Reviews tagging 'Violence'

All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson

7 reviews

pamshenanigans's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Taboo relationships and how being brought up in a messed up, abusive environment are at the heart of All the Beautiful Lies. Even just by reading the blurb, yes, the whole book is absolutely off-kilter. If graphic descriptions of incestuous relationships, manipulation, and abusive household are triggering for you, then maybe skip this book or tread with caution. 

While it gripped me from start to finished, I think there are some things that didn't work for me with this book. I did like how it showed how our earlier experiences really shape who we are and how we can potentially pass that down and/or project to our future relationships as well.

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ladybugwrites's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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

I bought this book a few years back because I absolutely loved The Kind Worth Killing and it made me think that Peter Swanson had more to offer and that I'd probably like his other books. And I was right. I really enjoyed this. It fell a little short of The Kind Worth Killing, but the twists and turns in this book was still intriguing and I found it played out rather nicely.

I will say that I kept guessing throughout the book and thats partly one of the reasons I love mysteries, the act of guessing and the fantastic feeling of being right. I did guess some wrongly at the start of the book, but I did figure out some things before and in the end, it made sense anyways and that's always a good thing. 

One of the things I didn't like was the sex scenes, and there should be a warning label for pedophiles. It makes sense within the story, but its enough and big enough of a plot point to make one uncomfortable.

I don't know what else to say. It's well written, it keeps you turning page after page, and it's definitely an indicator that I'm picking up more of Peter Swanson's books. 

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ventellina's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-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? Yes

2.25


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mothercoconuts's review against another edition

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

3.0

While this was fun….I’d say my issues were too much filler info on irrelevant characters and backgrounds, and after realizing what the book was really about, I didn’t get the point...like, why did we want to read about them? 
Harry was totally unnecessary. He did not need to be in the book at all! The book was about Alice (and Jake) even though it starts off making it seem like Harry is going to be the mc. Too much filler around Harry and his friend and a couple other totally irrelevant characters I could have done without. 
It just felt like a lot of random things thrown together to make a twisty story that ends WILDLY lol omg. I actually liked the very end for Alice as it was entertaining and overall satisfying but obviously pretty wild.  
Also, it boils down to a book about women who like older men (1 at least for sure bc of a traumatic upbringing) and 2
pedophiles, essentially, who can’t help but sleep with too-young girls!
soooo, cool? That doesn’t trigger me necessarily, but it just seems pointless once you get to the end. Like what was the actual point of the whole story?! 

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esmith526's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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christinesreads's review against another edition

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

2.75


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ph_read_be's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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