A review by coffeedragon
Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

Wow, I REALLY enjoyed this book! At first, I nearly cried over how dark the content would be. I steeled myself for all the unsavory details, but actually it was a surprising balance of dark and entertaining. The twist and turns we went through pretty much blew my mind and while it was heavily political, it's done in a way that isn't grating (or maybe our thoughts just aligned often). It's morally grey, which is always a favorite of mine and even the tech savvy speak was interesting to "follow" (I'm glad our Watson here was no not tech savvy and N so good with explanations!). Super enjoyed it!!

If you like Death Note, I think you'll enjoy this too. Just be warned that the TW are heavy for this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

More specifically: suicide, suicide attempt, self harm, sexual assault and coercion, mentions of date rape scenario, cyber bullying, bullying, depression, mental health, manipulation, murder, attempt murder/revenge, underage sexual assault, pedophilia, victim blaming, internal misogyny, and probably more, especially towards the end when things start to be revealed. Like usual, bad at tagging there may be others!