Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - When We Were Bright and Beautiful

<spoilers>A extremely troubling and tough read about sexual assault, statutory rape, child abuse and grooming. Told from the view of the accused rapists sister, who sustained abuse most of her childhood and into adulthood and had covered this traumatic upbringing with falsified stories that she had conjured in her mind-to protect herself and her family. This read takes you inside the mind of the victim, while looking at how a family can react when they have abusers and trauma deep rooted in the family, but are able to cover this up with money. A lot of reviews low stars simply because they don’t like the ending, the ending lacked justice. But in the world we live in, isn’t that often the case? <spoilers>

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meeklovestoread's review

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I went into this book thinking it was going to be much different than it was. I thought Billy's case would take center stage and that we were going to see how we got here and how things unfolded and although that is what happened, I still can't help but think Billy's case took a back seat to Cassie's emotional issues (ofc they're more complex than emotional issues, but I don't want to give anything away). I'd first like to start by saying that I think the author is a good writer. There were some great quotes in here such as "Tap deeply enough, and you'll find we're all monsters below the surface" (236). I do like how this book was written and I do appreciate the author's attempt to tackle such a troubling issue; however, I don't like how the author formatted the story.

I do see what the author was going for by having Billy's case coincide with Cassie's own internal issues, however, I think the author should've just stuck to one topic because I feel like it all becomes a bit convoluted as the book goes on. Although the case is centered on Billy and his actions I still don't feel like Billy's character was flushed out enough for us (the reader) to make the assertion of his guilt or innocent. All we had was Cassie's biased depiction of who Billy was and not much from him directly. And based on their interactions, Billy seems to contradict the perception that Cassie has in her head (maybe that was the point, I'm not sure). I also feel like the true facts of the case and Billy's relationship with Diana were also unclear, especially toward the end. I'm still not sure what really happened.

Similar to Billy, many of the characters are so unlikeable which isn't a determining factor for me in terms of classifying a good book; however, not only were the characters unlikeable but they were also flat. There still wasn't much depth to them which is jarring considering the pacing of this book is so slow you'd think it would give time to flesh out the characters. In the end, I felt no sympathy toward anyone (minus Cassie).

I already figured the verdict was going to give Billy a not guilty plea just based on how the book was going so I wasn't surprised when that happened, but what annoys me is that not only did Billy receive a "not guilty" verdict he also went on to live his life and went back to his regular routine as if the past couple months were just some bump in the round that he encountered. Billy does no self-reflection and seems to not feel an ounce of remorse for what he's done. So, what was this supposed to portray that the rich always win? I don't see what the author was going for when she made this decision.

I do appreciate Cassie's internal conflicts. I found them to be quite a realistic approach to how someone in her situation would approach and view things.

Also, I reveal that Lawerence is the whole that abused Cassie was very underwhelming only because I felt like it wasn't built up properly. If he was the perpetrator all along then why did she keep referring to him as "Marcus Silver" in the beginning even in her internal monologues? Was this supposed to represent some form of dissociation or denial? And also her mom (Eleanor) what was that about? She still seems manipulative to me.

Honestly in the end I was hoping Cassie would leave all of them and start fresh.

Content Warnings

meganashlee27's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

4.0

Content Warnings

librasgroove's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Really good thriller with some fun dialogue. . . .however it does cover some very triggering topics (sexual assault, rape, pedophilia, grooming) so trend lightly. It doesn’t have a “good” ending and ends more or less exactly how you might expect it would. Justice is avoided, accountability shunned. But, the ride to get there does make for some good storytelling.

Content Warnings

minker's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

acdevs4's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

It was a tough read, but one I’m glad I took the time to complete. The ending was a bit dull in comparison to the rest of the book.

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