Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Falling by T.J. Newman

8 reviews

_alyssabrown's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.5


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jonathangage's review

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

2.5


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hailsbooknook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

2.75

2.75 stars
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TW: Death, Gun Violence, Suicide, Violence, Self Harm
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I would like to say, that I love the author's backstory and will 100% be watching the movie as it comes out as this would make a great action-packed thriller. As I read, I felt like the book was a little bit of a letdown. I read this within one setting because I often was on the edge of my seat; but, it was a little dull (no major plot twists that I didn't see coming), and felt a little rushed. In a thriller where everyone was in danger, I was let down by the amount of actual death happening. Also, this book relies on heavy stereotypes based on certain characters' backgrounds or races. 

Bill Hoffman is the pilot on Flight 416 en route to JFK with 149 souls on board. Sounds like a pretty routine flight right? What Bill doesn't know is that his wife and children have been kidnapped and are being held, hostage. Once in the air, Bill realizes that he is faced with a choice: he must choose to crash the plane (killing everyone on board), and if he doesn't, his family will die. Bill knows he can't pick either of those choices and begins a long-heroic act of saving all the souls on board.

I had a hard time connecting emotionally with the characters as I felt they weren't fully developed. When you have so many characters (146 passengers on the plane), it can get hard to ensure that your characters remain memorable in the end. Thinking back to this book, those who only really stand out to me are the flight crew; who is tasked with saving everyone outside of the cockpit). The plot lost me near the end when the plane is hurling towards Dodger stadium during the World Series, and the players keep on playing?! 

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marareading's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is a serious thriller. From the first line I was shocked. It carries the suspense throughout.  It is one of those books that is plot driven and reads like a movie, so if you enjoy that type of book you would love this. The characters are still very interesting and built out despite how plot focused the book is. This is a quick read, coming in under 300 pages. If you have flight anxiety I would definitely not recommend this for you. 

This book has many POVs, but is about a pilot who is given a choice. His family on the ground has been kidnapped.  Either crash the plane and kill every aboard, or let his family die. It is definitely gripping watching the entire cast of characters from different positions go through this senario. 

Was it perfect? No. It is my favorite book? No. Was it a fun thriller? Yes! Do I recommend it! Absolutely.  It is a milkshake read. You want to get through it and find out what happens. 

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pidgepodge's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? No

2.0


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scburhans's review

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

2.0

Yeah, this book was not for me. This is for several reasons: the Islamophobia, the Xenophobia, the half-assed and shallow characterization, and (surprisingly) the pacing.
I found it really cheap and frankly disgusting that Newman chose to play into stereotypes and make the bad guys Middle Eastern/Islamic. It's 2022, it's time we stop demonizing an entire ethno-religous group because of the actions of a few men 20 goddamn years ago. There were moments where it felt like Newman was trying to overcome this, but it fell flat and just came off as in bad taste. The whole brown guy = bad guy bullshit is overplayed, overused, and fucking disgusting.
I also didn't care about 90% of the characters. Theo, Jo, and the kids were pretty much the only people I cared about and, not so coincidentally, they were the only ones with complex characteristics! Bill was such a cookie cutter, rah-rah-All-American hero character that I could not care less about. So much of the plot was unoriginal as well. There were whole chapters that were almost scene for scene recreations of a Criminal Minds episode, season 10 episode 3 to be exact.
Worst of all, somehow, I was bored throughout this entire book. I have no idea how she did it, but I could only read a few pages before I would get bored and go do something else for a while. Very rarely have I ever been so incredibly bored by a thriller. Somehow, it was both faced paced and slow as hell. Everything happened quickly, but it wasn't fast enough apparently.
Not my cup of tea, probably won't reccomend it to anyone either.

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lisaw33's review

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

3.75

This book has some serious white savior complexes with a middle eastern terrorist /villain. As someone who works in aviation I found it very stereotypical and off putting. I’m giving it 3.75 stars for the fact that the author is a FA so understands the ins/outs so the believability factor was high. It did leave me shaken at some points. I also did fall in love with the cabin crew. Everything else was meh. 

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riella_reads's review

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

4.5

 This was such a wild ride. Fast paced and action packed, but I saw the "twist" from the very beginning. 

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