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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
I didn’t hate it but I also didn’t love it and after about 50% I was only continuing to her the ending explained.
Pretty decent. McMahon's work is like a watered down version of Elizabeth Hand or Gillian Flynn--quite entertaining, quite gripping, but the writing is no where near as good as the aforementioned authors, nor are the twists she offers us at the end. Much easier to predict, much less chilling. But, all in all, a fun and interesting read.
I just discovered this author last month when i was buying books from Amazon and bought this and [book:Island of Lost Girls]. I read that one first and then this one, and both were incredible books. I look forward to reading the third one.
A pretty good thriller, and it takes place in VT. Is that why I picked it up at the used bookstore? I don't remember. But I enjoyed it. It's a fast and easy read, scary but not bad enough that I had nightmares. I'd read others by this author.
This could have been a nicely written, kind of creepy ghost story, but everytime someone referenced 'the Potato Girl' in some menacing way, it made me laugh. There's nothing scary about potatoes or their ghostly girls, I'm sorry. The story has more plot holes than fishnet stockings (thanks Emily!!); ***SPOILER!!!*** so 'the Potato Girl' (shiver) was really Kate's ghost buddy at the end -- then who killed Artie? Potato Girl was looking out for her half-sister the whole time, but she decided to cram some raw potato down Artie's throat just for the hell of it? And who was eating the tuna? And who killed the cat? And how did Zach get into Kate's purse anyway? And potatoes are just not scary!!
First time reading this author and I was pleasantly surprised. An entertaining read. It has some suspense and sadness and it's a little creepy. It also keeps you wondering who did it, for sure. I find after reading some of these types of books I feel sadness at the end. Not because the book is over but just a general sadness at how mean people can be to one another. I know it's a work of fiction but parts of it make for a very believable story, sad, but believable.
Really good story!! I thought I knew who it was several times but was wrong every time.
The 2007 debut novel of JM who is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine (just finished The Night Sister and I read The Winter People about 4 months ago). This is a quick read at 250 pages. As with many of her other books, the chapters flip back and forth between the past and present, slowly unraveling the mystery until the last 15 or so pages where the critical information is revealed and the suspense comes to a head. I enjoy JM's female characters who are often smart, resourceful, and imperfect. They are relatable.
This was a quick read for me but a good story. The author has a great sense of writing and character formation and, even though it was a shorter book, it gave the right amount of detail to really get a great image of the settings where everything takes place. There were a good number of characters to keep track of but I never had difficulty doing so. There are also so many books out there that keep using the different timeline mechanism and this book does a great job at making it a smooth transition and making sure there was an actual reason to do so.
The negatives I found in the book was that the ending was a bit more supernatural than I had hoped for. I like when books lead you to think there are otherworldly figures in play but then every occurrence turns out to have humanistic reasoning behind them. There were also a few (minor) gray areas that you seem to not get full explanations for but, at the end of the day, they don't necessarily affect the outcome, they just create more of a "Hmmm...what happened there?" notion.
All in all, as not a ton of time had to be invested in this one, I found it really good and interesting. I almost wish it was made to be apart of a series instead of a standalone because the characters were quite different than most that I read these days. I will be keeping an eye on this author and would recommend this one to anyone in search of an quick and good read.
The negatives I found in the book was that the ending was a bit more supernatural than I had hoped for. I like when books lead you to think there are otherworldly figures in play but then every occurrence turns out to have humanistic reasoning behind them. There were also a few (minor) gray areas that you seem to not get full explanations for but, at the end of the day, they don't necessarily affect the outcome, they just create more of a "Hmmm...what happened there?" notion.
All in all, as not a ton of time had to be invested in this one, I found it really good and interesting. I almost wish it was made to be apart of a series instead of a standalone because the characters were quite different than most that I read these days. I will be keeping an eye on this author and would recommend this one to anyone in search of an quick and good read.
Better than your average thriller, but not quite as haunting as it tried to be.