Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Woman in the Library

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

32 reviews

bkyng313's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

this was my first mystery book and i really enjoyed it! i loved all the twists and turns and i was faked out till the very last chapter

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samw0327's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Very meta which made it a slightly more challenging read. A book about a woman writing a book about a woman writing a book. 😂😵‍💫

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josefineisreading's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

I really really enjoyed this! I read it for my book club and it kept us hooked the whole way through mainly because we had no idea where the story was going and who was responsible for all this chaos. It was quite fast paced and easy to read with chapters being only a few pages.

I think the ending was pretty packed together but it would’ve been nice if we had a few hints along the way. I’m not sure if this is done on purpose because this story is essentially a manuscript. Not sure about the very end of the book because I’m pretty sure this is stand alone but I guess we make our own assumptions. At first it was confusing with what was going on with the emails and the actual story but I think it was cool. Wish we could’ve gotten a bit more out of it. Overall, I really enjoyed it but that was because I could speculate with others.

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bzliz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The Woman in the Library is a thriller/mystery that manages to be satisfying and exciting without frequent graphic or gruesome descriptions of murdered people. It is a story within a story- each chapter is part of a manuscript by a writer named Hannah, which she sends to her beta reader, Leo. Each chapter is punctuated by the subplot of his emailed reaction to her writing and occasionally by other correspondences. Her story follows Freddie, an Australian writer living in Boston, who believes she may have overheard a woman being murdered and bonds to her table mates at the time the woman screamed- Marigold, Whit & Cain.

The story takes several turns and I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery along with Freddie and while I can’t say I was too shocked at the ending, there was just enough left that I hadn’t pieced together to be surprising. I believe the email subplot is the darkest part of the story because it’s meant to be the “real” world. I particularly like that although we see Hannah’s work and we see Leo’s response, we never see her directly nor do we see her messages to Leo. I just found that intriguing.

If you’re like me on occasion and need to see whodunnit, spoilers ahead:

Spoiler

Whit killed Caroline because they were working on a scheme to do a close up story about Cain (who killed his stepfather as a teen and served 8 years in prison) and Whit didn’t want her to steal his thunder. Her scream while Whit was sitting by Cain was meant to bond them together, which it did, along with Marigold who was sitting there hoping to talk to Whit and Freddie who just happened to be there. He actually killed her later and somehow a man called Boo witnessed enough to know her death was fake until it wasn’t anymore. Whit tried to pay him off but Boo stabbed Whit because of some confused sense of justice for Caroline. Whit then killed Boo. Meanwhile Cain has been blamed for everything and is on the run. Freddie is helping him as best she can while being observed by the police. Her neighbor Leo (named for the “real” Leo) gives me weird stalker vibes but it doesn’t amount to anything. Cain is proven innocent after Whit shoots him and confesses his crimes to Freddie and Marigold.

The “real” Leo has been acting as a research resource for Hannah while he shops around his own book. He starts sending her photos of crime scenes, then bodies, claiming to have found the crime scene later but actually he killed those people and his emails get increasingly creepy with suggestions on how to brutalize characters or punish Freddie for falling for Cain. He finally tries to get to Hannah and is apprehended by Australian police. His final letter to her comes when he’s in jail.

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amberinpieces's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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rmgiannino's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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bumblero's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Spoiler

I thought the meta-narrative was intriguing. It helped me appreciate some of the subtleties that I missed but also made me question the three layers of story going on at once. Definitely kept me on my toes!

Would recommend! Likeable cast of characters, a decent sense of place, and I enjoyed how self-aware the book was.

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schausjk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This took me a little while to get into, mostly because I find books about authors/writing irritating. However, as the story went on and the purpose of the little editorial bits became apparent I enjoyed it a lot more.

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readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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badmom's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

Interesting structure that blurs conventional expectations of storytelling - an author’s fan writes to her and is soon invited to give feedback on her newest novel about a murder uncovered in a library that four strangers decide to investigate.
Switching back & forth from the increasingly outspoken letter-writer and the presumed novel chapters was sometimes a bit jarring, and a few details felt too-quickly thrown into place by the end.

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