Reviews with content warning for Stalking - The Reappearance of Rachel Price

I thoroughly enjoyed this book but the ending fell short for me.

SPOILERS ———-
I saw some of the twists coming - Carter being Bel’s sister, Charlie being involved, Rachel holding him hostage, even Charlie (and Jeff) falling as soon as the cliff was mentioned. What I didn’t like was the cover up of their fall. I understand why the author chose this route but it reminded me a lot of the third book in the AGGGTM series and it just felt so unrealistic (I thought it felt unrealistic in As Good as Dead too). I loved every second until this happened though so I’m keeping it as a four star read.

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dblue236's review against another edition

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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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Trigger warnings: Kidnapping, childhood loss of parents, gaslighting, emotional abuse.

I can honestly say I didn't see the end of this book coming, and I ended up siding with characters I sort of hated throughout most of the book and vice versa. This felt very much like watching a movie and while it wasn't always necessarily realistic or terribly intricate, it was entertaining as hell and I didn't really want it to end. This author never disappoints.

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wylanslcve's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

the funny thing about this book is that, even though I'd already pieced together 85% of what really happened fairly early on, holly jackson somehow managed to confuse me and make me second-guess myself consistently throughout this book in typical holly jackson fashion but honestly? I'm not complaining - this book is incredible in every sense of the word. it's very much what you'd expect there to be in one of jackson's books, filled with twists and turns and a meticulously-crafted mystery that left me completely hooked. seriously, I powered through most of the second half of this book in a single day, which is unusual for me nowadays. I do, however, have a couple of gripes with this one because no book is perfect and you need to be able to critically evaluate the media you're consuming, especially if it's media you enjoy:

1) the romance in this felt underdeveloped and frankly a bit forced. the chemistry between the two characters comes out of nowhere given how their dynamic never really changes over the course of the book, and even though it was sweet I didn't really care for it because of how little relationship development there is between them. they still felt like strangers to each other (at least, from my perspective) and it seemed like the only reason they were even paired with each other is because the love interest was the only age-appropriate person within bel's proximity.

2) I had a similar issue with some of jackson's other books (namely a good girl's guide to murder since the structure of the reappearance of rachel price is more similar to that than five survive), but it felt like most of the people were giving information up way too easily. I know bel is characterised as a persistent, "doesn't take no for an answer" type of person, but the way people were giving her the information she needed almost instantaneously without bel having to put up much of a fight felt extremely unrealistic to me. I get it, it's fiction, it's ya, it's meant to be unrealistic, but it still bothered me.

regardless, this book did not disappoint and holly jackson remains an instant-read author for me!

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karly_ackley's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

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the_readingraven's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wooooow. I don't even know how to rate this!

Things I have to get off my chest first!
1. I could hardly stand Belle, our FMC. lmao She was so annoying to me and I couldn't understand her whole "Everyone ends up leaving" attitude. Like, girly for real, your mother DISAPPEARED! Why do you assume she up and walked away?? Bffr! I also hated that she demanded to know stuff but then she was like, "omg I don't wanna be around that person, let me ignore them and run off!" Ugh, it wasn't until the big reveal that I finally started liking her!

2. I was hoping

"Taco Bell Girl"

would have a special appearance. Justice for her! Also,

why didn't Belle confront her dad about this!? He better own his actions!

3. I read this one with my ears so Ash, the young love interest, had the same voice and accent as the older guy filming the documentary. Whenever Belle was flirting with Ash, I pictured her flirting with Albert Einstien lmfao. For some reason, Ash was pictured in my head as Archie Madekwe, so I am down with that.

Overall, I was STUNNED at the reveals! It came out like lava! I had an idea but also had no clue! The last 10 chapters had me sooo pulled in! I'm still in shock that it's over. I wanna give this 5 stars but not an "omg best book ever, everyone read" 5 stars. It's more like a "wow, this gave me a lot of emotions and I hate most of you, what is this?!" 5 stars.

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rjkadlick's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

read this book in a day i think that says everything

all the gaslighting really made me uncomfortable and i don’t like when girlie has her protags murder the antags so that was lowkey annoying

also that romance was a nothing burger it didn’t need to exist

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

5.0

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creolelitbelle's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book kept me guessing for the very beginning. Obviously, I knew Rachel would show up at some point, but the way she did and the drastic impact her resurrection had on the entire family threw me off. I followed Belle's doubt the whole way, because she made SENSE. The family secrets are top notch to the point I never suspected one after hearing another... Belle has severe abandonment issues, and I appreciated her processing those throughout the story.

The audio narration is done very well with clear distinction of who is speaking when. Highly recommend listening to this, and it was my first book by Holly Jackson.

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