Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Last Housewife

WHOA! I didn’t expect to like this so much! The pacing was great and the formatting going between podcast transcripts and narrative was really cool and translated well to audiobook format. The plot twists were both shocking and made total sense once you went back and looked for clues. A little girlboss-y but didn’t bother me as much as it normally does because I think it was balanced out.

My only annoyance is that I think it’s cheesy when at the end of the book it reveals that this is the book that the character was writing… but also it wasn’t super clear if that was the case or if it was titled the same? Is that dumb of me? So I didn’t mind as much.
I also really liked that it didn’t end with a “if you kill him it means you’re just as bad as him” situation. Like no get his ass girl!!

Content Warnings

hannahchung's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

shelbylynnn's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

This book is DARK. There were trigger warnings at the beginning but I was still entirely unprepared for just how brutal this was going to be. As someone who isn't bothered but graphic or violent content, I was still completely blindsided by this and a bit uncomfortable at times, so please be aware if you're going to read this that there is a LOT of graphic sexual violence, as well as suicide, drug use, emotional abuse, and physical violence. I have a lot of thoughts about this one. It definitely had some issues but in the end I honestly enjoyed it quite a bit.

Starting with my likes:
The plot was really fast-paced and there was plenty of twisty suspense to keep me intrigued the entire time. It had some great commentary on systemic misogyny, rape culture, and the very real fears of abuse, manipulation, and violence that women face living in today's society. The narrator was complex and flawed. She struggled with her own complicity in the violence she endured. She felt guilt and shame as a victim and had a hard time differentiating what she wanted from what she felt she deserved. I honestly didn't see the final plot twist coming and it felt like a fitting conclusion to the book.

Now the dislikes:
The podcast/interview format took me out of the story a bit. The narrator, Shay, was supposedly recounting things that took place 8+ years ago but she is quoting full conversations word for word. It just wasn't realistic. It also felt very odd and forced at times the way the dialogue was written between Shay and Jamie. I mean, she sees her childhood best friend for the first time in 10 years and immediately spills all of her darkest secrets to him and his very popular, very public podcast...really?? The things she was sharing were not only uncomfortable and deeply personal, but also potentially very dangerous as she accuses powerful men of doing horrible things to her and her friends, yet she tells him everything with no hesitation and no worries about the potential consequences of her confessions. I would've much preferred if we had gotten flashbacks of what happened to her rather than her retelling the story. Shay's husband and her marriage in general also felt very unnecessary and could've been left out with no effect on the story. It just made me like her less and made her involvement with Jamie even more uncomfortable (which was complicated and weird to me for other reasons).

My biggest issue with this book was that some things just didn't make sense.

Shay is able to so easily access all of these clubs that are supposed to be a huge well-kept secret. She uses her real name and this somehow doesn't ever get back to Don even though the members supposedly screen everyone before granting them access into their clubs. She faced no consequences for continually escaping these very dangerous who threatened her at every turn. As a character Jamie was very confusing to me. He never did anything to keep Shay from putting herself in danger time after time, even after it was very clear that she was traumatized from her past and was in a very vulnerable state. He knew that she was too close to the situation and was chasing the leads for the wrong reasons, yet he let her continue to put herself in even more traumatic situations, all the while saying how much he cared about her. There are plenty more plot points that really don't make sense when you stop to think about them, but honestly the storyline and the suspense made up for it all enough that I really didn't care. Overall, this was an enjoyable and twisty thriller unlike anything else I've read!

Content Warnings

kfoneill's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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decie's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

I hate books with relentless graphic details that are only there for shock value. and this book was really, really fucked up and loud about it, and sticking with it felt like a trust fall. I don't know if it needed the level of intensity it had to accomplish what it did, but I honestly feel like everything came together in the end and nothing was included solely to be shocking.

also - I don't think this is meant to be taken literally, and my rating would be significantly lower if had read it as a straight up culty murder mystery novel. but as an allegory/dramatization of existing power structures and corruption??? oh my god. yes.

Content Warnings

meghanwalsh's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Content Warnings

ernareads's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.0

I've added the trigger warnings please read them before reading the book. I thought it's just a book about escaping cult, damn it, it was much more. Wanted to DNF a couple of times because I was uncomfortable reading the content.

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