Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

16 reviews

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.75

Finished reading: May 23rd 2024

"You want to know if I’m as evil as everyone says I am. The answer is no. And yes."

It's true that I seem to be having a bit of a love-hate relationship with Riley Sager's writing, and his books can go either way for me. Some I absolutely loved (Home In The Dark), while others somehow didn't work at all (Survive The Night). That said, I can never resist a good gothic thriller and I had a good feeling about The Only One Left. The blurb is nothing but enticing, that's for sure! And I'm now happy to announce that this particular book falls firm into the first category. I basically knew I was going to love this story almost immediately, and I loved every single minute spent with this book. The crumbling Hope's End mansion makes for such a perfect setting for a gothic story; the unresolved multiple murder back in 1929 and rumors about the only surviving family member Lenora Hope only adding to this ominous atmosphere. The main story is set in 1983, and Kit makes for the perfect character to help us tell the story of Lenora in past and present. Why? Well, her story is similar to Lenora with her being accused of murder/assisted suicide, but no real proof to have her convicted... In other words: guilty by public opinion. The great thing about how this story is written is that you honestly don't know for sure if both women are guilty or innocent until the very end, and it only made me want to turn those pages even faster. I also loved the flashbacks to 1929 with Lenora typing her story with Kit's help... The plot structure is clever, and there were a couple big twists I never saw coming. I had such a fantastic time reading The Only One Left, and I can recommend it to anyone who enjoys atmospheric and creepy gothic thrillers where nothing is as it seems. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Suicide, Chronic illness, Cancer, Grief, Infidelity, Sexism, Classism, Medical content, Death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Murder, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Violence, Abortion, Addiction, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Medical trauma

tabea1409's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Abortion, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

lmayfieldx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“‘𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤,’ 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲. ‘𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫’”

⭐️: 5

tw: alcoholism, cancer, suicide attempt, murder, violence, abortion

🔪 murder mystery

🔪 gothic thriller

🔪 shocking secrets

🔪 comedic elements

kit is a caretaker. she previously had an incident happen with a former patient, but has recently been reinstated. her first job since coming back is going to hope’s end to take care of lenora hope, a woman rumored to have killed her entire family at the age of 17

everyone in town knows the famous chant of what happened that night:

at seventeen, lenora hope hung her sister with a rope. stabbed her father with a knife, took her. mother’s happy life. “it wasn’t me,” lenora said, but she’s the only one not dead

mysterious things start happening around the mansion. at first, kit blames it on just being paranoid about the chant. but she soon realizes it’s not paranoia

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i really liked this book! it was a quick listen and i was eager to continue listening. i really enjoyed the fact that this book kept me guessing on what was happening. i didn’t start figuring things out until hints were dropped & we were meant to figure them out

jessie was definitely my favorite character & had me laughing throughout the book

{minor spoiler} 

when lenora lied to the detective that she couldn’t use the typewriter, i was cracking up 🤣

this was my first riley sager book & i can’t wait to read more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion, Cancer, and Alcoholism

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Woah.

This was just phenomenal and mindblowing. This is probably the first book that truly brought me to understand what to be  mindblown means. 

Also, this thriller book consisting of so much death and misery also ended up having potentially the most feel-good, chill inducing endings I ever read. I am so happy for Virginia’s life she had after all of the truth came out.


The only thing I can think of that I wanted clarified is what was up with Detective Vick- he worked there at the same time Kit’s dad did but I do not recall any part where we heard more after Kit said that he should be called right before the confrontation with her dad

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Classism, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Blood, Grief, and Bullying

Minor: Abortion, Child death, Ableism, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Sexual content

daydaybookbay's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.5

I rated this book a 9 out of 10. The pacing of the plot varrys between "I gotta know what happens next" and "repetitive again." I enjoyed the twists and the twists and the additional twists. Every time I almost had confidence to have figured it out, another twist was thrown in. I had a lot of fun experiencing the mystery. I feel the audiobook added to the novel with the two narrators.

I would feel smart for a moment because I noticed an inconsistency in the story, but that was the whole point to notice. It threw me through a loop because I then questioned myself if the other off-points I noticed were actually supposed to be there. This lost trust in myself made it more difficult for me to piece together the plot before the author wanted to reveal a twist. Very clever writing-I love it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Ableism, Misogyny, Outing, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Rape, Addiction, Gun violence, Homophobia, Classism, Confinement, Abortion, Grief, and Medical content

plantsbookscoffee's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol

Minor: Abortion

ashlaid's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

There's a few plot twists, some small ones that you might see and then the big ones will come right after that are wild! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Drug abuse

Minor: Abortion

axel_p's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

The twists were twisting.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Abortion, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Ableism, Addiction, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Death, and Chronic illness

leeghlee's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Murder, Violence, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Classism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Confinement

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Excrement, Gun violence, Homophobia, Alcohol, Car accident, Abortion, and Child death

bringmybooks's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

welp, that's my first Riley Sager book and I think it's safe to say it won't be my last 

✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷ 

just imagine a meme where the person is saying "mind blown" with the most gobsmacked wtf is even going on expression on their face and that's me at the end of this book

I just .... I mean. I get it, I see where you're going with this, but also, I mean, really? That's what you're going to do? 

Lots of twisty twists and even when you think you know exactly where it's going, you really don't (although you might for the most part but believe me you don't fully) (and it's so worth it)

super atmospheric, super creepy, super near-impossible to put down, super here for this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Child death, Blood, Confinement, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Grief, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Murder, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Homophobia, Abortion, Alcohol, and Alcoholism