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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
I really liked this. Best mystery I've read in a long time. It's told from multiple viewpoints, and none of them lagged. I've seen some other reviewers ding it for having some boring or slow parts, but some of us like reading about food blogging and the history of cement in our mystery novels, Sharon!
I will rightly admit that this book will not be for everyone, but it is a book that made me want to read every chance I got and it is not a book that I will soon forget.
I found it interesting that this book and the book I read right before it (The Chalk Man) both quoted the same bible verses from the book of Matthew. Strange coincidence I guess.
I would have given this book more star since it really had me jonesin' to read, but I removed a star because some of the book was confusing and sometimes the jumping between narrators and timelines didn't flow well.
I found it interesting that this book and the book I read right before it (The Chalk Man) both quoted the same bible verses from the book of Matthew. Strange coincidence I guess.
I would have given this book more star since it really had me jonesin' to read, but I removed a star because some of the book was confusing
Spoiler
>(Was Matthew really a nice guy now and purchasing a farm and restaurant for Patrick? That whole thing confused me. Also, the last chapter - I got that it was a scene from Hannah and Patrick's first date, which was confusing within itself at first, but why end it with that? I want to know what happened to Patrick and Hannah after.
It held my attention for 2/3 of the book but the last 1/3 just didn't hold up. I believe it needed more character development
I'm generally pretty easy to please when it comes to books. Most of the ratings I give are 4 or 5 stars. Originally I gave this one 4 stars, but then as I thought about it more I bumped my rating down. Here's why:
-It seems "I'm too cool for school" to not use quotation marks. They are there for a reason and sometimes it was a little unclear whether a character was actually speaking.
-There were a couple disconnects for me, especially between who these people were as teenagers and who they were as adults.
-The ending sucked.
-I don't buy the reveal.
I think part of the story is that our perceptions of ourselves are, at times, vastly different than our perceptions of other people. In Patch's retelling of "that day," Matthew shows signs of a sociopath, right? Suffering physical abuse, mutilating and killing animals, controlling Patch, throwing a javelin at him... But in Matthew's retelling of "that day," they were just normal boys doing normal boy things, totally casual. And then Patch is the one who shows signs of mental instability as an adult, not Matthew. To me, those are disconnects, but maybe (and maybe I'm giving Yates too much credit here), it's just a commentary on how the way that we perceive ourselves and even others can be super inaccurate.
-It seems "I'm too cool for school" to not use quotation marks. They are there for a reason and sometimes it was a little unclear whether a character was actually speaking.
-There were a couple disconnects for me, especially between who these people were as teenagers and who they were as adults.
-The ending sucked.
-I don't buy the reveal.
Spoiler
That Hannah using that word against Matthew would cause him to snap like that.I think part of the story is that our perceptions of ourselves are, at times, vastly different than our perceptions of other people. In Patch's retelling of "that day," Matthew shows signs of a sociopath, right? Suffering physical abuse, mutilating and killing animals, controlling Patch, throwing a javelin at him... But in Matthew's retelling of "that day," they were just normal boys doing normal boy things, totally casual. And then Patch is the one who shows signs of mental instability as an adult, not Matthew. To me, those are disconnects, but maybe (and maybe I'm giving Yates too much credit here), it's just a commentary on how the way that we perceive ourselves and even others can be super inaccurate.
Food descriptions were excellent.
But, hey, here's a thought, men! Please stop putting women you barely even know on a pedestal. Chances are, you are wrong about her and she doesn't really want you to over enthusiastically "protect" her anyway!
I understand that this was perhaps the author's point, but I am tired of reading about it either way.
But, hey, here's a thought, men! Please stop putting women you barely even know on a pedestal. Chances are, you are wrong about her and she doesn't really want you to over enthusiastically "protect" her anyway!
I understand that this was perhaps the author's point, but I am tired of reading about it either way.
Book started off with promise but the story did not feel believable and the characters did not seem realistic either - there were parts I enjoyed but couldn’t get into the story. Found myself skim reading the ending as couldn’t wait to finish 2.5
3.5 stars!
There's a lot of layers in Grist Mill Road, that peel back slowly but surely. Each character had incredible depth and the build up to how their separate lives, both past and present, would come to intertwine, kept me going. There were parts that moved slowly, but the attention to detail and wonderful writing made up for that.
That being said, my biggest issue with many mysteries / thrillers , is that the end, "the big reveal", often struggles to hold up. Unfortunately, this is precisely the issue with Grist Mill Road. The reveal isn't astounding, the motives behind the crime don't entirely add up (Matthew boasts about being unfazed by the physical and mental abuse thrown his way throughout the entire book...yet one slur makes him crack?). The build up to that final scene was descript and moved well, but the final pages and conclusion of the scene fell flat.
Overall, if you're looking for well-written crime mystery, and a break from the commercial thrillers saturating the market, I'd give this one a shot (slight pun intended).
