Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

174 reviews

dmackreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

The writing style of this book threw me a little because third person is hard for me to follow or enjoy sometimes but I got so sucked into this I finished it in less than 24 hours. 

I was NOT expecting the way this unraveled or how the people connected. Please check the trigger warnings because it’s fucked up. 

If you’re looking for a thriller that you could read in one sitting if you had the time because you just need to know how it’s going to end, this is it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

sophie04_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

katelyn_beee's review against another edition

challenging dark tense

4.5

Very dark. Like an SVU episode x10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

lattelibrarian's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.25

Holy SHIT. This book is not for the faint of heart. Recommended via a hate review for another book (that says that Slaughter's book deals with the subject of pornography and underground snuff rings in a much better way), I decided to take my chances. Pretty Girls did not disappoint.

From fraught family relationships to murder to addiction, this book deals with many difficult topics in addition to snuff pornography. Slaughter handles them very well and uses them to create tension and twists that will keep you reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Grief

fi_sandison's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

racheltheripper's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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? Yes

4.5

Thoughtful and gripping, a story that kept me reading for hours. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse

mariahlynnpeck's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

Wow this book literally keeps you on your toes. I could never guess what was coming next. Though there is a lot of trigger warnings it was a pretty good thriller and kept me invested. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

emstermeegs's review against another edition

dark sad 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

2.0

I have read two other books by this author that I found super suspenseful and page turning. This one had suspense, but it was also terribly graphic, reduntantly so. The graphic descriptions of the torture/abuse that frequent this book just made it impossible for me to say I enjoyed it. 

It made me uncomfortable, which I am sure is the point, but I think there was a way to balance this better so that the reader would not feel gross for even reading it. It wasn't fun to read, which is what I look for in a thriller. 

The rest of the book was either slow (some parts were boring, just dragged), predictable, or unplausable. 

I won't say the writing is awful, so that saves this from being a 1 star. The frequency and description of the violence is gratuitous. The plot and ending is a bit far-fetched as well, but that has nothing on the yuck that is this book. I wish it'd never been recommended to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

lampbee's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I can’t tell if i loved or hated this book. It’s very violent in its depictions, at some point it felt needless or even voyeuristic? I didn’t like that element of it especially given the whole plot of the book. The premise I feel was solid and I liked the execution it was just a lot more grim with a lot less payoff than I expected. However I liked the development and the twists not being predictable/trite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

The description of Lydia getting

waterboarded with paul’s piss

was a bit intense to the point of me not being sure what the purpose was. Obviously to show

that Paul is evil/irredeemable and is willing to sexually abuse Claire’s sister

but it felt gratuitous. The same I feel could be said for the description of the photos

I understand that gore was required to get their heinous crimes across but the description of the mutilated and cleaved girl hanging from barn rafters while blood-soaked and fully erect men posed for a photo was a lot to take in and I wonder how much detail was required to get the point across

. Maybe I just prefer for rape culture to be referenced or described on a more nuanced level and something of this level wasn’t going to hit — but at very least there can be no debate over whether the crime was “all that bad”. I will say though, I’m probably not the only one, by the end of the book

I was hoping Paul would have to endure some of the torture he doled out. He kept Julia alive for two weeks, I would’ve liked to see him have to endure something of that caliber not a strained but quick death in a forest.

I’m very uninterested in women not stooping to their attackers level , they need to get even, idc.

hannahchung's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Sexual harassment