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cosymilko's review against another edition
5.0
The bluffs is such an Aussie thriller that it was deeply immersing from the prologue. Tasmania is creepy and this leant in on it wonderfully.
I listened to the the audiobook and it was beautiful.
I listened to the the audiobook and it was beautiful.
cbrt's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
complex plot twists, i'm not really sure how jasmine made it out alive and met with her father a year after disappearing. what happened to cierra? there is a conflict in my head aboutwho m suspect is between eliza and madison. how al these teenage girls wanted revenge to all who hurt them
begs the question of who is more evil between the adults and young ones. and if innocence is in the age and not in manipulation
begs the question of who is more evil between the adults and young ones. and if innocence is in the age and not in manipulation
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Violence
sam_hartwig's review against another edition
3.0
OK, so I did like this book and it has interesting characters and a good storyline. But unfortunately there was just something missing and it didn't hit the mark to get a higher rating than 3 stars. I guess I had high hopes, and it started off really exciting but by the end it had spiralled so much I kind of don't know exactly what really happened and why...
Could be that I was drifting off while feeding late at night and not concentrating
Could be that I was drifting off while feeding late at night and not concentrating
paulabrandon's review against another edition
2.0
Four girls (Jasmine, Georgia, Bree, Cierra) disappear in Tasmania's Great Western Tiers during a school camp. Because one of the teachers, Eliza Ellis, got conked on the head, it's believed something sinister happened to the girls. Jasmine's father, Murphy, becomes a prime suspect because he's the neighbourhood dope dealer.
Detective Con Badenhorst is brought into the investigation, and he is your standard detective haunted by a previous case. He battles his PTSD while trying to find out what happened to the girls. But he can't seem to get very far, due to both being bad at his job, and the whole town of Limestone Creek seemingly being in the thrall of Cierra's twin sister, Madison, a teenage YouTube superstar (I guess this was written before the advent of TikTok.) Seriously, this sociopathic bitch runs the town, and detectives can even get thrown off the case if they dare to challenge her in a YouTube video. Which is what you would think cops should be doing, you know, challenging witnesses. But nope, not in Limestone Creek! Things are done differently there, as we keep being told.
Anyway, I digress. (Sorry, I absolutely fucking hated Madison and couldn't understand why everyone was treating her with kid gloves when she was CONSTANTLY publicly undermining the investigation. Suspend her YouTube channel! Give the bitch a clip around the ears! SOMETHING! WHY ARE ALL THESE COPS LETTING A 16 YEAR OLD WALK ALL OVER THEM???
And I'm digressing again! If you can get past an entire police force letting a sociopathic 16 year old brat basically run the show, there is some stuff here to enjoy. Kyle Perry is a strong writer when it comes to creating a sense of time and place, and it's hard to believe he wasn't even yet 30 when he wrote this. The Bluffs is confidently written in that regard. But he doesn't have as much as a grasp on characterisation, or character motivations, and once again, I had trouble believing that any police force would let Madison get away with what she does here.
A large portion of the book involves Jasmine's father, Murphy, either going off on psychopathic rampages against people, and then crying. After about the 30th time he had confronted someone in a manic rage, I was just wanting the book to get a move on. There's also this thing where the whole town is instantly accusing Murphy of being a pedophile and practically carrying out vigilante group justice against him. It was like something out of The Simpsons!
(And what sort of drug dealer brands their product to make it instantly recognisable as coming from them?)
Similarly, the book just goes around in circles in regards to the investigation into the disappearances. Badenhorst never seems to make any progress, firstly because Madison is allowed to get away with bloody murder and hinder and compromise the investigation at will, and secondly, because he just doesn't seem all that cluey, forgetting to interview people and letting people get the jump on him. I got fed up frequently because the book felt like it was spinning its wheels and not going anywhere.
I also loathed the fact that
Ultimately, this didn't work for me. Jane Harper has spearheaded some sort subgenre of Australian noir, where the setting of the book is a character in itself, but I need something more than pretty descriptions of the location to get me through a book. Such as well-rounded characters acting believably in a cohesive plot. This book seemed to take place in some 16-year-old girl's fan fiction view of the world, in which all the characters operate in ways that aren't credible because they're seemingly bizarrely terrified of crossing a spoiled teenager. It just didn't make sense.
Note: There are lots of references to a bunch of girls disappearing without a trace in 1985 and its links to an entity known as The Hungry Man (and Madison is obsessed with The Hungry Man), but this aspect is somewhat dropped, and there is no resolution to that storyline.
