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holmstead's review against another edition
4.0
Jesus! What the eff was spinning around in this author's brain when she concocted this hot mess? It starts in one direction then "swerves" into another. This was some crazy shite. My gasps were non-stop. This had good character development and great thrilling elements. As I read this, I tried to put together certain pieces, and nothing really ever came close to my initial predictions. I'm really anxious to see what other perverse stories come from Ms. Pettersson. Well done, if you like that sorta thing. Btw: I do.
I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
jmj697mn's review against another edition
2.0
And really, barely 2 stars. This is a horror/slasher book. If you are the least bit squeamish, stay far, far away. I was very disappointed because the reviews were good. I only gave it two stars because I finished it, and really, I should have just put it down. Supreme gore fest.
amym84's review against another edition
4.0
Well I did indeed make it through this book, but not for lack of Vicki Pettersson trying her hardest to make it a difficult read. I don't mean difficult in that I was bored or didn't like the writing, I meant that on the cover of the book right under the title where it says "A Thriller" yeah, you'll want to take those words definitely to heart.
I'm pretty sure the book literally starts off running from the very first word. It's peppered throughout with some calmer more introspective moments, but it's difficult to move away from the jarring start and ever actually feel calm while reading this book.
Vicki Pettersson did a great job at knowing when to throw in a twist or when to change direction slightly. I mean one can only run on adrenaline for so long before they start to wear down. Just like that,whenever I would think it was time for character(s) to change tactics or for Pettersson to move something along she would, and I was exceedingly grateful for that.
I will say that I don't think the book was revolutionary in terms of the thriller genre. I wasn't too surprised by how many of the twists unfolded, but I was definitely invested in how things unfolded because let me tell you knowing our main character(s) were going to make it out alive (I won't even mention unscathed because that's not gonna happen) is not an absolute.
I was glad to see Vicki Pettersson step out from her paranormal / urban fantasy writing and really give us a pretty great book in a different genre. It's a fast edge-of-your-seat read and if I could I probably would have stayed up all night to finish it. It's a very driven book with a heroine you want to fight and succeed.
If you're already a fan of Vicki Pettersson, I think you'll like her foray into thrillers. If you're a fan of the thriller, there's a lot to like about this book. If you're looking for a book that will keep you up at night, and will stay with you after you finish it, Swerve fits the bill. I look forward to reading what's next for Vicki Pettersson in whatever genre she chooses.
I'm pretty sure the book literally starts off running from the very first word. It's peppered throughout with some calmer more introspective moments, but it's difficult to move away from the jarring start and ever actually feel calm while reading this book.
Vicki Pettersson did a great job at knowing when to throw in a twist or when to change direction slightly. I mean one can only run on adrenaline for so long before they start to wear down. Just like that,whenever I would think it was time for character(s) to change tactics or for Pettersson to move something along she would, and I was exceedingly grateful for that.
I will say that I don't think the book was revolutionary in terms of the thriller genre. I wasn't too surprised by how many of the twists unfolded, but I was definitely invested in how things unfolded because let me tell you knowing our main character(s) were going to make it out alive (I won't even mention unscathed because that's not gonna happen) is not an absolute.
I was glad to see Vicki Pettersson step out from her paranormal / urban fantasy writing and really give us a pretty great book in a different genre. It's a fast edge-of-your-seat read and if I could I probably would have stayed up all night to finish it. It's a very driven book with a heroine you want to fight and succeed.
If you're already a fan of Vicki Pettersson, I think you'll like her foray into thrillers. If you're a fan of the thriller, there's a lot to like about this book. If you're looking for a book that will keep you up at night, and will stay with you after you finish it, Swerve fits the bill. I look forward to reading what's next for Vicki Pettersson in whatever genre she chooses.
judithdcollins's review against another edition
3.0
A special thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Ghosts and demons, all around in Vicki Pettersson’s latest suspense horror thriller, SWERVE -- a road trip from past to present, keeping you holding your breath for a fast-paced, wild crazy twenty-four hour ride.
Kristine Rush, twenty-seven, a surgical physician’s assistant and her fiancé, ER surgeon Daniel Hawthorne, are making a quick getaway, driving in his Beemer from Las Vegas to Lake Arrowhead, California for the Fourth of July weekend holiday at the prestigious Hawthorne estate..
While driving, Daniel swerves at a construction cone in the road, and causes Kristine to spill her drink and soil her scrubs. He pulls over to so she can change, at a nearby rest area (these are so spooky and creepy at night)! As they are about to go in together, his phone rings, so she proceeds without him.
Kristine still sleeps with the light on and cannot make it through an average horror movie, and she is no fan of the dark. She thinks Daniel must still be talking to his mother on the phone. She is alone.
