Reviews tagging 'Murder'

How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao

21 reviews

sharlottetheshark's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Stalking, Classism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Mental illness, Suicide, and Physical abuse

Minor: Antisemitism, Blood, Fatphobia, and Medical content

izzyslittlelibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Classism, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Racism, Drug use, Alcohol, Blood, and Xenophobia

lisashelves's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

itzbrianna's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This mystery is incredibly tantalizing and will leave you frustrated, angry, and maybe even a little set on revenge.

How we fall apart is a tale of how destructive it can be to be the child of immigrant parents. It forces you to come to terms with all the ways your parents may have harmed you despite their love for you. And it puts a mirror up to the delusion immigrants drink in when coming to the United States. 

Though I enjoyed this book, I was quite disappointed with the ending on how it was left with two of the characters. One particular character deserves to be in JAIL. And the other let their minimal character development flush down the drain. 

Katie Zhao did an amazing job with her descriptions, attention to detail, and a shocking twist at the climax of this story. Where Zhao and possibly the editors have fallen short, is the character development for the main characters. There was a lot of potential to have certain people grow by the conclusion of this book. Though I love the theme of revenge throughout this book nonetheless. 

If you are someone who thinks about revenge fantasies and loves a murder mystery, this novel is for you! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, and Bullying

Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Racism

unhxly's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Enjoyable plot but I wanted more, for example classicism and privelege was touched on but not talked about as indepth as I would've liked. The ending was pretty underwhelming.

We barely know the main villain, so the emotional impact wasn't there.

Enjoyed that there was a diverse cast, need to see more of that in the dark academia space.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, and Murder

Minor: Suicide and Xenophobia

amandalorianxo's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

3.25/3.5 rating rounded up. A compelling read for those who enjoyed the central theme of Ace of Spades, Pretty Little Liars and One of Us is Lying. This definitely is a little more intense and darker than PLL though so be warned that suicide thoughts, verbal abuse and drug substance is mentioned / discussed. Unfortunately, a lot of Asian Americans are presented as the model minority and a lot of teens suffer because they want to live up to their parents sacrifices. This showcases the lives of four specific teens in a private school located in NY. Granted, we only get one specific POV but the general gist of what they all feel / think. There is a sequel to this so here’s to hoping we get Alex, Krystal and Akil’s POV’s too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Self harm, Biphobia, and Abandonment

ao3simp's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Mental illness

venetiana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I quite enjoyed this, the relationship dynamics were really good. The dialogues and the ending felt a bit less smooth, overall the plot seemed less consistent towards the end. Still entertaining!

(One thing I found really infuriating: the book shoving the school motto down my throat every few pages - I would definitely have remembered with much, MUCH fewer mentions, too. 🙃)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Classism, Death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Child death, Drug use, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

starlightloving's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

I read this for my YA Literature class and I definitely enjoyed the story, but it still fell flat and easily predictable/cheesy in some spots. Some characters had extremely wishy washy personalities that flipped on a dime and the romance/crush from a friend subplot was aggravating at best. This was a murder mystery and that friend’s crush felt extremely out of place to me. 

The pace was extremely quick, which I really loved. It made it easy to fly through the story, even when I’m normally an extremely slow reader. I also really enjoyed the supporting/expanding flashback chapters, I think they really added to the story. The Tip Tap confessions were also amusing and helped give dimension to unnamed classmates, building the student body’s details and struggles without taking away from the main characters. They were also a nice bit of outsider POV, which I always love.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Murder

Minor: Suicide and Death

teatimewtrisha's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship