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violetwraith's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Violence
sylviemarie's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
burghbooksandbrews's review
5.0
Theme Music is one of the darkest and most tense thrillers I think I have ever read. I am so glad I finally picked it up to read! This is one of those books that once you start, you just can’t put it down because so much is happening and you just want to know how everything is going to end.
Our main character is the only survivor of a brutal murder of her entire family when she was a baby, and she has grown up kind of as this larger than life figure, “Baby Blue.” When she moves into the houses where it all happened (which I still can’t get over why she would do this), she soon begins unraveling the case and things may not be as cut and dry as they seemed in terms of her father committing the murders. Dixie is a really interesting main character because of her backstory and also because she often makes decisions in the story that just did not make sense to me at all. She also has blackout periods which of course added to the mystery of the story and makes the reader doubt the reliability of her accounts of things.
I loved this book so much. It was the perfect amount of dark thriller and mystery, and it really kept me guessing until the very end. This is certainly a graphic thriller and not for everyone, but I am in awe that this was this author’s debut. It has been a long time since I have read a thriller that has kept me engaged in a story like this. And even though this feels like a fairly straightforward story, I was really impressed with the writing quality and how everything tied together. Very smart writing! I definitely understand the hype on this one!
Our main character is the only survivor of a brutal murder of her entire family when she was a baby, and she has grown up kind of as this larger than life figure, “Baby Blue.” When she moves into the houses where it all happened (which I still can’t get over why she would do this), she soon begins unraveling the case and things may not be as cut and dry as they seemed in terms of her father committing the murders. Dixie is a really interesting main character because of her backstory and also because she often makes decisions in the story that just did not make sense to me at all. She also has blackout periods which of course added to the mystery of the story and makes the reader doubt the reliability of her accounts of things.
I loved this book so much. It was the perfect amount of dark thriller and mystery, and it really kept me guessing until the very end. This is certainly a graphic thriller and not for everyone, but I am in awe that this was this author’s debut. It has been a long time since I have read a thriller that has kept me engaged in a story like this. And even though this feels like a fairly straightforward story, I was really impressed with the writing quality and how everything tied together. Very smart writing! I definitely understand the hype on this one!
badcushion's review
This book is tonally bonkers. It’s not twisty, it’s just that nobody knows what the hell is going on and it’s not an unreliable narrator, she’s just the least inconsistent human ever encountered. I am dumber for having read as much of this book as I did, and I am happy to have crawled away with a handful of brain cells intact. I started skimming at about 60% just to see what happened, but realized that it didn’t matter what happened, the author was just going to chuck a bunch of new info at the wall and there was not going to be any actual payoff. Thank goodness for the library!
hbrhjsmne's review
4.0
Uuuu i like this one a lot. reading this on kindle during night time sometimes gives me the creeps and nightmare
vodaas's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
stuffhanreads's review
3.0
This book was okay. Definitely a bizarre one, I couldn’t wrap my head around 70% of what was happening. I feel I’ve rated it higher than I would usually, because of the unreliable narrator, which is one of my favourite tropes in a horror/thriller.
Theme music is about Dixie Wheeler, otherwise known as ‘Baby Blue’ the only survivor of a tragic mass murder from the 90s, seemingly committed by her father William, who slit his throat afterwards and died. An absolutely tragic backstory for our MC, I couldn’t imagine the anguish of being the only survivor, it makes you wonder why? Why let her live? Dixie herself, decides to rent her old family home as a way to be close to them and also to wonder about what really happened back then. To the reader it seems like a pretty clean cut murder-suicide. And Dixie seems a little strange, to be expected sure. But strange.
There’s so many twists and turns in this book, but I feel like it goes on too much in some places. As if it’s just too over-explained. Which really throws me out of the story. I also found the ending to be very underwhelming. For the type of book it is I was expecting a horrifying ending to be honest. I just didn’t see a happy ending on the cards for Dixie and the rest of them.
Overall a solid 3 star rating. Not terrible, not great.
Theme music is about Dixie Wheeler, otherwise known as ‘Baby Blue’ the only survivor of a tragic mass murder from the 90s, seemingly committed by her father William, who slit his throat afterwards and died. An absolutely tragic backstory for our MC, I couldn’t imagine the anguish of being the only survivor, it makes you wonder why? Why let her live? Dixie herself, decides to rent her old family home as a way to be close to them and also to wonder about what really happened back then. To the reader it seems like a pretty clean cut murder-suicide. And Dixie seems a little strange, to be expected sure. But strange.
There’s so many twists and turns in this book, but I feel like it goes on too much in some places. As if it’s just too over-explained. Which really throws me out of the story. I also found the ending to be very underwhelming. For the type of book it is I was expecting a horrifying ending to be honest. I just didn’t see a happy ending on the cards for Dixie and the rest of them.
Overall a solid 3 star rating. Not terrible, not great.
shaelynn's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.5
Definitely spooky. I like unreliable narrators but this was a little too much. I figured out the bad guy pretty early on but there were parts that made me second guess. There are a few loose ends that bugged me but what can you do?
It is a slow book for sure, at times it was like can we please get to the point?! I do think there could have been a lot cut out. Overall though I would recommend.
It is a slow book for sure, at times it was like can we please get to the point?! I do think there could have been a lot cut out. Overall though I would recommend.
briannagenovieve's review
3.0
3 ⭐️. This book was like a roller coaster ride. I felt at times I was very invested in the story and had to continue reading and other times felt bored and had no motivation to continue. I am not a fan of long chapters so that was another reason why this book kind of dragged for me but I did think that some of the twists were pretty good. I would recommend this book but it wasn’t anything too memorable.