Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

213 reviews

vagrantheather's review

adventurous dark tense medium-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

5.0

A spooky dark academia with an unreliable narrator. Lots of fun. I do think the characters are much too well read for teenagers - they all speak academia fluently and have fixed thoughts on concepts and authors unknown outside of the realm of academic literature - would have worked better for me if they were in university looking forward to Masters programs. In general they just aren't at all young acting. And the way all of the adults in the background tacitly permit smoking, drinking, and a total lack of supervision, seems to me more like college than a pricey boarding school full of academically inclined socialites.

But those gripes are minor and in general I loved the mood, setting, writing, moral flexibility, and disconnection from reality. It was a lot of fun to read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Animal death, Abandonment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Cursing, Outing, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Drug use

thelibraryofalexandra's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

fionamatilda's review

dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

venti's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

ellis <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicide, Eating disorder, Vomit, and Self harm

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual content, Abandonment, Ableism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, and Transphobia

cosmo_naut's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

First off: I am not a big mystery/thriller reader. It's not really my thing, so this will colour my preception of the book.
I read this book in one night, in the midst of exam season, because I just had to know that I was right with my predictions and guesses. I liked it in general and I had a good time reading it.
I don't think the prose will be to everyone's taste. It's supposed to be dark academia, so the book is littered with literary references that occasionally are rewarding to understand, but often seem very piled on. I did appreciate some of the meta-level a few of those discussions had. The plot was quite predictable (even for a newbie like me) and I could guess the plot twist pretty early on. I didn't really mind the tropy-ness of the book but I've seen some other reviewers complain about. The ending seemed really rushed which was a bit disappointing because the build up of the tension was really good. I would have loved to spend more time on the aftermath of everything that happened. Instead, it feels like it was brushed off. The main character is 18 and this book being a mystery and Young Adult, I didn't mind her making a couple of stupid decisions - and in the grand scheme of things her decisions did make sense. The side characters sadly fell a bit flat. If the book had been 50, or even 100, pages longer, I think there would be the space to flesh out these characters as well as the ending more.
Whatever the technical issues with the book may be: I had a good time reading it. I would definitel recommend checking the content warnings before reading it - there's some pretty heavy things in here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

ettegoom's review

dark 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book did everything that Plain Bad Heroines completely failed to achieve.  The characters and their means of dealing with the situations in which they found themselves were sufficiently mysterious and stressful to keep me engaged.  The twist wasn't unexpected, but was still enjoyable, and the conflict between the main character's own delusions and anxieties and the reality of the situation was quite engaging. 
I did find Felicity a little annoying at times, but in the main, I enjoyed the book and wanted the best for her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Gaslighting

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, and Alcohol

rorykluciarova's review

dark 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

kshertz's review

challenging dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

It was an interesting read. I did not go into it knowing very much. I really enjoyed the beginning in the premise that set up about unreliable narrators and trying to figure out what’s going on with these two girls. Also trying to figure out what happened with Alex. But it jumps around a lot which can make it hard to follow. There’s animal cruelty for seemingly no reason. I don’t fully connect with the characters and don’t really care what ended up happening to them so I can’t really recommend it. I’m not really loving that it seems to say killing people is so awesome. Some other review said “sorry, killing is not supposed to be a girl boss move” and that’s exactly how I feel too. It’s hard to get behind a message that feels like “lesbians are clearly all psychopaths”. I hope that’s not the intent. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, and Gore

dragonwriter's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Felicity has returned to Godwin House, hoping to face the ghosts that chased her into a sanitarium. The death of her secret girlfriend, Alex, weighs heavily on her, and in the mind of the other students, who all suspect that Alex’s death wasn’t as accidental as she claims. The only one who doesn’t look at her with suspicion is Ellis, a new student who is already legendary. Ellis is a prodigy author, formerly homeschooled, but coming to Godwin House to immerse herself in the legend of the Dalloway Five, girls who were accused of witchcraft and died after the Salem Witch Trials. Also obsessed with the Dalloway Five, Felicity allows herself to be woven into Ellis’s web, debating whether or not magic is real, and how, if it’s not, the girls were murdered. But Ellis’s methods hit too close to the trauma of Alex’s death, forcing her to face the truth of what happened that awful night.

I should have liked Ellis. She’s a homeschooled writer, but there was always something off about her. She kept pushing Felicity too far, kept forcing her to confront Alex’s death—even going as far as to suggest they dig up her coffin. Her behavior is fairly well explained by her sibling, Quinn, who tells a macabre story of Ellis’s childhood, but I was quite pleased when my suspicions proved correct 😈

CW: smoking, drinking, sex, witchcraft, parental neglect

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Panic attacks/disorders