Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

40 reviews

emilyorrwhat's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I absolutely loved this book. I couldn’t put it down! Read in a day because it was such a page turner. I love the author’s writing style and the way she built up the suspense while foreshadowing the events. Loved how unpredictable the story was, even with the flash forwards. 

Definitely worth the time I spent reading it, and will be reading more of Langan!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Violence, Child death, and Gun violence

a core topic in this book is one of the characters being falsely accused of pedophilia, so it is mentioned often, but it never actually occurs in the book.

sparkle_13's review

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, and Child death

stacylaughs's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Bullying

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Blood, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, and Body shaming

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

grunbean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Before picking this up, I looked through the reviews and saw this described as a modern Salem Witch Trials. I think that’s the most fitting way to describe it.

This was a can’t put down book for me. I picked this up on a whim, and it exceeded what I thought it was going to be. Dark in a way you can’t expect, incisive when it comes to commenting on the state of our world and where it’s going, and with an unexpected humour. I would really recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Murder, Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault

moberry_123's review

dark tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, and Pedophilia

savvylit's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

Good Neighbors is a tense blend of eco-thriller and suburban horror. What if your neighbors suddenly decided to hate you as a bitumen-spewing sinkhole opens up across the street from your home? Langan explores this question thoroughly, deftly portraying unsettling groupthink and ignored environmental disaster. The neighbors of this novel are genuinely terrifying in an all-too-real way due to their classist hive mind mentality. They make so many assumptions that ultimately cascade and escalate to the point of violence. Langan perfectly understands and reveals the covert hatred that is often seething just under the surface in so-called "good" American neighborhoods.

All that being said, the execution of the plot left me feeling a little hollow. I wanted to love this book for its social commentary. However, the format ultimately keeps it from feeling cohesive. Good Neighbors is interspersed with newspaper clippings from various retrospectives on the events at the heart of its plot. It would seem that these article snippets were included to maintain intrigue and drop clues. Really, though, the snippets took unnecessary focus away from the actual happenings in the plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence and Addiction

saric7's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Suicide, Mental illness, and Murder

gia0203's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

thrilling book about hysteria and family. I loved all of it from start to finish, particularly when we delved into rhea’s perspective and her relationship with gertie . frustrating and disturbing and sometimes even heartfelt

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Classism

marissajoy's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Rape

ashley__reads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was absolutely phenomenal. A domestic thriller full of mystery and neighborhoods hysteria where even you as the reader don’t know exactly who you’re meant to trust. I don’t want to give away too much in this review but the sinister actions of the families on Maple Street will blow your mind, and show just how fast word travels on one stretch of road. I loved this book, it’s one of my favorites of the year so far and I went into it completely blind and I’m so glad I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death