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jesslovestoread04's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
seattlehols16's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
jamiee_f's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
In this book, we drop right in to Sara Linton's life in Grant County where she is the medical examiner and the town pediatrician. She's divorced from Jeffery Tolliver, but he's the police chief, so obviously they cross paths. The book opens with Sara finding a horribly mutilated Sibyl Adams in the bathroom of the local diner.
A few days later, while Sarah is at the hospital, an essentially crucified woman is left on her car. It becomes clear the murders are somehow targeted towards her, especially once we learn that the secret Sara has been keeping from Jeffrey is that she was raped, stabbed, and left for dead in a bathroom at her previous job. The parallels between her situation and Sibyl did strike her, and now there's a dead naked woman on her car??
Eventually they figure out the killer has his next victim picked out, so Sara and Jeffery race to save them. I read this a while ago, but I think the killer was like an unhinged religious guy who Sara met in the ER years ago, and Sara was unable to save his sister, so he was presenting victims to Sara to give her...a chance to save these people again? V dark but Sara and Jeffery manage to stop things in time
Karin always creates such dark and twisted worlds, and I appreciate her pacing and the way the mystery unfolds.
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
tayreads10's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
narbine's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Suicide attempt
ktdakotareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder
ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition
- 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
2.0
Graphic: Gore, Rape, Violence, Blood, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, and Sexual content
parboiledlentils's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Excrement, and Kidnapping
Minor: Car accident
himpersonal's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
alindeman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Check TW for this book!!!!!
Plot summary for when I forget (major TW for violence & SA):
Then while Sara is at the hospital a woman is dumped on the hood of her car. She is still alive and Sara saves her. She has holes in her hands and feet and it’s clear she was in like a crucifixion pose. She was drugged with belladonna which is apparently like not a drug to be fucked around with its super tricky and lethal. She won’t talk to anyone. Finally Lena gets her to talk and obviously she’s super traumatized and Lena does such an awful fucking job interviewing her that the girl manages to steal her gun and kill herself. With the gun to her head Lena is still fucking INTERROGATING HER!!!! Basically the belladonna makes things like not hurt and gives you a flying feeling and in a way made her captivity more pleasant which made it more traumatic in the end bc she probably felt so much guilt and shame. And in response to the girl hinting at this Lena says “are you saying you enjoyed it?” And then she pulls the trigger. I hate Lena so fucking much what the fuck is wrong with you why would you say that?!??? She’s honestly such an awful cop she always says the wrong things.
So she’s dead sadly but the realize this is like super religious and ritualistic.
Jeffrey makes Lena take time off after the girls suicide and she gets kidnapped. We don’t know by who but we know she knows him. The story continues as she’s held captive, they don’t realize right away.
Sara’s sister tells Sara “you have to tell Jeffrey” and you’re like tell him what?? And she leaves a case file for him and you learn that when she was working at a hospital like one county over she was horrifically attacked. It seems kind of similar- she was raped by a religious dude who then stabbed her like Jesus was stabbed. Jeffrey loses his mind at his wife being hurt like that and wants to pay the offender a visit. He’s so sad for her but doesn’t know what to say and so just doesn’t contact her. Again, he was so close to being good and then he sucks. She bared her soul and he ignored her. So he visits the rapist who is NOT in prison (of fucking course) even tho he raped 2 more women after her. He’s on house arrest and is 1 strike away from going back to prison which he desperately doesn’t want to do. It doesn’t seem that he could be the perpetrator bc of his ankle monitor. Regardless Jeff wants to grill him. He breaks into his home and finds he has a gun- bingo that’s leverage. He confronts the dude and breaks his ankle monitor so his parole lady will show up. Based on how horrific Jeff’s case is she lets him talk to the rapist. He’s obviously psycho and he keeps tabs on Sara. The go over the case and it’s revealed that Sara’s car getting keyed with the word “cunt” wasn’t his doing which Jeff finds suspicious. He has the parole lady get him a list of the doctors Sara worked with but it doesn’t ring a bell.
Meanwhile they’re interviewing the bf of the girl who committed suicide, which is a piece of shit. He conveniently forgot to mention he saw her being dragged into a car by a man. Oops.
The girl had told Lena before she died that there was a persistent “clink clink clink” of dripping water.
Sara visits the house of the guy she’s kind of seeing, Jeb. And she hears the clink clink clink. So now you know it’s him. But she doesn’t.
She has a date with him. He’s at her house and brings wine. The wine is sour, like vinegar. Sara knows the victims were given vinegar. She is now on alert. Then he talks about his dead sister and shows her a photo. She recognizes the photo. The girl was a patient she treated who died from a botched at home abortion. Sara now knows he’s the killer (probably). She excuses herself to change and tries to call Jeff but the phone is off the hook. He follows her with a knife, he knows she knows. She jumps out the window, dives into the lake. He gets in a boat, chasing her. He crashes and capsizes. He can’t swim, he’s drowning. He sinks to the bottom. She doesn’t want him to die for some reason, maybe bc it’s too easy a death (that’s my thought) so she tries to rescue him but it’s freezing cold and he’s so heavy she’s totally about to die. Jeff arrives and saves her. He got a second list and turns out Jeb was a pharmacist working at the same hospital as her and the message “cunt” was found for every victim, including Lena (oh yeah they found her missing from her house).
Jeb is dead and they rescue Lena. I think that’s it
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse