood, while providing some nice context, dragged on a little too much compared to the rushed ending. I understand the author was trying to help us understand the characters and their flaws, but it was so slow and dragged the pace down from the present-day murder mystery chapters. I definitely think we could’ve had quicker summaries of character flaws and used those extra pages at the end of the book. 
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The last 40 or so pages felt forced to me, like it was wrapped up a little too perfectly. While I love the twist of Daisy being dead the entire time (I totally had to go back and read some paragraphs!), I didn’t find Trixie’s motive realistic. I’m not sure I find murdering her entire family and turning herself into an underage orphan over a child aunt that died 15 years earlier believable. It just wasn’t compelling enough for me. I wish we had a longer ending and better explanation for Trixie’s motivations and justification. Nana’s made a little more sense to me, but it was still hard to find believable in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

dayingst's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Suicide, and Pregnancy

sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

This was an interesting read, and I have some mixed feelings about it. I should preface this by saying the nature of the twist was, unfortunately, spoiled for me by social media the day I started this book so I think I did pick up on some foreshadowing that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

The characters were not likeable, even Daisy, who I felt we were supposed to sympathise with, I didn’t really connect with or feel much for. This is not necessarily a problem, but I just didn’t feel like I connected with these characters one way or the other.

The pacing was a bit all over the place and I felt like it dragged in places to just have the chapter end on a “cliffhanger” that was resolved early in the next chapter in a way that was kind of anti-climatic. 

The twist was interesting and different to what I’ve seen before but I felt like some of the foreshadowing was a bit too obvious in some places. Even though I did know the nature of this twist, I felt like it was mentioned enough times I would’ve picked up on some of it had I not know. It wasn’t very subtle about some of it, either.

For example, everyone outright ignored everything she said and the number of times it was explicitly stated that she was ignored made it kind of obvious something was up. And there was a large focus on death and ghosts throughout the book, as well.

Overall, I had a decent time reading this but I don’t think it’s a very memorable thriller for me; however, I do intend on reading more of Alice Feeney’s books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide

zalouis's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Alcohol

sobbinghoursopen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail