Good, short psychological thriller that was quite fun to read. Very interesting characters, and a twist that I should have seen coming but did not. Good writing as well.

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vigil's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

gillian what the hell. i loved every second of this deranged novella, but i feel like more should’ve been done regarding the twist. maybe i just can’t get enough of gillian and i’m just being greedy though.

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malaikawrites's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.0

Spoilers? Kinda? This book is real short so I’ll probably reveal more than I intend to.

Hmm. I really loved this book up until the third act conflict, which is where the whole story sorta just… lost all it’s initial eeriness. The main character was great with her smart, and manipulative, ways of working her way through life. She had an interesting backstory that immediately pulled me in and made me want to read more. I loved watching her navigate through being on the other end of the stick and dealing with being manipulated instead. The picture of intelligence that had been painted around her definitely came into question, but I didn’t find myself too mad about it once we got to see her process that and immediately launch herself into a new strategy.

I loved the kid and his highly intelligent ways of working towards getting what he wants. He crafted and maintained multiple narratives at once, which was very impressive from the readers perspective. Stories with open endings that allow you to believe whichever version you want, or believe nothing at all, have always been interesting to me. This story had multiple versions you could believe that were all kinda twisted and definitely in the moral grey area, but were also equally interesting to consider and explore.

The third act conflict is where things fell apart a bit for me. There was a very noticeable over-explanation that took away from both the shock factor and the atmospheric elements of the story. There’s nothing worse than a character telling the whole story to the protagonist. Having the twists and turns of a story told to you instead of the story being told through hints and actions is always a bit anticlimactic. My interest levels dropped a significant amount after that.

It was a great story, and it had a great ending, but it wasn’t told in the best way. There was some things that could’ve been explained less and some things that should’ve had a lot more explanation. The fathers identity reveal was necessary, but a lot more questions about his whereabouts should’ve been left a mystery. Not everything needed one or more explanations, some things could’ve been left with no explanation at all.

All in all I don’t think this was the most memorable read, but it was an entertaining story. It’s short, it’s very interesting and it ended on a great note.

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