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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“The best lies are the ones closest to the truth.”
“You want to kill someone, Halloween’s not a bad night.”
“It’s a lot easier to fool someone than to convince someone they’ve been fooled.”
This was a wild ride from start to finish! It was like part “You” meets “Gone Girl”. We have seen a lot of books with an unreliable narrator over the years (many good, many bad) but “Look Closer” has unreliable narrators (plural). You don’t know who or what to trust as you look closer at each person. This book has twists upon twists upon twists and then more twists for the fun of it. I guessed some of the twists and then some of them I was totally shocked on. But all were satisfying and made sense. There were plenty of red herrings and some things that felt like inconsistencies until some of the twists. David Ellis definitely worked hard to make this all work together while being an entertaining read. My first book by him but probably not my last.
“You want to kill someone, Halloween’s not a bad night.”
“It’s a lot easier to fool someone than to convince someone they’ve been fooled.”
This was a wild ride from start to finish! It was like part “You” meets “Gone Girl”. We have seen a lot of books with an unreliable narrator over the years (many good, many bad) but “Look Closer” has unreliable narrators (plural). You don’t know who or what to trust as you look closer at each person. This book has twists upon twists upon twists and then more twists for the fun of it. I guessed some of the twists and then some of them I was totally shocked on. But all were satisfying and made sense. There were plenty of red herrings and some things that felt like inconsistencies until some of the twists. David Ellis definitely worked hard to make this all work together while being an entertaining read. My first book by him but probably not my last.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
At about 25% in on this book, I was ready to DNF. The characters were all terrible, in different and unentertaining ways. I'm all for a thriller, but I've learned that just regular people doing regular bad things makes me feel icky and a little sad. No, for me, I need it to be over the top psychological chaos. Not gory and violent - just full of crazy psycho people. It's the reason why I thought the Mrs. Parrish books were so fun and why I recently enjoyed The Twisted Women's Book Club. And for the first part of this story, it's just normal bad people doing icky and depressingly bad people things.
Then I met Christian and the ick factor went off the charts. I was minutes away from moving this to the DNF list. My friends convinced me to stick with it, so I kept listening. Once I got past the ick, from that point on, this story gets a whole lot more interesting and the psycho factor continues to ramp up more and more. And that's when I really started to enjoy it. This is one of those books where you will feel like you have a read on what's going on, only to change your mind multiple times, and you're still likely to be wrong.
The audiobook narrators do a great job, too, really selling all of it. I'm only deducting .25 stars because they made me wade through too much ick and it too long into the book to start bringing the good stuff!
Then I met Christian and the ick factor went off the charts. I was minutes away from moving this to the DNF list. My friends convinced me to stick with it, so I kept listening. Once I got past the ick, from that point on, this story gets a whole lot more interesting and the psycho factor continues to ramp up more and more. And that's when I really started to enjoy it. This is one of those books where you will feel like you have a read on what's going on, only to change your mind multiple times, and you're still likely to be wrong.
The audiobook narrators do a great job, too, really selling all of it. I'm only deducting .25 stars because they made me wade through too much ick and it too long into the book to start bringing the good stuff!
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s very slow for about half of the book, however this beautifully sets up the final half. There are many unexpected plot twists that would not have been possible without the slow pace of the beginning. The author plants plot seeds that you don’t even realize until the mind blowing details are revealed.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes