Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham

10 reviews

juanat77's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Animal death, Cursing, Vomit, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Murder, Death, Infidelity, Rape, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Violence, Bullying, Car accident, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child death, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Grief

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious sad medium-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

2.0

Really enjoyed A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things. Expected to like this one as much, but it disappointed. It felt amateur compared to the other two. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Stalking, Gaslighting, Murder, Rape, Animal death, Child death, and Grief

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Death, Child death, Drug use, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Vomit, and Bullying

katiecummings1981's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

I found the book repetitive, slow and although I finished it, I struggled to do so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Stalking, Eating disorder, Murder, Grief, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death

astoriareader's review

dark mysterious 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

4.0

SYNOPSIS

• Margot grew up in the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and she is starting her freshman year at Rutledge in South Carolina. Prior to starting college, her BFF, Eliza, died.
• In the summer before sophomore year, she befriends a trio of girls, Lucy, Nicole, and Sloane. She moves into their rental home, which the girls rent from a fraternity that’s adjacent to the rental.
• At the beginning of the book, there is a time jump to middle of sophomore year, where Lucy is MIA & something has happened to a frat boy next door. The police are investigating.
• What happened to Eliza, Lucy, and the frat boy?

MY THOUGHTS

• This is Willingham’s third book, and so far, I’ve read all three & love her writing style. This one, however, was my least favorite of the three.
• This was a slow burn with multiple timelines. The chapters are short & digestible. 
• The characters weren’t very likable, and there’s a lot about toxic friendships.
• The ending was okay. It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t great.
• Side note: the cover of the book was really pretty!
• I did think this was a compulsive read. I ended up finishing in one sitting because I wanted to see what happened. 
• The reveal of the mystery about what happened to Eliza was predictable, and I expect readers of the genre to feel the same way.
• I enjoyed the book, and it is well-written.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️suspense/thriller. slow burn. college setting with short, digestible chapters. toxic friendships. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Drug use, Stalking, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident and Infidelity

amandaglowgetter's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Only If You’re Lucky is fundamentally a thriller about friendship between young women, and how far we’ll go for our friends. I really connected with the main character, Margo, and I think that a lot of people will too. That feeling of not quite belonging, of being on the outside, looking in, of being in a friendship where the affection feels asymmetrical… Margo gets wrapped up in the lives of her charismatic besties to the point where she wants to be more like them and less like herself, and I think that that expresses our desire for belonging when taken to the extreme. 

The book starts a bit slow, but I guess that’s to be expected when you have to build background story for characters. It quickly picks up and the mystery and how all the pieces connect kept me reading. Willingham is queen of the twisty thriller, and this delivers exactly that.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the advance review copy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, and Sexual assault

clairebonney's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.25

3.25 stars - this one hurts me so much to rate so low (per my rating scale), but I think many people will really enjoy this novel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Grief, Rape, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Death, Eating disorder, Stalking, Infidelity, Animal death, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

Animal death is a deer and the description is extremely graphic

theoceanrose's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Blood, Death, Grief, Alcohol, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, and Infidelity

bringmybooks's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Thank you to Edelweiss, Minotaur Books, & Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

WOOF THIS WAS NO JOKE but in the absolute best way.

If you could take the entire ethos of the saying, “What’s your damage, Heather?” and then make it even more twisted and then put the girls into a college setting living in an unauthorized off campus housing right next to a v questionable frat house, then you’d have this book.

Willingham takes all the worst parts of female friendships and ratchets up the tension in disturbingly believable ways - I loved (hated) watching all of the drama unfold and genuinely was blown away by how everything came together at the end.

This makes 3 wins for Stacy Willingham (also really liked All the Dangerous Things and Flicker in the Dark) and I can’t wait to see what she writes next! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Child death, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Stalking, Drug use, Murder, Blood, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

tallhousecookies's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Stacy Willingham for the opportunity to review a digital ARC of this book. What a fun ride. 

Margot is swimming in grief; her best friend died under mysterious circumstances 3 weeks after their high school graduation. She’s spent her entire first year of college merely surviving, looking at the fun from afar. Taking special interest in three girls on her hall: Nicole, Sloane, and the magnetic Lucy Sharpe. 

So when, at the end of the school year, Lucy asks Margot to room with the three of them for the next school year, Margot jumps at the chance to start truly living again. What happens from there is a series of twists and turns that end up becoming fatal. 

Overall, this was a really fun read. I’m personally drawn to stories about female friendship, especially when they turn sour, so this book was right up my alley. This is also my first Stacy Willingham book and it made me want to move her other titles up on my TBR shelf. There were multiple twists that I genuinely didn’t see coming. Some of which were brilliant additions and others seemed to have been thrown in order to wrap up the ending. With that being said, if you’re a thriller lover this book is not to be missed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Murder, and Stalking

Moderate: Rape, Blood, and Sexual assault