Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Hand on the Wall, by Maureen Johnson

11 reviews

rissaandherbooks's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

An amazing ending to an amazing series! If you love murder mysteries, this is a must-read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Child death, and Murder

Minor: Drug use, Pregnancy, Injury/injury detail, Blood, Medical content, Gore, and Alcohol

strongsun's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

4.5

Spoiler

Bit annoying nothing came up about the dna or whatever proof it was that Alice's estate had so stevie didnt technically solve the mystery

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/injury detail, Infertility, Infidelity, and Gun violence

r_lynn13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Such a good series. Everything was tied up in a believable bow. I cannot wait to read the companion books. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Death, Drug use, and Infidelity

Minor: Car accident, Alcoholism, and Blood

marsellosis's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

didn't leave me wanting for more, i was left very satisfied. moose was a very nice touch. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Child death, Death, and Grief

emily_mh's review against another edition

dark 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? No

2.0

This was terrible. I invested three books worth of time and money for THIS???????

Spoiler

Already, the culprit of the original mystery being Marsh was disappointing, not because I had predicted this from book one, but because money isn't an interesting motive!! It sucks!! And then Johnson goes and makes it the motive for the MODERN murders too???? And the murderer is a bare sketch of a character at that??? And also, it turns out Alice died of measles???? Did someone say massive cop out??? And then Stevie doesn't want to present the evidence about Alice's real parents, because that way the money stays with the school. With a PRIVATE. SCHOOL. Set up by a BILLIONAIRE. And people go on thinking Alice is missing instead of paying her respects and letting her rest. Other annoying things include: nothing actually happening in this book and a lack of tension despite the really interesting premise of being snowed in on a mountain in the middle of nowhere; David suddenly being okay with Stevie; Frankie and Eddie serving no purpose or character arc beyond hoarding evidence for future Stevie to find; and finally, the random moose motif that doesn't mean anything. The only thing saving this book from a one star is that it was borderline entertaining and creepy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Death, Child death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Violence, Cursing, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Medical content, Ableism, Kidnapping, Animal death, Drug abuse, Injury/injury detail, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Gun violence, War, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Blood, Addiction, Drug use, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Vomit, Grief, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Racism, Suicide, and Stalking

Child birth, explosions, adoption, loss of a loved one (friend, aunt), illness

sankta_aleena's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

bookishgoob's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

this was definitely the BEST of the trilogy but as a whole the trilogy as a whole i think is 5 stars but this one is my favorite for sure. I love the relationship between all the characters and i think that Nate is autistic coded because he felt very on the spectrum to me (as someone on the spectrum) this book was so suspenseful and the dual timelines was really fun. such a good ending to the trilogy. i can’t wait to start the box in the woods and continue on in this universe with these characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Yeah, no. I'm a little disappointed, although it wasn't that different from the previous books. But it still managed to show me even less of the things I was interested in. First of all, the first half was SO boring. Nothing happened at all. And although this was also the case in the first two books, there were still interactions between the characters that I liked. There weren't even many of those here. What frustrated me the most was the way Stevie "investigated". The "clues" didn't make ANY sense and lead to nothing. And she didn't do anything? Simply stumbled upon some random things by accident, didn't really explore them, and in the end she just told everyone what had happened? 

I would have probably accepted it if I actually liked the revelations. But they were ... boring as well. I think there just wasn't enough material for a trilogy here and to stretch it like this didn't help. 

For some reason, I still enjoyed the interactions between Stevie and David. Apparently, I like to torture myself. And my favorite parts of the book were actually the flashbacks to the past. Those surprised me more than the rest trilogy.

I will probably still read the fourth book, maybe a change of scenery will help... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

kbs1871's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

whatellisreadnext's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Grief