While in the stall, changing, she hears footsteps and thinks it is Daniel. However, it is not Daniel. A knife blade, a scream, and a black gloved hand reaches her and all turns black. She is bleeding, and she is unaware where the person is. Could he be waiting outside and what if he is not alone? She makes it to the car and Daniel is not there? Where is Daniel? There is a phone in the car?
His mother is calling. Surely he is in the men’s room. She has been attacked. A text comes through and she find herself staring at her own name in the sender’s box and in the body of the text, “Say good-bye. Now, or he dies.” Inside the building Daniel screams. The phone beeps again and says, “No police.” Get on the road, drive, or he dies. Now drive.” Now what?
A game of cat and mouse sending her through the desert into a nightmare, trying to find Daniel for the first half of the book and the second half trying to survive. Slowly the past is unraveled for pure horror, both past and present. "Take a ride on the dark crazy side."
It is very difficult to review SWERVE without giving away the second half with spoilers, so I will wrap up with, “not a solid complex psychological thriller, as I expected.” Twisted, violent, terrifying, horrifying, wacko, haunting, and scary enough to make me not want to stop at rest areas, with my return trip from NC to Florida next week!
For me it swerved a little too much, off course.
JDCMustReadBooks
Ghosts and demons, all around in Vicki Pettersson’s latest suspense horror thriller, SWERVE -- a road trip from past to present, keeping you holding your breath for a fast-paced, wild crazy twenty-four hour ride.
Kristine Rush, twenty-seven, a surgical physician’s assistant and her fiancé, ER surgeon Daniel Hawthorne, are making a quick getaway, driving in his Beemer from Las Vegas to Lake Arrowhead, California for the Fourth of July weekend holiday at the prestigious Hawthorne estate..
While driving, Daniel swerves at a construction cone in the road, and causes Kristine to spill her drink and soil her scrubs. He pulls over to so she can change, at a nearby rest area (these are so spooky and creepy at night)! As they are about to go in together, his phone rings, so she proceeds without him.
Kristine still sleeps with the light on and cannot make it through an average horror movie, and she is no fan of the dark. She thinks Daniel must still be talking to his mother on the phone. She is alone.
While in the stall, changing, she hears footsteps and thinks it is Daniel. However, it is not Daniel. A knife blade, a scream, and a black gloved hand reaches her and all turns black. She is bleeding, and she is unaware where the person is. Could he be waiting outside and what if he is not alone? She makes it to the car and Daniel is not there? Where is Daniel? There is a phone in the car?
His mother is calling. Surely he is in the men’s room. She has been attacked. A text comes through and she find herself staring at her own name in the sender’s box and in the body of the text, “Say good-bye. Now, or he dies.” Inside the building Daniel screams. The phone beeps again and says, “No police.” Get on the road, drive, or he dies. Now drive.” Now what?
A game of cat and mouse sending her through the desert into a nightmare, trying to find Daniel for the first half of the book and the second half trying to survive. Slowly the past is unraveled for pure horror, both past and present. "Take a ride on the dark crazy side."
It is very difficult to review SWERVE without giving away the second half with spoilers, so I will wrap up with, “not a solid complex psychological thriller, as I expected.” Twisted, violent, terrifying, horrifying, wacko, haunting, and scary enough to make me not want to stop at rest areas, with my return trip from NC to Florida next week!
For me it swerved a little too much, off course.
JDCMustReadBooks
carolpk's review against another edition
2.0
The Hook - Swerve is a thriller promising a heck of a ride.
The Line – ”But that’s long past, and besides, everyone has something in their history that makes them flinch.”
The Sinker – I wonder how a psychologist would analyze Swerve but I’m just a reader trying to make sense of this experience? Several of my GoodReads friends gave Swerve high marks and I was really looking forward to a good fast-paced thriller by an author I had never read. All started out well. Kristine Rush and her finance Daniel head out across the Mojave Desert to visit Daniel’s family in Vegas for the 4th of July. Though Kristine is not looking forward to seeing Daniel’s mother, she is proud to be with her husband-to-be. Their enjoyable outing goes south when they are brutally attacked in a rest stop and Daniel is kidnapped. The kidnapper, clearly a madman, gives Kristine 24 hours to meet his terms by navigating a road trip with a map he has provided. If she fails, well, you get the picture. On the first stretch of the journey, something happens that opens my eyes. This was a good thing. I liked it and thought, hey; this is going to be great. I was holding my breath, quickly turning pages, waiting to see what was next. Then things started to go sour for me. I knew who the psychopath was. That would have been fine but then this nutcase ramped up the violence in ways that seemed gratuitous to me and didn’t really make the story any better. These devices were the author’s choice but I didn’t have to like them. I lost interest in the psychological play of cat and mouse and just wanted the story to ride out to its expected conclusion. Perhaps I’m getting old. Man can find many ways to inflict pain and suffering on each other in real life and I’ve lost some tolerance to read the gory details, particularly when they are extremely savage.
I did finish Swerve. It was a fast read. What really disappointed me in the end and is no fault of the author is that I purchased this for our library. It now bears a plate with my name. Now, how about that?
The Line – ”But that’s long past, and besides, everyone has something in their history that makes them flinch.”
The Sinker – I wonder how a psychologist would analyze Swerve but I’m just a reader trying to make sense of this experience? Several of my GoodReads friends gave Swerve high marks and I was really looking forward to a good fast-paced thriller by an author I had never read. All started out well. Kristine Rush and her finance Daniel head out across the Mojave Desert to visit Daniel’s family in Vegas for the 4th of July. Though Kristine is not looking forward to seeing Daniel’s mother, she is proud to be with her husband-to-be. Their enjoyable outing goes south when they are brutally attacked in a rest stop and Daniel is kidnapped. The kidnapper, clearly a madman, gives Kristine 24 hours to meet his terms by navigating a road trip with a map he has provided. If she fails, well, you get the picture. On the first stretch of the journey, something happens that opens my eyes. This was a good thing. I liked it and thought, hey; this is going to be great. I was holding my breath, quickly turning pages, waiting to see what was next. Then things started to go sour for me. I knew who the psychopath was. That would have been fine but then this nutcase ramped up the violence in ways that seemed gratuitous to me and didn’t really make the story any better. These devices were the author’s choice but I didn’t have to like them. I lost interest in the psychological play of cat and mouse and just wanted the story to ride out to its expected conclusion. Perhaps I’m getting old. Man can find many ways to inflict pain and suffering on each other in real life and I’ve lost some tolerance to read the gory details, particularly when they are extremely savage.
I did finish Swerve. It was a fast read. What really disappointed me in the end and is no fault of the author is that I purchased this for our library. It now bears a plate with my name. Now, how about that?
carolpk's review against another edition
2.0
The Hook - Swerve is a thriller promising a heck of a ride.
The Line – ”But that’s long past, and besides, everyone has something in their history that makes them flinch.”
The Sinker – I wonder how a psychologist would analyze Swerve but I’m just a reader trying to make sense of this experience? Several of my GoodReads friends gave Swerve high marks and I was really looking forward to a good fast-paced thriller by an author I had never read. All started out well. Kristine Rush and her finance Daniel head out across the Mojave Desert to visit Daniel’s family in Vegas for the 4th of July. Though Kristine is not looking forward to seeing Daniel’s mother, she is proud to be with her husband-to-be. Their enjoyable outing goes south when they are brutally attacked in a rest stop and Daniel is kidnapped. The kidnapper, clearly a madman, gives Kristine 24 hours to meet his terms by navigating a road trip with a map he has provided. If she fails, well, you get the picture. On the first stretch of the journey, something happens that opens my eyes. This was a good thing. I liked it and thought, hey; this is going to be great. I was holding my breath, quickly turning pages, waiting to see what was next. Then things started to go sour for me. I knew who the psychopath was. That would have been fine but then this nutcase ramped up the violence in ways that seemed gratuitous to me and didn’t really make the story any better. These devices were the author’s choice but I didn’t have to like them. I lost interest in the psychological play of cat and mouse and just wanted the story to ride out to its expected conclusion. Perhaps I’m getting old. Man can find many ways to inflict pain and suffering on each other in real life and I’ve lost some tolerance to read the gory details, particularly when they are extremely savage.
I did finish Swerve. It was a fast read. What really disappointed me in the end and is no fault of the author is that I purchased this for our library. It now bears a plate with my name. Now, how about that?
The Line – ”But that’s long past, and besides, everyone has something in their history that makes them flinch.”
The Sinker – I wonder how a psychologist would analyze Swerve but I’m just a reader trying to make sense of this experience? Several of my GoodReads friends gave Swerve high marks and I was really looking forward to a good fast-paced thriller by an author I had never read. All started out well. Kristine Rush and her finance Daniel head out across the Mojave Desert to visit Daniel’s family in Vegas for the 4th of July. Though Kristine is not looking forward to seeing Daniel’s mother, she is proud to be with her husband-to-be. Their enjoyable outing goes south when they are brutally attacked in a rest stop and Daniel is kidnapped. The kidnapper, clearly a madman, gives Kristine 24 hours to meet his terms by navigating a road trip with a map he has provided. If she fails, well, you get the picture. On the first stretch of the journey, something happens that opens my eyes. This was a good thing. I liked it and thought, hey; this is going to be great. I was holding my breath, quickly turning pages, waiting to see what was next. Then things started to go sour for me. I knew who the psychopath was. That would have been fine but then this nutcase ramped up the violence in ways that seemed gratuitous to me and didn’t really make the story any better. These devices were the author’s choice but I didn’t have to like them. I lost interest in the psychological play of cat and mouse and just wanted the story to ride out to its expected conclusion. Perhaps I’m getting old. Man can find many ways to inflict pain and suffering on each other in real life and I’ve lost some tolerance to read the gory details, particularly when they are extremely savage.
I did finish Swerve. It was a fast read. What really disappointed me in the end and is no fault of the author is that I purchased this for our library. It now bears a plate with my name. Now, how about that?
caveatlectors's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting read with thrills. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't gripping the book like I was addicted. I did have a white knuckle grip since I have some of the same fears of Kristine. It kept me terrified at certain places and horrified at others.
bmg20's review against another edition
4.0
‘The heat haze shimmers atop the road, as if what lies behind me is something I just made up. Like my whole life has been a dream, but now I’ve been jolted awake.
Just in time to watch it all fall away.’
On their way to visit her future mother in law for the Fourth of July weekend, Kristine and her fiancé Daniel stop at a rest stop for her to change her clothes where she gets attacked in a bathroom stall. Never seeing her attacker but being knocked out, she awakens frantic to get to Daniel only to find he’s gone missing. Her mysterious attacker calls her, instructs her to get in the car and leave or else he’s going to hurt Daniel. Furious with her inability to help him, she does get in the car and drive away with the sounds of Daniel’s screams still echoing through the phone. But this mystery person that goes by the name of Malthus is far from done with her and the next 24 hours of her life becomes a nightmare thrill-ride through hell and back again.
I’ve read my fair share of “nail-biters” but very rarely has every. single. page. caused a permanent look of complete and utter panic on my face. I absolutely could not tear myself away from this one. Swerve is the very definition of “edge-of-your-seat”.
Swerve reminded me a lot of Phone Booth, whereKiefer Sutherland Malthus knows all about Kristine and the past that still haunts her and is completely using it against her to make her life a living hell. Since the majority of this novel was spent on the highway on the roadtrip to hell, it had definite shades of Duel as well to make it extra terrifying. It also helps that the bad guy is completely batshit insane and the things he’s capable of doing with a smile still on his face will horrify you. This one is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Swerve is an explosive horror-thriller that is constant and unrelenting. It was horrifying and sickening and I am never stopping at a fucking rest stop again as long as I live. Or at least not without a bazooka.
I received this book free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Just in time to watch it all fall away.’
On their way to visit her future mother in law for the Fourth of July weekend, Kristine and her fiancé Daniel stop at a rest stop for her to change her clothes where she gets attacked in a bathroom stall. Never seeing her attacker but being knocked out, she awakens frantic to get to Daniel only to find he’s gone missing. Her mysterious attacker calls her, instructs her to get in the car and leave or else he’s going to hurt Daniel. Furious with her inability to help him, she does get in the car and drive away with the sounds of Daniel’s screams still echoing through the phone. But this mystery person that goes by the name of Malthus is far from done with her and the next 24 hours of her life becomes a nightmare thrill-ride through hell and back again.
I’ve read my fair share of “nail-biters” but very rarely has every. single. page. caused a permanent look of complete and utter panic on my face. I absolutely could not tear myself away from this one. Swerve is the very definition of “edge-of-your-seat”.
Swerve reminded me a lot of Phone Booth, where
Swerve is an explosive horror-thriller that is constant and unrelenting. It was horrifying and sickening and I am never stopping at a fucking rest stop again as long as I live. Or at least not without a bazooka.
I received this book free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
adorkable92's review against another edition
4.0
Swerve was one of the books that I had on my shelf for years that I just couldn't bring myself to read. It sounded interesting but not interesting enough to actually sit down and read it by choice. Until I drew the title out of my book jar.
This book had me caught by chapter one. It hooks you super fast to the point that you cannot or don't want to put the book down. and towards the end it had a very unexpected twist but I did not see coming. I give this book a 9 out of 10. Only because it wasn't as detailed with the reasoning behind the situation as I would like it to have been. But overall.... I highly recommend this read. It was quick and thrilling.
This book had me caught by chapter one. It hooks you super fast to the point that you cannot or don't want to put the book down. and towards the end it had a very unexpected twist but I did not see coming. I give this book a 9 out of 10. Only because it wasn't as detailed with the reasoning behind the situation as I would like it to have been. But overall.... I highly recommend this read. It was quick and thrilling.
liznc's review against another edition
5.0
Holy crap, that was one wild ride. Horrifying yet completely riveting; a total page-turner. It was non-stop bananas from start to finish and would make a great movie. Note: This book is NOT for the squeamish and there was an instance of animal harm (which I HATED).