carmina_r's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Murder, and Child death
Minor: Xenophobia
schorlett's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Child death, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Classism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Racism
Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Alcoholism
iambonkersbananas's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Xenophobia
mandi4886's review against another edition
dark
sad
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
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Stalking, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Suicide
headintheclouds_98's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
This read despite the rating I gave it was hard to put down. There was a considerable amount of xenophobia scattered throughout which at times took me a back as I was so deep in the writing which to me was atmospheric throughout and kept me hook, even though the outcome of what happened was presented to us on the first page from the get go.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child death, Death, Xenophobia, Racism, Physical abuse, Murder, and Mental illness
rakizaka's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ending felt rushed
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, and Child death
Moderate: Transphobia, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, and Sexism
Minor: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Medical content
lovestoriesforsuckers's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
my dumbass thought this would be like such a fun age. it was so freaky and well written. i kind of wish i hadn’t read it. but i finished it in less than 24 hours so i guess it’s not boring at least.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Classism, Racism, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia
missknown's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Right before I pick up Lullaby I gave a quick glance over the reviews and a lot of people were complaining this is not a thriller, that the story is more of a character study. And they were right! This is NOT A THRILLER!! I'm going even a step further and say this is not even a mystery. You won't be on the edge of your seat while reading, you won't be trying to uncover what the characters are hiding because for the reader everything is laid out on the page.
Louise is a nanny of two little kids and the children are dead. Louise killed them. Then, the story goes back to when everything started and present the characters and their personalities. There isn't a tipping point when everything starts to go wrong or dark secrets are being hidden.
The story constructs itself on these characters. Their actions, their thoughts. As readers we see everything. And in the end, Louise is not seen as a victim in any way shape or form. She's still a killer, now a killer with a story.
As I was reading I was questioning myself in what genre this book should fall into. The story is slow to medium paced, there isn't any romance, no mystery, no thrilling, no drama. It's purely a story about characters. Although those characters represent the worst in humans. Not a single character is loveable. Some are just egotistical and others are abusers. But all of them represent a horrifying side of humans. And because of that and other small moments throughout the story, I would put this in the horror genre. In the mild side of horror, but in the genre nonetheless.
The gruesomeness of the crime, what some characters have gone through, some of the thoughts they all have, and the final line - which made my heart skip a bit! - all construct this horrible view of what people are capable of. So it's not the story itself that is scary in any way, instead are the characters actions that create this evil world that sadly exists. So it's almost a psychological horror without fully being one. This is a very complicated book to define!
Overall, I usually don't enjoy a character-based story, I prefer a plot-moved book that is always more fast-paced. Although the chapters are short and not numbered, which gives a continuity feeling I really liked, it doesn't lose much time describing settings or characters leaving their actions and thoughts to do that over time. And because of that, the story is always moving forward. It doesn't feel like nothing is happening.
I enjoyed it more than I was expecting. And if you like books about horrible people, don't mind getting a little freaked out, enjoy the psychological aspect that goes behind committing a crime, this can be the story for you. Although I can't stress enough... THIS IS NOT A THRILLER!
Louise is a nanny of two little kids and the children are dead. Louise killed them. Then, the story goes back to when everything started and present the characters and their personalities. There isn't a tipping point when everything starts to go wrong or dark secrets are being hidden.
The story constructs itself on these characters. Their actions, their thoughts. As readers we see everything. And in the end, Louise is not seen as a victim in any way shape or form. She's still a killer, now a killer with a story.
As I was reading I was questioning myself in what genre this book should fall into. The story is slow to medium paced, there isn't any romance, no mystery, no thrilling, no drama. It's purely a story about characters. Although those characters represent the worst in humans. Not a single character is loveable. Some are just egotistical and others are abusers. But all of them represent a horrifying side of humans. And because of that and other small moments throughout the story, I would put this in the horror genre. In the mild side of horror, but in the genre nonetheless.
The gruesomeness of the crime, what some characters have gone through, some of the thoughts they all have, and the final line - which made my heart skip a bit! - all construct this horrible view of what people are capable of. So it's not the story itself that is scary in any way, instead are the characters actions that create this evil world that sadly exists. So it's almost a psychological horror without fully being one. This is a very complicated book to define!
Overall, I usually don't enjoy a character-based story, I prefer a plot-moved book that is always more fast-paced. Although the chapters are short and not numbered, which gives a continuity feeling I really liked, it doesn't lose much time describing settings or characters leaving their actions and thoughts to do that over time. And because of that, the story is always moving forward. It doesn't feel like nothing is happening.
