Reviews tagging 'Child death'

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

84 reviews

gkaltam's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Minor: Pedophilia

avalon's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Me the first 95% of the book: okay that was pretty predictable

Me the final 5%: oh. Maybe i should have listened to the title

Seriously though the ending was pretty strong in my opinion, though it can be considered a sort of copout for any plotholes I still enjoyed it. Was it a perfect mystery? Not by any means. Was it fun? Absolutely!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

bridgetmckernan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Sped through this book. It was unsettling and a little ridiculous which made it a fun thriller to read. 

I liked the alternating points of view, but couldn’t stand them being delivered in the form of a podcast turned Netflix series. This may land better as an audiobook. Or an actual Netflix series.

Found myself skimming parts to get to the end but,

enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending that allows readers to decide what they believe from all the details provided. I have my conclusion.

A good one for book club. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Murder

amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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? Yes

3.25

Solid 3.25 ⭐️ 

Giving this a rating based on it being somewhat of an entertaining read. But this was not really a thriller, I didn’t even feel suspense reading this. Definitely a overly hyped book from Tik-Toc. 

I get what the author was trying to do with the twists and the end, it just didn’t hit hard enough for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Grief and Pandemic/Epidemic

elyserood's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Recommend the audio book format. Lots of content warnings

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

vivisms_82's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

3.25

Two women - Alix and Josie, cross paths one evening at a restaurant and discover they are "birthday twins" ie both are 45 and born on the same day. Alix has a podcast and agrees to interview Josie. 
 
I must say I really liked this book... until the last quarter. Why oh why do authors this?! Something is very wrong when the author wants you to put aside big moral no-no's and be ok with

a young teen having an intimate relationship with a married man in his 40s. And we have to remove all logic that that said paedophilic relationship hasn’t contributed to her current unwell mental state. Umm what? How could it not?! That’s child abuse and Ms Jewell wants us to be like “no probs.” And don’t get me started on the mother! WE are also supposed to suspend criticism that SHE didn’t affect Josie’s mental health!! A woman that pursued a married man and was pissed off when her daughter – a 13 year old at that, started to date him ie took her man! Umm wtf?? Maybe her daughter turned out like that because she sounds like a horrible mother who quite openly says she didn’t want her and only had her because it was too late to abort her (!!) and she doesn’t even remember the name of Josie’s father! C’mon. As if this wouldn’t affect a child! I'm not saying everyone or even one person that has been abused would become like Josie, not at all. But none of this trauma is taken into account when her actions are mentioned. All this yet still the author’s tone is of zero compassion to Josie and worse that she is summed up as cold and calculating and “just pure evil”  - too simplistic and frankly lazy writing. Your readers are smarter than this so treat them as such. I don’t know of anyone that finished this book and was ok to overlook those doozies. But for me, to dismiss the fact Josie was raised in a household knowing she wasn’t wanted and that not playing a part in her development is ridiculous. Not to mention her mother knew that Walter – a man of 42 was pursuing her child and didn’t intervene or protect her is unfathomable. Very few children could come out of this completely unscathed. All it shows is that the mother did not give a hoot for her daughter’s well being and was more concerned about the fact she had been dumped for her daughter – a child for goodness sakes! If the author had not dismissed these factors, and made it a more robust psych exploration of child trauma and abuse leading to personality disorder or psychosis, I would have swallowed that up, hook, line and sinker. But what the author gives us – this poor evaluation that Josie is simply evil is just so disappointing. But Ms Jewell, please don’t tell me that Josie’s personality, behaviour and actions weren’t in a big way shaped by child abuse and a mother that let her down. Oh and btw, Walter being a “good father” does not erase the fact that he is a paedophile nor does it mean he is now redeemed. Can't believe that even needs to be said :/

At the end, it’s ambiguous who is telling the truth. But we do know Josie 100% kidnapped and killed Nathan – accident or not. We do know 100% the weird, shady things Josie did (taking some of Alix’s stuff, hanging around Alix’s home etc). Half of me is good with the ending. But the other half of me is like "well what was the point of this book then? The things we don't know for sure are kinda important to the story. Like if Roxy did kill Brooke, that changes things. Like Josie wanting to come clean with what happened and Walter threatening her changes things too! But for now, I'm leaving this book thinking this: Josie being on the run is fitting. She did afterall kill a man - whether she has psychosis due to childhood trauma or not, and will now forever be looking over her shoulder. I think she has rewritten her narrative as a protective mechanism; and to one that she can cope with/live with. So much so that she can no longer separate the truth from the lies. 

 

Overall I think most readers will zip through this book quickly - despite my issues mentioned above it was still a page turner. Whether you are satisfied with the ending is a whole other matter! :)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

lucyrudd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

annasunadventures's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

twentypastfour's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, and Murder

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow. The creep and ick factor were so high in this book that I need to start another book right away to cleanse my brain’s palate. How else will I sleep tonight?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic