Reviews with content warning for Death - Η γυναίκα στη βιβλιοθήκη

This was a fun little mystery and a decent audiobook. It's a book-within-a-book story, and story A kept me guessing and intrigued while story B was honestly cracking me up.

Story A is the main one, the one from the book summary, and I was expecting more of a locked-room mystery, but the library part is only at the beginning and then they quickly move on. There are a lot of red flags that distracted me from the obvious culprit, so I stayed on my toes the whole time, never really sure who the big bad was. I liked the characters, though the plot is definitely the main focus.

But what really set this book apart was story B, where we discover that story A is actually a book being written, and the author is corresponding with a beta reader about her work. Through these letters, we learn about the Australian author and the beta reader, who lives in Boston where story A takes place. These letters were mostly at the end of each chapter, with the beta reader giving commentary on the previous chapter. Like I said, they just cracked me up and the twists and turns that story B takes really made this murder mystery unique.

Give this one a listen if you like libraries or a story-within-a-story plot or books about writers or a classic whodunnit mystery.

Thanks to Libro.fm, Dreamscape Media, and the author for my ALC!

Content Warnings

iamnita's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

The way this book was written, with the other letters at the end of each chapter was so unique. I love love loved that format. While initially I was like: blah blah blah, how long are we going to do this - it absolutely TOOK MY BREATH AWAY when the plot twist in this storyline happened and then I was fully invested.
Now, the main storyline: I reflect on this read and wonder whether that storyline was kind of meh - because what kept me flipping was this other storyline. I felt like there was so much eating and drinking and just general hanging around that I'm not sure much happened until it all came together.
Now, the ending: I found this pretty weak and the motives pretty meh. I don't like that all of a sudden there was this HUGE villain of a character that you'd never seen before - it kind of came out of nowhere.
I do give this 4 stars because the format was something. And despite there being pandemic references, it is not so in-your-face that for those triggered it will upset the masses.

Content Warnings

livinthebubble's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? No

2.0

This was... not for me. If it wasn't an arc, I might have DNF'd it around 20%. The one positive is that it was reasonably fast-paced.

Plot and Predictable

The beginning was slow and wasn't at all like I expected. I thought they were going to remain stuck in the library until they found the murderer but they left almost immediately.

The book within a book didn't work for me. It really confused me at first and later just didn't like it.

I didn't enjoy the emails from Leo. I felt like it took away from the story. (view spoiler)

It was predictable, especially the mystery. (view spoiler) However, I didn't 100% know who the killer was until the end.

Insta-friends

I didn't find it relatable/realistic that these 4 strangers became instant friends to the point of having a sleepover after barely knowing each other. I'd never invite someone I don't really know to sleepover at my house.

Characters and the Romance

I didn't care about any of them. Leo, in his emails, kept saying that he loved Marigold and I just didn't relate.

Marigold creeped me out. She's supposed to be likable but I just couldn't with the fact that she stalked Whit and it was never addressed nor seen as a problem. It made me uncomfortable.

Freddie and Cain's romance wasn't good. I hated that in every chapter there was some sort of miscommunication.

The Reveal

The ending, and/or the reveal, was boring and anticlimactic.

Overall, was it good? No. Did I like it? Not really. Is it forgettable? Yes. Do I think others might enjoy it? Possibly.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Four strangers are sitting at a table in a reading room in Boston Public Library when they hear a scream; while they wait for the all clear friendships are made. One of the strangers happens to be a murderer.

This is the novel that an Australian author, Hannah is sending to Leo, who's in Boston and able to supply her with Bostonian feedback. This relationship is its own intriguing story in time.

A really unique structure and a fun, gripping read, never knew what was going to happen next.

Content Warnings

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

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mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.25

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

~~~

This book kicked off in a really compelling way, but sadly, that's all it really had going for it. The plots crawled along at barely a smolder that never managed to build themselves into a burn, slow or otherwise. You may have noticed that I said "plots". It's not a typo; this story has a dual plot situation going on that, while interesting in theory, was just not executed very well, in my opinion.

There was a line in this story, around the point when I was starting to wonder if anything was going to happen in this book, that got me thinking I might have been duped by picking it up.

"We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships."

It kind of speaks for itself. Basically, this book promises you a murder and mystery, but doesn't really deliver on either of those things in a satisfying way because it's more focused on the developing romance between characters.

As someone who doesn't enjoy reading romance, I didn't like being tricked into reading a romance disguised as a murder mystery. I would have been able to tolerate it if it wasn't at the expense of the rest of the plot, but it definitely was. The mystery didn't really feel fleshed out, and the solution was easy to guess, even early on in the book.
To make matters worse, for a book about relationships, the characters were okay at best. They all felt very cookie-cutter to me, and I found it hard to connect with any of them.

If you're looking for a romance novel with some peripheral mystery/murder, this might be for you. However, if you're looking for a who-dun-it that'll leave you guessing until the end, I don't think you'll find this book very satisfying.

Content Warnings

sfbookgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

2.5

A thriller that takes place in a library? Count me in! The Woman in the Library starts off strong with a captivating plot and enjoyable characters. When four individuals sit down at a table at the Boston Public Library, a terrified scream is heard amongst the stacks. While the library’s patrons wait for the all-clear, these four individuals pass the time and develop a friendship of sorts. It just so happens that one of these individuals is a murderer.

There is an additional story-in-story plot which is interesting, but a bit confusing to follow at first. This “story” involves one of the four individuals who chooses to write a book about what happened in the library. In addition to the story-in-a-story plot, a mysterious early reader/fan of the narrator's work named Leo sends feedback in the form of letters that are downright alarming in the best way. These letters definitely kept me turning pages, but the rest of the novel fell a bit flat for me. The main character is naive and the dialogue is a bit cringy. Some elements of the story did not seem believable. There are so many moving parts that I had a difficult time keeping track of what was in the story-in-story and what was real, and I selfishly wish, as a library worker, that more of the novel took place in the Boston Public Library. While unfortunately, the format for The Woman in the Library did not work for me, other readers may enjoy it for its unique plot.

For warning: the storyline mentions the COVID-19 pandemic.

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