bethjuliette's reviews
3 reviews

Lovely Bad Things by Trisha Wolfe

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a recommendation from booktok for me - a snippet of just one of the first sexually tense scenes. They failed to mention the ritual sacrifices and incredible depth into philosophy, but my GOD that made this all the more incredible for me,

I like reading crime novels, I often find myself figuring them out as I go but this one had me doubting myself and distracting me with Kallum’s character just as he was distracting Halen and manipulating her. The author almost had me thinking I had been wrong…
until that last chapter revealed what I’d suspected.


I’ll say no more, but as a lover of dark fiction this is absolutely a must read - I’ll be reading that sequel ASAP! 
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The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

I thought this book was fantastic! It had a good old fashioned locked-room mystery, gruesome deaths and intrigue with nice backstories and some character development - for the better or for the worse is up to the reader, I suppose haha! 

The only reason it’s not a 5* is that the ending dragged on a little… the final monologue from the genius they involved in the case near the end was very king and at times I struggled to understand and would have to read lines a couple of times over. It explains in great detail who was involved in the murders, why and how they were committed which is fantastic but it’s quite complicated and you need to be really switched on and engaged to be able to follow every part…


Overall a fantastic book with just the right balance of intrigue, suspense, confusion, violence and romance! 
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The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This book has a really interesting idea, and for the most part I enjoyed the storyline. But the writing is quite jarring and the dialogue  - for something set in modern times - is totally unrealistic. Some of the characters absolutely need the old fashioned dialogue but not the main, modern characters....

TRIGGER WARNING: There is a totally unnecessary gang r*pe scene in there too which I suppose is trying to add tot he 'horror' element but it's very graphically written and you can absolutely tell it was written by a man, as the woman simply gets up after being saved from it and continues as if nothing happened...
 

Overall, just expected a lot from this that I didn't get. The premise is great, the storyline seems well backed up and couldn't spot any MAJOR plotholes in it, but unable to connect with any of the characters, and a poor depiction of how a woman would deal with such a horrific ordeal - not to mention a poor depiction of a lesbian couple too! 
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