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lady_of_the_labyrinth's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, and Car accident
heather667's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Mental illness, Rape, and Suicide
vanesst's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Body shaming and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, Stalking, and Pregnancy
missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexual assault and Car accident
Minor: Gun violence and Misogyny
tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Our Heroes are pretty bad at sleuthing, and they admit it. A nice choice in a subgenre full of amateur detectives who’ve never investigated so much as a checkbook register but can suddenly solve a murder
- A group of women! Who are friends! And support each other! Rather than constantly tearing each other down!
- Adams has attempted to give the Society members “tragic pasts” and really seems to have considered the ramifications of that for their interpersonal relationships
So those things are good! And then there’s… the rest of the book.
Graphic: Misogyny and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Car accident, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy
maeverose's review against another edition
I can just tell it’s not gonna be for me so I’d rather not bother. I didn’t hate it. But there were some things that I disliked.
First off it feels like it was written by a 40 something year old white woman, for other 40 something year old white women. Therefore I don’t really feel like I fit the target demographic. The dialogue was also very unnatural and weird. The characters don’t talk like real people.
I didn’t like the way she describes Nora’s disfigurement in such negative words most of the time, when the author herself is not disfigured. Also, only going off of the part I read, it felt a little like her disfigurement was her entire personality? The only information we got about her had to do with her accident or appearance, other than her being a librarian-turned-bookseller and liking books. She was depressed and stand off ish because of her accident and she liked to tell people to read books… that was it, that’s her personality.
There’s the trope that I despise of using very fatphobic language to describe an unlikable character.
I also thought June was a bit of a racial stereotype but maybe that’s just me.
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol
Some anti sex work commentsstrawberrydolly's review
- 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
4.5
A fair warning that this review contains slight (vague) spoilers.
I’ve heard some say it’s slow-paced and I can’t argue with that too much, but I’d still say it was more of a medium pace. The plot never slowed down or went off track. Lots of different events kept things interesting and even the side love story made some contributing points to the overall mystery. The reason behind the murder itself, confused me at first, but after the entire situation was explained a few times, I understood it.
I definitely loved all the characters. They were all diverse and different. I only had a problem with June and sometimes Nora who said Hester was young and naive several times throughout the book. It just seemed unnecessary and was a tad bit annoying to hear it. It wouldn’t have bothered me otherwise, but it definitely had that kind of feeling in the cases of boomers muttering, “kids these days,” under their breath. Other than that, The characters were great and lovable, despite their past. Estella was my favorite and I hope to see more of her in the next book, considering what happened to her in this one. I also loved Jed and am excited to see his and Nora’s relationship grow.
I did enjoy how the characters had depth to them and everyone, even minor characters had secrets and a hidden past.
Another notable mention is there were SO many literary refences that a few have to go over your head. Luckily, most of them don’t hold any significance to the major plotline and if it does, its throughly explained. It’s simply a more enjoyable read if you understand them. I enjoyed the twist this book gave, I truly wasn’t expecting it. The afterword definitely got me hooked into reading the next book (which I was planning on anyways). Overall, 4.5/5.
Graphic: Death, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexual assault, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Medical trauma and Alcohol
kibbles15's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Car accident and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pregnancy
misse3's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity, Violence, and Medical content
alexleigh20's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol