Reviews with content warning for Animal death - You Know What You Did

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen

22 reviews

nmongene's review

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dark mysterious tense

3.75

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booksandbujos's review

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mysterious medium-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

3.75

This was a solid, standard thriller. The middle dragged a little at times, but the ending felt like a decently-paced climax. The reveal felt a little out of nowhere. I also don’t know if we really got closure on the sort of main mystery/ initial incident of the death of her mother. Was it actually natural? Was it supposed to be something more like the other deaths? Not entirely sure.

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rachelle_reads's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense

4.25

First, the good: The author’s portrayal of OCD and the way she addressed refugee trauma and intergenerational trauma were well done. That’s what sucked me in. I couldn’t always tell what was real and what was a dream or false memory, and that works well is a psychological thriller.

This was going to be a 5 star book for me until the last 50 pages or so. Everything wrapped up too neatly.

Three murders closed, with what evidence? And her relationship with her teenage daughter so quickly fixed? Please.

I wish the author had taken time to finish all the storylines better, rather than using dialogue to explain it all away.

One other complaint has to do with the role of the psychiatrist. I appreciated how the author used this character to help us understand Annie’s OCD. But the psychiatrist did a lot of things that are quite unrealistic.

You would never take on a client who was the spouse of a former roommate/boyfriend. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if Dr. Patel and the husband were conspiring together, but she was just a run-of-the-mill unethical therapist.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading more from this author as she hones her thriller writing skills.

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jbrooks124's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

In a tailspin after the death of her mother, Annie's OCD symptoms are back with a vengeance. Her and her mother's status as immigrants from Vietnam has always separated them from everyone else, even Annie's husband and child. With her medication and old coping mechanisms no longer working as they once did, Annie finds her contamination fears quickly crossing the line as they break down her ability to work and spend time with friends and family. As she spirals, her husband is called away for work, and she starts to question the strength and validity of her marriage. When it's discovered that some around her have died under suspicious circumstances over the years, Annie is left to wonder just how much of herself she can trust. Have her compulsions pushed her too far?

I loved Annie's backstory. Her relationship with her mother and her mother's own trauma was so key in understanding Annie and how she dealt with her own mental health concerns, and all of it had a solid base - it was easy to see why both women ended up as they did. I also loved that I knew early on who the villain was going to be, but I wasn't able to predict all of the reasoning. Personally, I love a good villain-explains-everything wrap-up, especially when it isn't super cheesy or drawn out, so this one really nailed it for me. I also appreciated how, even though many of the characters were not likeable, there were still moments where you could understand their choices. Like with Tabby, she was awful to Annie, but it was easy to see why when Duncan was always "the good guy". Trigger warning**

the dog dies😭😭😭🤬

and it just feels so unnecessary, though I know that wasn't really true. Just incredibly upsetting.

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magyklyxdelish's review

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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minimicropup's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

It’s not bad, but it felt unfinished?

Energy: Visceral. Conciliatory. Woeful.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Mount Pleasant, Virginia.

Perspective: We follow an artist with a spouse and 13 yr old daughter in dual timelines (1980s-1990s to current day). Their mother lived in their guesthouse and has recently passed, and they are grappling with grief along with personal stressors. We also get a side story of a character at a hotel.

🐺 Growls: Too many dream/vision sequences. Unnecessary shock-value dog stuff. Awkward villain monologue in the middle of high-stakes ending.

🐕 Howls: Referring to incidents withheld from the reader for far too long. Insufferable characters over-musing. Feeling like we never get to know Annie.

🐩 Tail Wags: The overall idea of the story.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

An “inferring” style read. There’s vagueness and we can infer to create suspense, but it relies so much on that approach that I felt disconnected from the story.

Everyone is insufferable. The only character I was rooting for was the dog (don’t recommend).

Annia being annoying isn’t a hit against the book, because I think there was meaning for why. She’d obsess over non-important tiny details, then her mind wandered at a key point, and she’d miss the obvious. Given her condition, I think that was the point – she isn’t always rational or justified in her approach to crises. But she felt so one-dimensional.

This relied way too much on dream sequences to create spooks and suspense.

I prefer third person, but wish this wasn’t. It felt like it was originally first person, then someone went back and changed it. The narrator was like an annoying middleperson between the story and the character. It was lagging on page.

It’s almost Chapter 25 before ‘something happens’.

The ‘big bad’ describes everything In The Middle of A High Stakes Scene…Why?! And in this case they are screaming the evil plan into the air!

This entire plot felt like it was dipping a toe in multiple genres on a shallow level. Like the same tale told as a contemporary fiction, then literary horror, then popcorn thriller, then magical realism suspense. It felt disjointed, never really went deep (if there was depth or meaningful symbolism, I missed it), but was written like it was trying to be deep. It’s not a bad story, it’s just told in a way that felt like the same story through the same lens with slightly different filters on.

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🤓 Reader Role: Middleman narrator. Interpreting first and conveying second, so it’s like they’re inserting meaning in the story without context.

🗺️ World-Building: Vapid. Both for the actual settings/atmosphere and for being in the main character’s mind.

🔥 Fuel: What do Annie’s dreams/flashbacks mean? What will happen with her marriage and relationship with her daughter? Driven by withholding, revelatory backstories, and dream sequences of cathartic release and philosophical insights.

📖 Cred: Plausible-ish suspended disbelief-ish

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Dog barking. Door knocking. Dark bedrooms. Dust. Rice cooker. Bugs. Porch discussions.
Generational trauma and second-generation immigrant experiences
Contemporary fiction with flashbacks
Musing, reflecting, overanalyzing character study at a distance.

Content Heads-Up: Loss of parent (in adulthood). Verbal abuse (from child). Controlling parent. Generational trauma. War (refugee; PTSD; brief mention/recall). Car accident. Alcoholism. Dementia. Racism (bullying, verbal abuse, tokenism, stereotypical assumptions by characters). Intrusive thoughts, losing track of time, rituals, contamination anxiety. Mysophobia. OCD. Loss of pet (dog, misadventure). Grief. Infidelity. Spiders. Toxic femininity/unhealthy gender roles. Hoarding. Alcohol use. Blackmail. Potential false accusation. Domestic abuse (attempted rape, physical assault).

Rep: Vietnamese. African. American. Second-generation American. Heterosexual. Bisexual. Cisgender.

📚 Format: Audible

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

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caitlinpfry's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

2.0

I feel that the author had some great ideas that could have been better executed with the support of a better editor. Perhaps the intention was to have the reader experience the exhaustion, confusion, and the desire for something completely different because that’s what Annie experiences throughout the (too long) novel? The ending was rather abrupt and discombobulating… but again maybe that’s to mimic the characters’ experience? I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♀️ I do know that I don’t enjoy a book if I keep asking “are we there yet”?

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