amandalachelle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Trafficking, Violence, Classism, Stalking, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Murder, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Confinement, and Blood
Moderate: Cancer, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness
fionamatilda's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Graphic: Stalking, Death, Murder, Confinement, Trafficking, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Medical content
lulusreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Gaslighting
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Medical content, Suicide, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Medical trauma, Infidelity, Body horror, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Classism, Cancer, Stalking, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Gun violence, and Gore
chasingpages1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Classism, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Gore, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Confinement
Minor: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Gun violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Car accident
kyrstin_p1989's review
- 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? No
4.0
Graphic: Stalking, Classism, Car accident, Terminal illness, Death, Murder, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicide, Gore, Grief, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Infidelity, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Gaslighting, Deadnaming, and Confinement
bookedandbusy's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide
sammm_888's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Classism, Suicide, Death of parent, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Self harm, and Stalking
taelights's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
While I did figure out who was at fault and who couldn't be trusted pretty quickly the reason behind their actions shocked me and was something I didn't see coming. This was honestly such a great read and I had such a good time listening to it. This was my first Riley Sager book and I'll definitely be reading more by him in the future.
The only reason I'm not giving this four stars is a thought a lot of Jules' actions where very dumb and I found myself sometimes getting very annoyed at her.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Self harm, Kidnapping, Medical content, Stalking, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Suicide, and Violence
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I put my physical TBR in a randomizer and let it choose for me, and it chose spooky apparently - and in terms of spookiness, this book delivers on all fronts. I loved the gothic apartment building setting. To me, it felt extremely vivid and claustrophobic. The gargoyles, the colors, the faces in the wallpaper, I felt like I could see it all. I loved that every single person in the book was suspicious as hell. There wasn't just one person I was side eye-ing - I was side eye-ing them all, even the MC's parents who were dead when the book began. I would compare this to American Horror Story: Hotel, but less unhinged because the writing is better. As a whole, the story was compelling and kept me guessing what direction it was going in.
There are parts, however, that had me scratching my head or made me uncomfortable - and not in the way that you hope to be uncomfortable when reading a thriller. There was some casual homophobia within the inner monologue of the main character that really took me aback, it didn't serve the story at all and it was the kind of casual homophobia that queer people like myself pick up on very easily. Additionally, there is some queer "rep" in the history of the Bartholomew, but it is all negative rep that does not serve the story. Speaking of the MC, Jules, she was incredibly annoying, and not to be mean, but she was dumb as rocks. I didn't care about her breakup, I barely cared about her life, I wanted to know more about the Bartholomew building and its history. This next critique is petty, but I'm wondering if Sager really needed to use the word "meager" as many times as he did while writing this book. It got to a point where I had to roll my eyes every time I saw it. Please open a thesaurus, for the love of God.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia
slimy's review
- 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? No
3.75
I think my only critique is that it took a little longer than anticipated to get into the really thrilling parts of the book. It kinda felt like it was all just unconnected, weird occurrences until about halfway to three quarters of the way through. I think I would have liked things to happen a little quicker, but we got there eventually and boy oh boy…
Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, and Trafficking