Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - What Could Be Saved

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

What Could Be Saved by Liese O'Halloran Schwarz

9 reviews

ecb_15's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.75

Too much going on in this for me. I liked some elements of the story but lots of going back and forth trying to remember what had happened.

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tklassy's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

First read by this author. I enjoyed it. I found the ending too quick - but also found the book dragging at points. I felt I knew the sisters and even Philip as a child. But the ending - even the long chapter recounting what happened - didn't give me the gut punch I wanted.

My feelings around this book are a little bit muted. To be honest, it didn’t really make me feel that much emotion. I’m contemplating if I will read anything else by Schwartz. I just feel that there was quite a lot structurally wrong with this novel like it was fine. But that was about it and the ending… it felt rushed, and without the emotional punch in the gut that I needed for the story to really wrap up and have an emotional impact. The fact that the brothers entire life after he was kidnapped is just laid out to you in less than 15 pages felt lazy? I was also left feeling frustrated that there wasn’t a conversation about race at any point throughout this book. I think this lack of the discussion really undermined some of the more emotive parts of the book.

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msteinhaus's review

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emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

A very aptly-slow burn about the pernicious effects of long-kept family secrets. I appreciated the complexity of the characters and their relationships to each other, and the clever play (including the reader) of who-knows-what-when. Laura was challenging for me, which I think speaks to the skill of the author. Thought it was a great read for me, because of some aspects of the content, I will be careful with who I recommend this to.

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