I enjoyed it more than I was expecting. And if you like books about horrible people, don't mind getting a little freaked out, enjoy the psychological aspect that goes behind committing a crime, this can be the story for you. Although I can't stress enough... THIS IS NOT A THRILLER!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Suicide
Minor: Xenophobia
The character Louise has a mental health illness never specified that can be seen through her actions and thoughts. And all the characters in the book are bad people, either egotistical, shallow, entitled, abusers...shrutislibrary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Parisian couple Myriam & Paul's marriage suffers from the inevitable strains of two children born in quick succession. Myriam, who was once a promising young lawyer is now relegated to changing stinking nappies & breastfeeding. Eternally bored & caged in their small two-bedroom apartment, she feels desperate to be a lawyer again (as luck would have it, an old law school friend comes in handy).
But they are now plagued by the nanny problem, that is until 'the perfect nanny' arrives on their doorstep as a saviour of all their problems - Louise, a 40 something woman with childlike manners & doll-like porcelain features: her face ageless & graceful.
Paul & Myriam's careers take off: they live in a perfect world but soon their perfect lives are upended when the vengeful nanny murders one of their children, Adam, slashes her wrists & throat & is rendered unconscious in the process. A police investigation is launched, media are at the gates, the cries & helpless gasps of other mothers echo in this quiet, prim & proper, middle-class Paris neighbourhood. The first chapter opens with the murders and for the next 200 pages, we try to solve not the 'whodunit' but the 'why she did it?'
'Lullaby' starts poised with all the right ingredients of a sharp-edged domestic thriller: negligent working parents too consumed by their careers, upper-class neighbours whispering & spying on each other, nannies in the park gossiping openly about their bosses while hiding their secrets, children playing & crying, demanding too much. The novel offers an incisive socioeconomic commentary on the condition of the 'classless' class of immigrants - a whole upstairs/downstairs dynamic a la Downton Abbey - an army of nannies who are coloured, destitute immigrants, who arrive in the 1000s in France from Morocco, Philippines, India & Middle East. All these women - mothers in their homeland, nannies in France suffer from a lack of identity, a sense of place and alienation from the institutions of democracy & liberty that this nation has to offer.
What happens when the only place that Louise has for a home- the one where she is needed-the one she made in the cosy, homely world of Paul & Miriam's flat decorated by their beautiful children is threatened. Louise quickly realises that one day, she will be deemed irrelevant, her services no longer needed & the children will grow up. She must act fast to stop that from happening, to stop her existence from being relegated to that of rotting insignificance. The ending of the book left me reeling for more as we are never given a full picture of what immediate circumstances arose that led to this gruesome act being carried out. I guess the author was intentionally abrupt in her ending as we are left to speculate what drove the nanny to murder.
But they are now plagued by the nanny problem, that is until 'the perfect nanny' arrives on their doorstep as a saviour of all their problems - Louise, a 40 something woman with childlike manners & doll-like porcelain features: her face ageless & graceful.
Paul & Myriam's careers take off: they live in a perfect world but soon their perfect lives are upended when the vengeful nanny murders one of their children, Adam, slashes her wrists & throat & is rendered unconscious in the process. A police investigation is launched, media are at the gates, the cries & helpless gasps of other mothers echo in this quiet, prim & proper, middle-class Paris neighbourhood. The first chapter opens with the murders and for the next 200 pages, we try to solve not the 'whodunit' but the 'why she did it?'
'Lullaby' starts poised with all the right ingredients of a sharp-edged domestic thriller: negligent working parents too consumed by their careers, upper-class neighbours whispering & spying on each other, nannies in the park gossiping openly about their bosses while hiding their secrets, children playing & crying, demanding too much. The novel offers an incisive socioeconomic commentary on the condition of the 'classless' class of immigrants - a whole upstairs/downstairs dynamic a la Downton Abbey - an army of nannies who are coloured, destitute immigrants, who arrive in the 1000s in France from Morocco, Philippines, India & Middle East. All these women - mothers in their homeland, nannies in France suffer from a lack of identity, a sense of place and alienation from the institutions of democracy & liberty that this nation has to offer.
What happens when the only place that Louise has for a home- the one where she is needed-the one she made in the cosy, homely world of Paul & Miriam's flat decorated by their beautiful children is threatened. Louise quickly realises that one day, she will be deemed irrelevant, her services no longer needed & the children will grow up. She must act fast to stop that from happening, to stop her existence from being relegated to that of rotting insignificance. The ending of the book left me reeling for more as we are never given a full picture of what immediate circumstances arose that led to this gruesome act being carried out. I guess the author was intentionally abrupt in her ending as we are left to speculate what drove the nanny to murder.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Violence, Body shaming, and Deadnaming
naoewald's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Child death
Minor: Xenophobia and Pregnancy
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