Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

25 reviews

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

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

tbrooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Suicide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Alcoholism, and Bullying

malea_ann's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is dark. It's also equal parts simple and complex, reflecting the worst of humanity back at us. This is more of a psychological horror than anything -- it takes a deep dive into the worst of our characteristics, though it also shows glimpses of the best of humanity in brief, easy to miss moments. Yet, those minute examples of the best of humanity are easy to miss amid mob mentality, horrifying accusations, and even more horrifying actions. This is a tense read throughout, but also well crafted with layers of stories atop one another.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Incest, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Violence, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Murder, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Moderate: Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Blood, Cancer, Excrement, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse

mollmccaff's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Rape, Murder, Child death, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Excrement, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Medical content, Bullying, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide and Forced institutionalization

ellenlemon's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

I flew through this book, I just wanted to know where it was going and what was going to happen. It’s a wild plot underpinned by some complex characters. It’s also not what I expected it to be like, at all. Not sure I fully get the climate message of it though? Interesting the author has an environmental background lol 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Child death, Drug use, Murder, and Domestic abuse

dannybrown59's review

emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

While this book was entertaining I had a really hard time getting into it. I heard it compared to Celeste N.g's books and I think because of that my expectations were to high. I see the similarities but it just fell flat in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Murder