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A review by stormlightreader
The Bad Seeds by C.J. Skuse
4.0
Rhiannon Lewis is back for the fifth and final instalment in the Sweetpea series, picking up right where the last book left off.
I read Sweetpea about a year after it came out and I was hooked by Rhiannon's dark humour and the hilarious kill lists, and In Bloom hooked me the same way. Since book Dead Head, the series has changed and has a completely different feel, which isn't a negative but it took me some adjusting. Rhiannon starts out unhinged and unhappy, and her kill lists had me laughing out loud in public. Whereas, the Rhiannon in the final book is so mature and yes, she still has a bit of sass, but her tongue isn't as sharp as it used to be (and I miss that), but her priorities are now very different.
Full spoilers ahead
Rhiannon makes the decision toleave Raf (who has just been shot) to recuperate in hospital, to go to her little girl, Ivy, who Rhiannon has been told is critically ill . She flies to London, accompanied by Billy, an Irish, ex-army friend of Raf , which provides an interesting dynamic because Billy is funny and there is a bit of a 'will they, won't they?' feel to their journey (which I was confident would never come to anything). We see her sister, Seren and Detective Nnedi Géricault again, and Rhiannon's interactions with Nnedi are somewhat unexpected, and I was constantly expecting the other shoe to drop, yet it did play out in a satisfying way. I also loved the mention of the PICSOs again - that always made me chuckle.
I have to suspend disbelief a little bit whenever the Bad Seeds are mentioned, because I don't know if a serial killer would have such a dedicated following in real life...that said, TikTok can do very strange things for a person's reputation, so never say never. The ending feels fitting for the last book in the series, but you can't help but feel that Rhiannon and Raf may not be able to sustain the lifestyle they have chosen. The series has come full circle, giving me similar feels to when I read the first book, and I enjoyed the return to the dark humour.
I read Sweetpea about a year after it came out and I was hooked by Rhiannon's dark humour and the hilarious kill lists, and In Bloom hooked me the same way. Since book Dead Head, the series has changed and has a completely different feel, which isn't a negative but it took me some adjusting. Rhiannon starts out unhinged and unhappy, and her kill lists had me laughing out loud in public. Whereas, the Rhiannon in the final book is so mature and yes, she still has a bit of sass, but her tongue isn't as sharp as it used to be (and I miss that), but her priorities are now very different.
Full spoilers ahead
Rhiannon makes the decision to
I have to suspend disbelief a little bit whenever the Bad Seeds are mentioned, because I don't know if a serial killer would have such a dedicated following in real life...that said, TikTok can do very strange things for a person's reputation, so never say never. The ending feels fitting for the last book in the series, but you can't help but feel that Rhiannon and Raf may not be able to sustain the lifestyle they have chosen. The series has come full circle, giving me similar feels to when I read the first book, and I enjoyed the return to the dark humour.