Fear The Worst vs Ladder of Years: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Personnes disparues, Missing persons, Fiction
Fear The Worst
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Your daughter doesn't come home one night from her summer job. You go there looking for her. No one's seen here. But it's worse than that. No one's ever seen her. So where has she been going every day? And where is she…
Ladder of Years
“This all started on a Saturday morning in May, one of those warm spring days that smell like clean linen.”
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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKBALTIMORE WOMAN DISAPPEARS DURING FAMILY VACATION, declares the headline. Forty-year-old Delia Grinstead is last seen strolling down the Delaware shore, wearing nothing more than a bathing…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Ladder of Years has the widest readership — 20246 ratings behind its score.
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Scores by source
| Fear The Worst | Ladder of Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.9 (15649) | 3.7 (20246) |
| Hardcover | 3.6 (16) | 4.0 (16) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (104) | 4.0 (129) |
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Reception
| Fear The Worst | Ladder of Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 15649 | 20246 |
| Editions | 23 | 36 |
| Citations | — | 7 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 6859 | 14946 |
| Reading it now | 496 | 1253 |
| Written reviews | 1406 | 1789 |
| Wikipedia attention | 64 | 308 |
| Pages | 399 | 326 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Fear The Worst or Ladder of Years?
Fear The Worst has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Fear The Worst 3.9/5, Ladder of Years 3.7/5).
Which is shorter to read: Fear The Worst or Ladder of Years?
Ladder of Years is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Ladder of Years (326 pages, ≈ 6 h 02 m); Fear The Worst (399 pages, ≈ 7 h 23 m).
Which is harder to read: Fear The Worst or Ladder of Years?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Fear The Worst: Moderate; Ladder of Years: Moderate.