Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

273 reviews

seekinglucidity's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Addiction, Drug use, Child death, Confinement, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gore, Murder, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Grief, Stalking, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Police brutality, Car accident, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Suicide

madsreadsbooks17's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Body horror, Rape, Blood, Death, Gore, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Addiction, Body shaming, and Suicide

adub345's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

0.25

I hated this so much. 

I committed to reading this for a book club and it wasy first buddy read otherwise I would have DNF'd it multiple times. 

The plot was not only twisty but also twisted. There was no need for the amount of descriptive scenes of torture porn throughout the book. 

My list of trigger warnings for this is about as long as each chapter in this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Police brutality, Rape, Torture, Blood, Death, Murder, Kidnapping, Violence, Physical abuse, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Pedophilia

abigail8908's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Overall, I thought that the story was compelling, the ending was believable, and the writing was good throughout. 

My main gripe is that the author repeats several tropes, names, and unique language devices across stories. 

Here are the things Slaughter’s The Good Sister has in common with Pretty Girls:

• Tragedy affects sisters as children
• Scientifically-minded parent
• One is a victim
• Estranged sisters
• Estrangement ends when sister explicitly states “My sister needs me”
• Use of name Quinn
• Use of name Sam 
• Use of name or nickname Huckaby/Huckleberry
• Main character with “inhospitable womb”

Having read these novels back-to-back, these things jumped out at me as I was reading and made it hard to stay submerged in the story. 

I think Slaughter’s stories are compelling. I’m honestly baffled by the repetition. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Torture, and Sexual violence

Minor: Drug abuse

taitestrasner's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.0

i really don’t know how to feel. SUCH a page turner, it was so hard for me to put this down, & when i did, i couldn’t stop thinking about it. my faults with this book, though, are that i feel like it was too gruesome. i feel like 50+ pages of disgusting, gory details could’ve been left out and we still would have gotten the same story. it was a LOT and personally a heavy read for me. i LOVE crime/mystery/murder books, but at some points this was a really hard read for me. other than that, i loved the story! so insane, some of the plot twists had be audibly screaming through out the whole chapter. if you can handle gore, this is definitely for you!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Body horror, Blood, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Rape, Torture, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Alcohol, and Infidelity

livsreadingadventure's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Rape, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Stalking, Blood, and Addiction

Minor: Car accident, Infidelity, and Drug abuse

tmlong's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

A super solid thriller/mystery that I couldn’t put down. Super messed up and gory (many TW) but I enjoyed it. The second half was a little bit predictable but still kept me incredibly engaged & wanting to see what happened. Claire got on my nerves a little bit (why are you putting on makeup when there are *much* more important things to be doing…?) but overall a really good read that kicked me out of a reading slump & is just what I’m looking for in this genre!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, and Gun violence

ash_michelle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Violence, Confinement, Death of parent, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Kidnapping, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Addiction, Body shaming, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Excrement, and Vomit

bee_isreading's review against another edition

dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Death, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Torture

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, Suicide, Death of parent, Stalking, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Gun violence

Minor: Vomit

catieanason's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Such a dark disturbing book. A few parts a skipped past due to the details of harm written about. I wasn’t expecting any of the plots twists (but also was just going with the flow with 0 expectations with this book).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Stalking, Addiction, Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Gore, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Murder, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, and Sexual violence