avidreadergeekgirl
Neurospicy, queer, disabled, genre jumper. My dog is my child. Prolific paper crafter. Romances better have plenty of 🌶. Spreadsheet fanatic. Gave up on CAWPILE, again! lol
6658 points
October 2026
3.72 average · 2215 reviews
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Overall Book Rating: 4.5 stars Avg: 8.00 out of 10 Breakdown:
Credibility/ research: 10-This was well-researched, mostly by talking to the people involved in the case, from court proceedings, and getting as much as the author could from the police, who were tight-lipped.
Authenticity/ uniqueness: 10- From what I know, other than articles after the author published a piece in the New York Times, there is/was very little reporting on the case. I personally had never heard of it.
Writing: 8- The writing was accessible, easy to follow, mostly chronological, and with excellent prose. I do wish he hadn’t gotten into as much of some of the people involved's backgrounds.
Personal Impact: 7.5-I learned about a new, possibly true crime case that there is little reporting on. I got to learn the family’s point of view/feelings on it. I also learned that UK police can be just as lackadaisical as US police.
Intrigue: 6.5-I was in its grip for about half of it, but then it kept going on side quests, and I was drawn out of the main story.
Logic/Informativeness: 6.5- Again, the side quests dock the rating.
Enjoyment: 7.5-I enjoyed it for the most part.
Narrator Rating: 5.0 stars The author is an excellent narrator, and one of the few who does a great job narrating something other than a memoir.
Read if you're in the mood for something: dark, informative, reflective, & medium-paced
Overall Book Rating: 4.75 stars Avg: 8.79 out of 10 Breakdown: Characters: 10-The author always delivers unique and memorable characters. The secondary characters definitely weren’t flat and added to the story.
Atmosphere: 9.5- I felt transported to Cape Carnage through most of the book; you could easily picture the scenes and feel the energy within them. Which wasn’t always the best thing, for this particular story.
Writing: 8.5-The writing was excellent, a little more emotional in certain aspects than I was looking for. But with a large dose of humor as well. I’d pick up most genres if this author wrote them.
Plot: 8- There were a few spots where the plot dragged. And maybe I built up the cliffhanger too much in my head, since I waited to read this book until closer to the release of book two because of it. But most of that part wasn’t shocking to me, honestly. The only part that was, I’m not sure how many people picked up on it. I was giving that character side eye the whole book.
Intrigue: 8.5- Other than one section, it held my attention, and I wanted to keep reading instead of attending to the real world.
Logic: 9- Everything made sense, and the author did a great job of making sure that if you didn’t read the Ruinous Love trilogy (which you should), you weren’t lost.
Enjoyment: 8-I enjoyed it throughout the majority of the book; the cliffhanger just let me down, but that may be on me.
Narrator Rating: 5.0 stars The narrators both did an amazing job! They really brought the book to life. I recommend listening to this and the Ruinous Love trilogy, as they are amazing!
Read if you're in the mood for something: adventurous, dark, funny, & fast-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: Complicated
Elements
Heartfelt- 💔 💔 💔 💔
Horror- 😱 & 3/4
Love aka Romance- 💋 💋 💋 & 1/2
Predictability- 🔮 🔮 🔮
Spice- 🌶 🌶 🌶 🌶
Tear- 😭 😭 & 3/4
Thrill- 😲 😲 & 1/2
Humor- 😜 😜 & 1/2
Gasp A lady showing her neck IN PUBLIC! clutching pearls
This book has the OUTDATED statement that you have to wait 24 hours to file a report for a missing adult. That's no longer true, especially if it's a vunerable adult. But any adult can be reported missing after any lenght of time. And you SHOULD report a missing person ASAP! The sooner they are being looked for the better, and they're more likely to be found alive if the worst has happened.
avidreadergeekgirl commented...
If it's a great book with vivid descriptions, and since I mostly listen to books, I'll lay down and close my eyes and just completely be in it like I'm watching a movie. Honestly is a reason I prefer audiobooks, I have more trouble doing it with print books, and can't at all with ebooks. But on the rare ocassion I pick up a physical book it's less immersive but I picture it with the words kind like closed captions on the bottom half and the picture in my head on the top half.
I'll also say I have have EXTREMELY vivid dreams. And I know they're linked. My mom is less of a visualizer and says she can mostly just picture like outlines if it's not super descriptive.
I'm one of those people that "see" books like a movie in my head. I'm either in the perspective of the main character or like a camera shot of the whole scene. Sometimes I'm seeing the movie so well that when I become conscious of the books' words again it kind of throws me off - kind of like when you're watching something with captions. You get used to them and they blend in, and then you notice them again and they become impossible to ignore until you get used to them again.
I was just wondering what you all "see". Is it like a movie? A picture book? Is it just the words? I feel like seeing just the words would make reading quite unenjoyable but that might just be me.
avidreadergeekgirl commented...
I probably will EVENTUALLY. I have an issue where I start a billion series, refuse to give up on all but the very worst, and take YEARS to complete each one. 🫣 I have a problem. I've checked and the oldest one I plan to see to the end that I've started, and is completed, I started in 2015.....
SLOW start but a strong finish.
avidreadergeekgirl commented...
Yes! Some books I honestly don't think require or warrant a paragraph by paragraph dissection, and that's okay. Like do I really need to break down every paragraph of a rom-com?
Why do we need to make reading competitive with others? Like can't we just enjoy it?
Like others have said depending on the type of book and format, I read faster or slower, the only things I skip over is repetitive conversations, like oh, you already had this fight before, let's skip the next three lines, if i obviously missed something I'll go back, or certain types of sex scenes. But I read for FUN & enjoyment not to out read others or to appear smart.
I bet those people would say a third of what I read is "trash" anyway 🙄.
I'm also disabled & happily (human) childless. So if I don't have any appointments that day, I have more time to read than a lot of people.
I keep seeing this discussion creep up in my youtube recommendations about how reading 30+ books is "impossible", and how the only way people can be doing it is because of the separate discourse regarding certain people in booktok talking about skipping completely over descriptive scenes, only reading dialogue, etc.. The word "performative intellectualism" sometimes creeps in. I've not seen this talk on pagebound, go figure, but I'm curious what other people think about this conversation. I don't really care about whether or not people think I'm actually reading the books because I read books as somebody who, shocker, likes to read books, so no validation needed. I do audiobooks, digital, and physical (though often have been sticking to audio and digital due to eyestrain from my job.) I think my biggest feeling of this clickbait conversation point on commentary youtube is just... disappointed. 30+ may be higher than average for a goal, but it's perfectly attainable, and the fact so many people don't view is as possible is a bit of a societal bummer. Anybody else see this conversation around? Is my youtube algo just rotten?
EDITING TO CLARIFY: The conversation is about 30+ per year.
EDIT: WOW! This really inspired a lot of conversation. I can't get to replying to all of these, as I'm busy reading 30+ books a year (JOKING LOL), but I love this community so much and how eager people are to share their experiences and insight. Keep on being you, pagebound!
(I searched the pagebound community for a post about this and didn't see anything, but I didn't go back as far as the history goes for reading goals so forgive if this has been talked about!)
