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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
challenging
lighthearted
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was... a bad book. I finished it by trying to give it the benefit of the doubt and treating the bad characterization and bad writing as parts of the fog meant to distract from the twist at the end, but really it was all just bad.
I disliked the main character, I didn't enjoy any of supporting cast, the red herrings were glaringly obvious, and the twist was so unfounded that if there hadn't only been a couple of pages left I would have just given up entirely. I have a lot to say about this book, but karen's review summarizes my thoughts on this way better that I could write myself.
I disliked the main character, I didn't enjoy any of supporting cast, the red herrings were glaringly obvious, and the twist was so unfounded that if there hadn't only been a couple of pages left I would have just given up entirely. I have a lot to say about this book, but karen's review summarizes my thoughts on this way better that I could write myself.
I like Alex Michaelides’ writing style, but didn’t love the story here as much as The Silent Patient. The very end is the most dramatic and doesn’t connect to the rest of the storyline as well as I’d thought.
slow-paced
completely forgot i read this summer of 2022… CRAZY ENDING DUDE I WAS GAGGED also i love sharing a name with a protagonist and i was about to leave to study abroad at oxford so this was a silly timely read for me
This had a lot of similarities to [b:The Silent Patient|40097951|The Silent Patient|Alex Michaelides|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582759969l/40097951._SX50_.jpg|59752778], but I enjoyed this more. The writing was stronger and this read like a solid whodunit, with lots of suspicious characters around.
Spoiler
The ending felt rushed. I think it was pretty obvious the killer wasn't Professor Fosca, but I thought it was a missed opportunity that the police chief guy just walked up to Mariana at the end and was like, "by the way, he's fired." I think it would have been better to show his unraveling in the text so that the reader could experience it. Once the real killer was revealed, the book was over within <20 pages.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
I listened to the audiobook version of this from the library. The narrators do a good job.
Some of the characters are so two-dimensional that being a murderer would be the only interesting thing about them.
The protagonist just isn't believable. I don't mean that I think the character was lying, I just don't think a woman would act like she did. I wanted to shake her and ask her what the hell did she think she was doing more than once. Most women would NOT have gone to dinner alone with the professor, continued on investigating, etc. Speaking of investigating, why did she do that? Out of some bizarre sense of entitlement?
All that said, the pacing was good and the story was engaging. So I can't say it was a bad book - I just didn't like how the protagonist was portrayed.
Some of the characters are so two-dimensional that being a murderer would be the only interesting thing about them.
The protagonist just isn't believable. I don't mean that I think the character was lying, I just don't think a woman would act like she did. I wanted to shake her and ask her what the hell did she think she was doing more than once. Most women would NOT have gone to dinner alone with the professor, continued on investigating, etc. Speaking of investigating, why did she do that? Out of some bizarre sense of entitlement?
All that said, the pacing was good and the story was engaging. So I can't say it was a bad book - I just didn't like how the protagonist was portrayed.
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes