Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

6 reviews

miriamgibbs29's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

It was just plain lovely from stay to finish. 
I had to audiobook and adored the narration.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Mental illness, Dementia, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

heresyourletter's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

I was excited to read this book as an avid cozy mystery reader. It had a great cast of characters and funny, well-written dialogue, but I found the pacing slow and

hated the overuse of unnecessary suicides/“mercy killings” as a way for characters to get out of their problems. Their suicides didn’t really contribute to the overall plot and almost trivialized the horror of suicide and its impact on surviving loved ones. The suicide of a devout Catholic nun in front of a church altar is particularly horrifying and unrealistic given her faith background. I feel other methods could have been used to write characters out of the main story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Terminal illness, Dementia, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Pregnancy

One character mourns the death of her husband throughout the book. One character mentions cheating on his wife through online dating with younger women. Another character mentions leaving her partner finding texts on his phone. One character is non-responsive after a stroke for the majority of the book. One minor character has dementia. One character tells a fake story about killing a man who tried to sexually assault her. Occasional drinking of wine and beer. Brief disparaging comment about the Nigerian Prince scam.

One murder victim and several other characters are revealed to have been involved in drug dealing before the book’s events begin. A priest and a nun are revealed to have had a sexual relationship, resulting in a pregnancy. Three different characters die by suicide. One is a pregnant nun, who hangs herself in front of a church altar. One character injects another with fentanyl when it is revealed to the outside world that she murdered a criminal.

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The characters were lovely.  I imagine I will pick up the next in the series at some point because I thought it was a charming read, even though it wasn't my usual cup of tea.

Also, I know it's a murder mystery but I wasn't expecting so much casual death.  Was a bit grim at times.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

katietregs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it took me a while to get into it. If I hadn’t been reading it for a book club, I might have even given up around page 100. 
The murder mystery aspect does have good payoff, and the characters are rich and lovable. I think it suffers from too many POV characters up front and not enough storyline events to justify the story’s overall complexity. 

I also think the suicide of Bernard felt unnecessary, and rushed. And the priest’s story was supposed to be sympathetic, but it made him seem like a weird creep to me. If the nun was going to run off with him… why did she hang herself? and why did Bogdan send the picture to Jason?

That said, it’s an impressive first novel from Osman with good mystery and great characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying and Eating disorder

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I thought this was very cute, and the writing style from Joyce's perspective is a delight. I did struggle with that thing where when there are a bunch of characters, I have a hard time keeping everyone's characteristics separate. But I thought this was fun, and I would continue to read this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Terminal illness, Blood, and Abandonment

mysterymom40's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Suicide, Dementia, Murder, and Pregnancy