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gbixler80's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Classism
amieleigh8919's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, and Toxic relationship
ispellitaimee'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
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, and Murder
aliteracja's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Pedophilia, and Rape
ids100'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? Yes
2.0
... Except the podcaster whose reckless, undisciplined, and unethical reporting "revealed the truth". Everything and anything is justifiable in the name of truth-seeking. Never mind that her podcast doxxed people (before be sure about their culpability) and caused deaths, destruction, injuries, and kidnapping of children. She was applauded and thanked by everyone including those whose children hurt and whose lives ruined. THANKED. Seriously, even if they all deserved it, to think that (guilty) people would appreciate being doxxed or having their children harmed is absurd.
Even the one death she was definitely responsible, a nefarious gang-tie was introduced late in the game to absolve her.
The ending had all the principle players sitting around singing kumbaya and hugging each other. No one was in real trouble. Everyone was happy. The innocent children were hurt but not too badly. No lasting physical or psychological trauma because if there was even a hint of that we might question the wisdom of the real-time news reporting as entertainment.
It will be a much better book if the author stuck to dramatize the real life events or do a straight up nonfiction & do social commentaries to her heart's desire. But then she can't play the conscience, the "cleansing forest fire" of society, can she?
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Infidelity, Racism, and Suicide attempt
poppyseedromance's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Dementia and Death of parent
dannybrown59's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Rape
smchoate's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
We follow two characters from a first-person perspective, in two timelines: First, we have Trinity, a true crime podcaster investigating a murder from 24 years before. Second, we have Rachel, the main detective on the case, whose story is told both in the present day and at the time of the investigation. There are also occasional chapters with an omniscient narrator that briefly explain the reactions of other characters in the town.
Right from the beginning, I was not impressed with the writing in this book. The dialogue was often quite awkward, and I often found myself thinking, "no one would speak like this." This awkwardness also spilled over into non-dialogue descriptions, since everything was written in the first person, so it should have been written in such a way that it could be believable as the characters' internal dialogue, which it wasn't (ex. "I find myself falling into myself and going quiet.").
Certain strange descriptions were very much overused, particularly in relation to time (I was so sick of hearing about "time stretching", and every time a photograph was mentioned, there was some cliche description about it being "frozen in time" or some such). Example: "Time elongates and shimmers." (What? I guess this is meant to indicate a tense silence, but very weird.)
In addition, there were WAY too many sentence breaks throughout, especially in the more suspenseful sections, which led to the writing feeling very choppy in parts. (Example: "I hesitate. Nod. And come to my feet." Why three separate sentences here???)
The dual timelines sometimes led to awkward sentences that served to situate us in the timeline, but were often repetitive or unrealistic as someone's internal dialogue (ex. "Or perhaps I'm just unwell after the long day yesterday that started with the autopsy and ended with my fight with Maddy.") And then there were some sentences that were just plain awkward. (Ex: "Pratima died two years ago. She choked on food in a restaurant. Perhaps it was because nothing was easy for her to swallow after their baby girl was brutally assaulted and killed." Yikes.)
The reason I kept reading was because I wanted to know what happened, and overall, the plot was worthwhile. I thought a very minor romantic subplot was unnecessary and poorly set up
Overall, this was a fine pick for Amazon First Reads, and I enjoyed it, but I probably wouldn't recommend it too strongly over other books, if that makes sense.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Cancer, Incest, Sexual content, Blood, Dementia, and Car accident