There's a lot of layers in Grist Mill Road, that peel back slowly but surely. Each character had incredible depth and the build up to how their separate lives, both past and present, would come to intertwine, kept me going. There were parts that moved slowly, but the attention to detail and wonderful writing made up for that.
That being said, my biggest issue with many mysteries / thrillers , is that the end, "the big reveal", often struggles to hold up. Unfortunately, this is precisely the issue with Grist Mill Road. The reveal isn't astounding, the motives behind the crime don't entirely add up (Matthew boasts about being unfazed by the physical and mental abuse thrown his way throughout the entire book...yet one slur makes him crack?). The build up to that final scene was descript and moved well, but the final pages and conclusion of the scene fell flat.
Overall, if you're looking for well-written crime mystery, and a break from the commercial thrillers saturating the market, I'd give this one a shot (slight pun intended).
Well written but I didn’t care for the style of writing. Or the ending.
A clear-cut 5/5.
Grist Mill Road is one of those rare books whose jacket blurbs do it justice.
I can't find a more appropriate way to describe the effect the book had on me by the time I finished it. Dark, compelling, rich, complex story of three characters that are brought together by fate once, and then again. The way the story weaves its way across two timelines is used very compellingly. There are many stories of late that have used this narrative tool to add depth and a certain mystery, the slow-burn unfurling of the layers as they are peeled away- but rarely has a book used it so well, IMO.
Matthew, Patrick and Hannah are bound (no pun intended) together by a gruesome act of pure violence that is bound to recoil many readers right from the first word of the book. Literally - that's the effect the book is designed to have on you, as you navigate through what looks like a labyrinth for a long time, until it begins to come together, somewhere after the half-mark.
First off, I'm from nowhere near the parts described in the story, and yet I had no trouble believing Matthew, Patch and Hannah as they narrated their sides of this story. The writing was just so tight, kind of like a stack of dominoes - towards the end, you end up believing strongly there's no other way things could have (or should have) turned out.
Second, the trick of using four different narrators in the story sounds like a bit too much to begin with. However, here again, as the story progresses, the writing pulls you in and you don't even notice the voices changing, the first-person shifting between the three of them, with the fourth portion being in true third person. It flows like water cascading down a waterfall.
Thirdly, the complexity of the plot itself is so dark and intense, that by the time you turn the last few dozen pages, you are right there at the literal edge of your seat, not being able to read fast enough to find out what is going to befall these poor creatures, and what must have happened to make that first chapter incident seem plausible, and in fact almost an appropriate denouement.
No words are wasted anywhere, no plot-lines explored irrelevantly or irreverently, and the sheer fact that the entire story has a handful of characters - five in 1982 and five in 2008 - is most impressive for a story of so much weight and depth. Sure there are interactions these characters have with others outside the bubble, but the sufficiency of the narrative is brilliantly handled.
All in all, a clear 5-star. Way up there for me, with a really deep, complex and tragic tale I'll never forget.
Grist Mill Road is one of those rare books whose jacket blurbs do it justice.
I can't find a more appropriate way to describe the effect the book had on me by the time I finished it. Dark, compelling, rich, complex story of three characters that are brought together by fate once, and then again. The way the story weaves its way across two timelines is used very compellingly. There are many stories of late that have used this narrative tool to add depth and a certain mystery, the slow-burn unfurling of the layers as they are peeled away- but rarely has a book used it so well, IMO.
Matthew, Patrick and Hannah are bound (no pun intended) together by a gruesome act of pure violence that is bound to recoil many readers right from the first word of the book. Literally - that's the effect the book is designed to have on you, as you navigate through what looks like a labyrinth for a long time, until it begins to come together, somewhere after the half-mark.
First off, I'm from nowhere near the parts described in the story, and yet I had no trouble believing Matthew, Patch and Hannah as they narrated their sides of this story. The writing was just so tight, kind of like a stack of dominoes - towards the end, you end up believing strongly there's no other way things could have (or should have) turned out.
Second, the trick of using four different narrators in the story sounds like a bit too much to begin with. However, here again, as the story progresses, the writing pulls you in and you don't even notice the voices changing, the first-person shifting between the three of them, with the fourth portion being in true third person. It flows like water cascading down a waterfall.
Thirdly, the complexity of the plot itself is so dark and intense, that by the time you turn the last few dozen pages, you are right there at the literal edge of your seat, not being able to read fast enough to find out what is going to befall these poor creatures, and what must have happened to make that first chapter incident seem plausible, and in fact almost an appropriate denouement.
No words are wasted anywhere, no plot-lines explored irrelevantly or irreverently, and the sheer fact that the entire story has a handful of characters - five in 1982 and five in 2008 - is most impressive for a story of so much weight and depth. Sure there are interactions these characters have with others outside the bubble, but the sufficiency of the narrative is brilliantly handled.
All in all, a clear 5-star. Way up there for me, with a really deep, complex and tragic tale I'll never forget.