Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Night – Nacht der Angst by Riley Sager

11 reviews

adearajean's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Couldn't put this book down. A little far-fetched at times which took me out of it but the author did a good job of keeping it exciting. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping and Grief

Minor: Mental illness, Self harm, Car accident, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

gwenswoons's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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

1.75

Christ. I’m on a bit of a roll picking a handful of awful audiobooks. This is slow, repetitive, and trite, aside from being sexist and body-gory for fun (I guess??) rather than any plot or structural reasons. I thought it was kind of run-of-the-mill bad for most of the book and then the ending was so cutesy and pasted on - like putting rom-com lipstick on a garbage-book pig. Truly not good.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

kerrymwhite's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

4.5

very solid thriller. timeline takes place over one night,  a few different view points. very twisty - some insane, some shocking. definitely recommend

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

abbyrose333's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

5.0

It was a little slow in the first half and I found the main character a little irritating. But the second half had me laughing, crying, sweating, screaming, you name it! I did pick up on one of the major twists but I enjoyed the “ride” regardless! Such a good book!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Car accident

Minor: Cancer, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, and Suicide attempt

emmaegerb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

fraise's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Torture, and Car accident

Minor: Rape

mrsmonty503's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

4.5⭐️

This was fast paced and kept me on my toes. It had turns and twists and the ending was written well. Very satisfied with this read. 

Novice Path- 
Obsidian Falls: Thriller/mystery 

#orilium

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Violence, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Riley Sager has a knack for writing a novel that you think is mediocre for the first half and then changing your mind in the last act. This book is widely accepted to be the “worst” of his thrillers but I was pleasantly surprised! I understand that people take issue with the protagonist being dumb and making horrible decisions, but I think the issue is more that people don’t enjoy an unreliable narrator who’s also self aware. She’s making decisions based on the fact that she doesn’t believe her own mind, and thats where things get dicey. Of course she’s going to do things that seem dumb to you, when, as the reader, you slowly grow to have more information than the protagonist (but… not really). It seems frustratingly obvious what she should be doing, but, as with much of Sager’s work, nothing is what it seems. My biggest critique is a massive spoiler, so read below at your own risk. 
.
.
.
.
.
Spoiler below: 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
My main issue here (aside from the fact that we have yet another iteration of boyfriend/love interest is the villain) is that there are only 4 characters in this book, if you leave out Maddy and the cop. So, by the end, there’s realistically only two ways you can swing the plot: boyfriend is the serial killer, or the serial killer is unknown. Once you get to a certain point it becomes clear we aren’t going with an ambiguous ending, and therefore it can’t possibly be a surprise anymore who the killer is because the boyfriend is the ONLY option. So is it even a twist? There’s no other character in the book!!! Maybe the final twist with Robbie did it for some people, but for me I would’ve preferred a not-so-tidy ending. Using the boyfriend as the villain is just sooooooo…. Boring? Unoriginal? Obvious? Some combination of all of that. 
That said, what he did here with the OTHER 3 characters was nothing short of masterful. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Medical content

letter2self's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

colleensreadingadventures's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.75

“𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘐𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘑𝘰𝘴𝘩. 𝘐𝘧 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴. 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘢𝘺. 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘴𝘰. 𝘑𝘰𝘴𝘩’𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.”⁣
⁣
A book with a road trip?! And on top of that a scary road trip with a possible crazy ass serial killer?! Be still my wildly thumping heart!! Unfortunately my beating heart soon turned to a sedated luuubbb duuuppp…..luuubbb duuuppp rhythm rather quickly after getting started on Survive the Night. Someone get me a defibrillator! ⁣
⁣
It’s 1991 Charlie is fleeing school after her best friend Maddy is murdered by the serial killer dubbed the Campus Killer. It wasn’t just her death that’s eating at her, it’s also the guilt that Charlie could have stopped it had she just stayed with her friend. ⁣
She meets Josh at the ride share board and decides to hitch a ride home even if it is dangerous to accept a ride from a stranger right about now. She needs to get off campus.⁣
On the twisted night journey home Charlie’s movie addled brain takes hold and starts to notice things don’t seem to be adding up about Josh. Why doesn’t he want her to see what’s in his trunk and why does his Drivers License have a different name? Could Charlie be in the car with a killer? Is her movie induced brain seeing things that aren’t there? Throughout the ride home Charlie and Josh play a cat and mouse game and it’s anybody’s guess if she’ll make it out of the car alive.⁣
⁣
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬:⁣
-First of all Charlie’s delusions in the way she “saw” movies in her head really irked me. I thought it was a bit harebrained. Give the girl another mental disorder if you want to make her an unreliable narrator. Not something that sounds so completely made up. ⁣
-Charlie was also super weak in the beginning. I hate whiny, weak MC’s. All that woes is me crap just turns me off.⁣
-The story was a bit slow and way to repetitive in the beginning for my tastes but it did pick up in the second half ⁣
-The ending really was a bit half cocked to me. A lot of it didn’t make sense and I found it frustrating.⁣
-I pretty much figured out the whole scheme of things way too early.⁣
⁣
𝐏𝐫𝐨’𝐬:⁣
-Charlie got a back bone! It was late and she was still pretty stupid but she showed some guts and and I enjoyed her I’m done being a wimp bad-assery ⁣
-I liked the 90’s nostalgia. The music, the lack of cell phones or GPS. Charlie having to rely on a Pay Phone to get help. ⁣
-The second half was much better paced. ⁣-The premise itself was not bad. It just went sideways with the execution. ⁣
⁣
I absolutely loved Riley Sagers Final Girls. I keep trying to find that magic within his other books. Sadly Survive the Night was another sorely lacking. I still have a couple books to go before I determine it was a one off, but I truly hope not. ⁣

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail