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Reviews tagging 'Violence'

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox

10 reviews

wowsmeows's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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mxinky's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I don’t like true (violent) crime, but I loved this! I enjoyed the framing story of the younger writer working with a more experienced colleague. I was a bit shocked at the ending but still enjoyed it. Some people like to have an ending they can’t predict! 
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cawilliams29's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • 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

4.75

A mystery that turns the genre on its head! I was obsessed while reading this.

Struggling writer Evelyn Mitchell decides to write a book investigating the disappearance of 19 year old, Zoe Nolan.

Zoe is a student at Manchester University who walked out of house party never to be seen again.

This novel is told through a blend of Evelyn's interviews with Zoe's family and friends, trying to dig into what really happened and emails where Evelyn is reaching out to author Joseph Knox for advice and support after dark events begin unfolding.

A wildly unique mystery thriller. With the insert of the author within the story I did have to check this was 100% fiction, I was completely pulled into the writing style and the story itself. The reasons behind the idea of Jospeh Knox being involved in this missing girl's story was so well done.

All of these characters have secrets to hide, they are all realistic and written with nuance. I didn't see any of the wild twists coming, they were beautifully revealed. I found myself truly invested in this tense, dark story.

Joseph Knox tricked me time and time again, my mind is still reeling to catch up. This is a multi-layered story, both thematically and narratively. On one side we have an immersive, thrilling, dark mystery and at the same time alot of important, difficult themes and conversations are displayed throughout the plot.

I loved it! I will be thinking about Zoe and this crazy story for a long time. I can't wait to read more from this author.
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cozyscones's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • 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? Yes

4.5

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lesemaresi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • 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? Yes

4.25

Loved it. Loved the concept of the book and how it was written/ how the author incorporated himself into the book. Felt like a true crime documentary. I was an Easy and fast read. I couldn’t stop ready because there were So many turns of event but that also made it  a bit exhausting/confusing and hard to keep up with everything.
Unsure about the conclusion/ending… and how reliable the author really is
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sarahmae531's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I couldn’t put this book down! Between conflicting recounts and juicy teenage drama, I kept coming back for more.
The ending was set up perfectly. I was so sure I knew what was going to happen because it all seemed so obvious, but then I was proven SO wrong. The true ending was also well explained and you weren’t left wondering “how does that all add up??”
The book also did an amazing job of not breaking the fourth wall. Editor, publisher, and author notes included in the book are all fiction. There is a character in the book that’s shares the name and title of a debut novel as the author. Emails, photos, and even a Facebook post are included. It was very impressive. 

I will say, check content warnings before reading, this has almost every traumatizing thing you can think of. 
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mysterymom40's review against another edition

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

3.25

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novabooks's review against another edition

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

3.5

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travelseatsreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • 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? Yes

5.0

First things first, after the initial few minutes of the book you're going to want to goggle it! Don't do it, just go with it and enjoy this ingenious masterpiece.

I don't want to say too much as a huge amount of the enjoyment of True Crime Story is trying to figure out what's actually going on. This need to know more persists from the first few lines to the final full stop. 

Cleverly pieced together with interviews, emails and statements it kept my mind boggling right until the end. I listened to the audio version and it was hugely atmospheric. The interviews and statements even have that white noise and background interference you'd expect from tape recordings. I know some listeners found this irritating but it definitely added to the drama for me. I can also imagine this would work perfectly in text form and would love to dive into the snippets of emails and police statements so might even buy this for my shelf. 

Murderinos, true crime fans and podcast fanatics, you will devour this  and crime fiction fans equally will get trapped in it's twisty tangled web.

Read it or listen to it but you need to add it to your TBR pile now. I'm immediately adding Knox's other books to mine.

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honeyreads1066's review against another edition

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

3.0

This book had me googling whether it, not this was a true story. 

This book follows the disappearance of a Manchester University student Zoe and the events after and surrounding this. The key players in this disappearance are revealed at the beginning, including her twin sister Kimberly. Told through a series of interviews that are cut together after the fact, you get a picture of Zoe's life and the complicated people surrounding her. 

The strongest part of this book was probably the style, it was the thing that drew me to it in the first place. The book is told through a series of interviews that are cut together as well as emails between the author and the original author. The style was unique and did keep things interesting. 

Despite this, I did have an issue with the pacing, while there were massive reveals and things that didn't make sense, I felt like at times these large things were brushed to the side in favour of snide comments other none interesting information. It made me want to put the book down quite a few times but I stuck through to see how it would end. 

The characters themselves started off feeling a little bit like caricatures, there were also a few things said at the beginning regarding race that was a bit iffy and didn't come up later. It did make me want to stop. 

You understand at the beginning that everyone has their personal version of events and thus everyone seems to be an unreliable narrator which I think was a massive pro for the story. 

The ending left a lot of questions which would be fair if it were a true story but since this is fiction it made me pretty frustrated. There are a few elements that seem to have been completely dropped but then why bring these things up if they're going to be dropped. 

Overall, despite what it may seem at times I was drawn into the story. I wasn't expecting the ending but I'm unsure about how I feel about it at the current time. This was solid especially love the style it was written in. 
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