Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Mijn laatste leugen by Riley Sager

33 reviews

blackcatkai's review against another edition

dark 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

4.5

CW: Mental Illness, gaslighting, ableism, alcoholism, disordered eating, body shaming/fatphobia, murder, death, bullying, violence, blood, toxic friendship, suicide attempt, grief, cancer/terminal illness, some sexual content

I'm not necessarily entirely happy with the mental illness rep, but overall, I really enjoyed this. that ending, I swear. I love Riley Sager's writing and I'm so glad I finally got to this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Death, Murder, and Suicide attempt

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

3.75

i’m really unsure how i feel about this book.
i really, really, enjoyed the ending. i think it really solidified this book, but i do have a few issues:
1. it was a bit hard to pick up again once i had put it down. during the read it was interesting enough to keep going, but it was hard to get the motivation again once i had stopped.
2. the story didn’t really pick up until the 30% mark and the main plot themes weren’t fully developed until around the 40% mark — all the backstory from the blurb had already been put out so why did it take so long for any development to begin?
3. why is a 28 year old regressing to her teenaged cattiness?
4.

i dont like how much time was spent on the asylum being an integral part of the story, just for it to fall flat and be a minuscule (in the grand scheme) detail. where did the women go? why would they have just thrown the scissors into the lake (or left them in the asylum) if lottie’s family cared so deeply about the history of it? why was helmut never reunited with his sister?

5. in ch. 36: “maybe the only way to free myself from the grip of guilt is to learn the truth.” — why was this framed as some epiphany? this had been the goal from the very beginning of the book.
6. the girls, natalie and allison + sasha and krystal, are only given a few defining character traits and never really explored or developed beyond that - though their very existence is integral to the overall plot. (with natalie and allison i suppose it serves a greater purpose [?] )

overall: i think this book makes for a good binge read if you’re willing to stick it out for a pretty damn satisfying ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Medical trauma, Cancer, Grief, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Stalking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

fraise's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Grief, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Child death, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

the adult/minor relationship is a consentual encounter between two teenagers

a 16 year old and a 19 year old

boba_n_books's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

The twist at the end is what saved this book for me. It was a decent and suspenseful story with some thrilling moments, but until it got to the climax, I wasn’t fully invested. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Death

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Alcoholism, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content and Confinement

blouviere4's review against another edition

mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Bullying, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Grief, and Toxic friendship

trulydevious's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Kidnapping, Eating disorder, and Pedophilia

booksthatburn's review against another edition

Did get into it, I don't like the way it drags out.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Child death, Death, Alcohol, War, Drug abuse, and Blood

librariangeorgia'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm a big fan of Sager's books anyway so I knew that i'd love this one.

It does start off a bit slow, but once it gets going it goes full speed ahead. 

Following 2 similar situations that happened 15 years apart, it seems so obvious who the culprit is. However, I had my doubts about the fact that everyone assumed it would be Emma. Saying that, I didn't guess the actual whodunnit - the first reveal was a complete surprise for me but the second one, I feel now that it was more obvious after finishing the book than when I was reading it.

But that ending! That was one hell of a way to end it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I thought I would. I was completely absorbed in this book, I literally did not lift my head whilst reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Terminal illness, Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Mental illness, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship

cinthiaurora's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.5

I liked this book better than Final Girls and I do think the author has improved from it in terms of writing tension and suspense- HOWEVER Riley Sager very obviously has no idea how teenage girls speak, for one. To add to that, every female character (most characters are female btw) thinks and behaves in a way that makes it super obvious they were written by a male author, which is a pet peeve of mine. I gave this (almost) 4 stars anyway because I love a good Alison DiLaurentis-type psycho mean girl. Speaking of which I did pick up some lowkey Pretty Little Liars vibes from this book which is either the best thing about it or the worst thing about it. 

Also, maybe it’s just that I had made the connection between PLL and this book early on but the whole “Vivian was alive the whole time” thing in the end didn’t really come as a huge shock to me. Vivian obviously being the Alison in this scenario. In the show one of Alison’s aliases was even NAMED Vivian. I wonder if Sager was inspired by the series at all because it would be a funny coincidence if not. 
Oh one other thing, the whole moment with Theo in his car where he’s like “If you were older I would have kissed you back” ??? Now WHY would he go and say something like that? Ew. It sort of made sense when I thought he was trying to manipulate Emma’s feelings for him because he was up to something but now that I know for sure he was serious… Ick. Emma and Theo’s whole “romance” actually… questionable. Could have been done better for sure. 
Edit: bumped this down from 4 to 3.75 because after you think about it for a little bit a lot of things don’t quite make sense. What else can you expect from this type of book though right

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Stalking

Minor: Addiction, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Alcohol

greatestheights'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? Yes

3.0

Not sure if it was the audiobook narrator's voice and affectation, or if it was the main character, or the plot (or all three), but wow, this disappointed me. I rounded up to three stars for gripping suspense, but the twists didn't do it for me and frankly just annoyed me. This book also features some pretty offensive and outdated mental illness stereotypes, which particularly bothered me because I felt the author was genuinely trying to be respectful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship