Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Thirteen

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh

5 reviews

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I randomly saw this book being recommended on a bookstagram reel. The poster said this was the type of book where you could clearly visualize everything. And the synopsis sounded so cool and I'm such a sucker for unique concepts especially when it comes to thriller novels so I picked it up.

Note this book is told in dual POV, the killer, and Eddie Flynn. When I first saw this book, I thought it was a standalone, but I later found that it was the 4th book in a series but the original poster noted that they read this as a standalone so I proceeded to do the same. And after reading this book, I agree you could read this as a standalone and be fine.

As for the story, honestly, I'm such a sucker for court cases in shows. Law & Order SVU is one of my favorite shows, so it was nice to see all that in book form and so much more. This book definitely made me want to get more into legal thrillers.

This book was crazy! From start to finish a lot of wacky things were happening! And this being my first Eddie Flynn novel, it was really enjoyable to get a look into his character. Him being an ex-con turned lawyer is such a cool form of characterization. As well as gaining more facets about him such as his history with drinking, marital issues, and his push and pull towards crazy legal situation. As well as his relationship with Harry. For this being the fourth book in a series, I feel like the author handled the main character's archetype very well. I really enoyed how this book was written and by the end, I found myself missing Eddie. We really went through a lot with him in this book.

Kane was something else. Now I'm not aware of the validity of all of Kane's mannerisms and psychosis but the way the author wrote made it very believable. Kane was such a methodical and innately nefarious individual. It was very intriguing to be in his head and read about him and his backstory.

The plot did EAT in this book! The concept was so cool, it would've made a great plot for a show or movie. Of course, the court part of this book doesn't really start till you're halfway through, but the first half was still intriguing, but it was more build-up than anything else which kinda bored me a little bit (but that's on me), but one the court part did come they DELIVERED. It was so fun to read and the original poster was so right, when reading you can most definitely visualize everything that's going on. Again, I really recommend the author for bringing this to life and being so descriptive.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I felt like the ending was a bit lackluster considering the type of individual Kane was made out to be.

Him dying by like five gunshots felt so anticlimactic. I wish Kane and Eddie interacted more during that final scene and it was more of a slow burn. And I hate that we didn't get Kane's final thoughts as he was dying that would've been so great to be in his head and see how he was defeated.

The twists in these books are good too. Steve seems like a very meticulous writer, making sure that most if not every dot is left uncrossed.

I predicted Holten being involved as the story was coming along, but I had no idea of his full involvement. I really felt like the twists tied the story together well.

After reading this book, and getting a taste of Steve's writing, I just might read more from this and might dive into this series at one point. What a fun and entertaining read!

Note: I highly recommend the audiobook for this one! The narrator did a great job differentiating the voices.

Content Warnings