Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

7 reviews

bessadams's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Pregnancy

gracescanlon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This was an intriguing novel, with lovable characters and multiple successful red herrings. I did see some of the twists coming, but I wasn’t always entirely correct about the particulars. That kind of twist - where I can guess that there is one, and can guess maybe something or things about it, but other things I didn’t expect are revealed later - is my favorite. It’s the best of both worlds: I get some of the satisfaction of guessing correctly, but also enjoy the surprises the author had in store for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident, Confinement, Pregnancy, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Infidelity

growintogardens's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I figured most of it out, but I enjoyed it and liked Hal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence, Car accident, Physical abuse, Confinement, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

 I have slowly been making my way through Ruth Ware's backlist, and I knew when I found this copy of "The Death of Mrs. Westaway" at a library book sale, that this would be next up on my Ruth Ware reading list.
"The Death of Mrs. Westaway" follows Hal: a young adult who has recently lost her mother and is in severe financial trouble. She has continued in her mother's footsteps and reads tarot for a living, but with the debt that her and her mother borrowed from a very shady source, she will never be able to repay them. She fears for her own life, until she receives a mysterious letter informing her that she has inherited a large sum of money from a woman named Mrs. Westaway. Hal has never heard of Mrs. Westaway and her mother always told her they had no extended family, but desperate, Hal attends the funeral in the hopes of getting some money to get back onto her feet. What she does not expect is to uncover family secrets that have been buried for decades.
This story was a trip. My heart broke for Hal and her situation. When her mother died, she was left with no one in the world, and all she wanted was a family. She is young and trying to survive but it feels like everything is against her. She does essentially con people for a living, and that is what she was planning to do to the Westaways, but she was driven to the decision out of desperation and devastating circumstance, which I think the reader can empathize with.
This story has a lot of twists, and just when you think you have the family figured out, something new is uncovered and new secrets are revealed. I ultimately did not see the ending of the story coming, but I was also left a bit unsatisfied by it. The people involved and those who helped to cover it up seemed to have somewhat unreasonable rationale for their actions. It all seemed way too dramatic to me for a secret that was not as earth shattering as they all believed.
Overall, this book was fine. It is not my favorite Ruth Ware, but it also did not put me off of her writing either. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Stalking, Confinement, Torture, Physical abuse, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

Out of the 3 Ruth Ware books I’ve read, this is easily my favorite and also her most like-able characters so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, Homophobia, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Blood, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexism, Alcohol, and Classism

linesiunderline's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I cannot seem to resist a Ruth Ware book, even though none of them has lingered with me for any length of time aside from The Turn of the Key, which I thought was very satisfyingly  put together.

This one does Creepy Manderley-inspired Mansion vibes rather well. And I like the central premise that leaves you wondering who is deceiving whom. I found Hal to be sort of tiresome at times though.

The thing is, I fell asleep for a good hour one night listening to the audio and I didn’t feel all that inclined to go back and relisten to the part I’d missed, which says something. I finished it and felt kind of meh about the experience. In another mood, it’s atmospheric quality might have appealed more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Alcohol, Car accident, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Confinement

ashleycmms's review against another edition

2.75

Anyone who knows me and my reading tastes knows I’m a super for family drama, dynamics, and relationships. I always enjoy it no matter if it’s possible, healthy, traumatic, fictional, or non-fiction. However, I went into this expecting a thriller/horror and figured out the antagonist 25% in. By 50% I figured out the plot twist. I read and watch a lot of horror/thriller content so it’s not unusable for me to be able to figure out what’s going to happen before I get there. However, what was a real let down for me was the sheer lack of concrete reasons as to WHY these things even came to happen. This is a story that relies heavily on backstory while simultaneously being incredibly vague about the events of the past. We get a few diary entries of the past that were very intriguing, but they often caused me to wonder more about what happened during that time. Especially to the main villain of this story. We get no reasoning, which I guess would be fine if the story was “some people are just evil” but there’s constant wording that “over time,” “something happened,” and “before and after.” So WHAT…. WHAT IS IT THAT HAPPENED?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Blood and Child abuse

Minor: Infidelity, Incest, and Alcohol