Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Where You End

UPDATE
I feel the need to knock this down a point after realizing the full extent of the author's using a real story for the plot. I did know upfront that she was inspired by a true story of twins where one had an accident that left him with almost total amnesia other than remembering his twin's face and name. But then I learned that

the real life twins were in fact both victims of sexual abuse as children which the remembering twin tried to protect his brother from.

Knowing this made the authors treatment feel cheap and kinda gross.

Original review below.

Positives
I really tore through the first half of this book; it's really gripping in its mystery. The back and forth timeline is employed well, and Kat's journey of self (re)discovery is interesting to follow along with.

Negatives
I found the end less than satisfying -- a lot of the reveals/resolutions frankly didn't make sense.

For example:

Violet's blackmail was a primary impetus of the conflict. But supposedly the twins ran away around the same time as Jude's betrayal/Violet getting sent to the big house. But the twins get rescued by Violet's mother only days after they run away. Why wouldn't she retrieve her daughter as soon as she found out what was going on??

That was my biggest plot confusion but there were lots of little things too. And aside from Kat, I found most of the characters pretty flat.

Content Warnings

lildawnprince's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

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camp_redwood's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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bookeduntil's review against another edition

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DNF’d at 60%.

When Kat wakes from a two week coma and only remembers the face of the woman standing in the room with her—her twin sister Jude—it is suddenly up to Jude to help rebuild Kat’s knowledge of their lives up to that point. But is she being strictly honest with Kat, and if not, what truths are she trying to hide?

Told in two separate timelines and shifting between Jude and Kat, Where You End was an interesting story, for what I got through, but the number of triggers in this book was insane, so I needed to take a biiiiig step back from it for my own mental health. I highly advise going into this book with the knowledge that these triggers are present, and I hope that the published version of the text lists these in some ways to alert readers.

CONTENT WARNINGS:
Cult activity/behavior, abandonment, sexual abuse, sexual abuse of minors, violence, MLM activity, suicide, blood, manipulation of minors, mention of car accident, mental illness, pedophilia, incest/inappropriate acts of related adult to minor, gaslighting, child abuse, emotional abuse, injury and injury detail, medical trauma, grief, mentioned death of a parent.

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curiouser_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

What I loved: First, I was SO drawn to the cover. Seriously. I have a thing for creepy rabbits now I guess. Second, this was thrilling from the first page. There was no time to get into the story, I was in it from the first second. There were all these moments when I was like "oh, this is what's happening" only to have another twist that kept me guessing.

What I didn't love: so I clearly need more experience with this genre, but I feel like the ending isn't the best part. Getting there is the best part, but the ending isn't that awesome. Like it was, but the possibilities were almost better than what happened. I feel like this every time I read a thriller, it isn't just this one. It's like when the mysteries of the island on Lost were finally revealed it maybe wasn't as good as all the theories. Maybe it's a sign of a good author to provide so many possibilities. Maybe it's a sign I need more experience with the genre.

Who I'm recommending this to: I hesitate to recommend books in genres I'm inexperienced with, but I loved this, I think other people will too.

Content Warnings

chaos_carrie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

2.5

As far as thrillers go, this one was much more suspenseful than it was thrilling. Also, it absolutely should come with trigger warnings for pedophilia, emotional and physical child abuse, and murder and more…

The audiobook narration was fine but the actual writing was very slow, with the Kat essentially stumbling around in the dark to understand her life until the last 25% or so. The thread of the twins only difference being Jude’s queerness felt heavy handed at best.

Once things picked up, the writing got a bit better, but overall I found this to have too many threads to follow, while also somehow being a bit boring until shortly before the end.

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