Detective Con Badenhorst is brought into the investigation, and he is your standard detective haunted by a previous case. He battles his PTSD while trying to find out what happened to the girls. But he can't seem to get very far, due to both being bad at his job, and the whole town of Limestone Creek seemingly being in the thrall of Cierra's twin sister, Madison, a teenage YouTube superstar (I guess this was written before the advent of TikTok.) Seriously, this sociopathic bitch runs the town, and detectives can even get thrown off the case if they dare to challenge her in a YouTube video. Which is what you would think cops should be doing, you know, challenging witnesses. But nope, not in Limestone Creek! Things are done differently there, as we keep being told.
Anyway, I digress. (Sorry, I absolutely fucking hated Madison and couldn't understand why everyone was treating her with kid gloves when she was CONSTANTLY publicly undermining the investigation. Suspend her YouTube channel! Give the bitch a clip around the ears! SOMETHING! WHY ARE ALL THESE COPS LETTING A 16 YEAR OLD WALK ALL OVER THEM???
And I'm digressing again! If you can get past an entire police force letting a sociopathic 16 year old brat basically run the show, there is some stuff here to enjoy. Kyle Perry is a strong writer when it comes to creating a sense of time and place, and it's hard to believe he wasn't even yet 30 when he wrote this. The Bluffs is confidently written in that regard. But he doesn't have as much as a grasp on characterisation, or character motivations, and once again, I had trouble believing that any police force would let Madison get away with what she does here.
A large portion of the book involves Jasmine's father, Murphy, either going off on psychopathic rampages against people, and then crying. After about the 30th time he had confronted someone in a manic rage, I was just wanting the book to get a move on. There's also this thing where the whole town is instantly accusing Murphy of being a pedophile and practically carrying out vigilante group justice against him. It was like something out of The Simpsons!
(And what sort of drug dealer brands their product to make it instantly recognisable as coming from them?)
Similarly, the book just goes around in circles in regards to the investigation into the disappearances. Badenhorst never seems to make any progress, firstly because Madison is allowed to get away with bloody murder and hinder and compromise the investigation at will, and secondly, because he just doesn't seem all that cluey, forgetting to interview people and letting people get the jump on him. I got fed up frequently because the book felt like it was spinning its wheels and not going anywhere.
I also loathed the fact that
Spoiler
Madison not only survives the book, but faces absolutely zero consequences for her actions, when she was basically encouraging her friends to kill themselves! What the fuck? She should be in jail!Ultimately, this didn't work for me. Jane Harper has spearheaded some sort subgenre of Australian noir, where the setting of the book is a character in itself, but I need something more than pretty descriptions of the location to get me through a book. Such as well-rounded characters acting believably in a cohesive plot. This book seemed to take place in some 16-year-old girl's fan fiction view of the world, in which all the characters operate in ways that aren't credible because they're seemingly bizarrely terrified of crossing a spoiled teenager. It just didn't make sense.
Note: There are lots of references to a bunch of girls disappearing without a trace in 1985 and its links to an entity known as The Hungry Man (and Madison is obsessed with The Hungry Man), but this aspect is somewhat dropped, and there is no resolution to that storyline.
gabmc's review
3.0
This book was definitely atmospheric, as promised by the blurb. In 1985 five girls went missing and their bodies were never found in the rugged wilderness of Tasmania. The legend of "The Hungry Man" was born around these disappearances. The main suspect in the 1985 cases suicided by hanging himself from a tree that had since become known as 'The Hanging Tree' as there had been four more suicides since then. His family never believed he had anything to do with the disappearances. Move forward to the current day and four girls have gone missing while on a school hike in the mountains. Their teacher is found by herself with a blow to the back of the head and no idea where the girls have gone. The twin sister of one of the missing girls, Madison, has a YouTube channel with a huge following - so the case becomes a media circus. Detective Con Badenhorst has been put in charge of the case. He is relatively new to Tasmania after moving from Sydney where he solved a high profile case which results in him suffering from PTSD. Con has to deal with small town politics, Madison's YouTube channel, corrupt police and the violent father of one of the victims. I thought the book was well written but some of the explanations of past events were a little vague. I didn't think the ending was realistic and didn't think the perpetrator had their motives and methods properly explained.
laurenkara's review against another edition
3.0
mixed feelings on this one. it really did a good job of keeping me gripped and wanting to know how it was all going to end. the setting felt so atmospheric too, i could vividly see this as a tv show. like an australian mini-series or something, hello stan? netflix? get on that. however, as someone really into true crime and the thriller genre the whole investigation process just felt so unrealistic and things towards the end got unhinged (and not necessarily in a good way??? lmao). also you know when you can tell a man is writing teenage girls (and women?) yeah, big vibes of that.
cw: suicide, self-harm, adult/minor relationships (teacher/student), death of a first nations person, racism, grooming, bullying, slut shaming, mentions of rape, drug use
cw: suicide, self-harm, adult/minor relationships (teacher/student), death of a first nations person, racism, grooming, bullying, slut shaming, mentions of rape, drug use
netflix_and_lil's review against another edition
4.0
NOOOOO WTF
review to coming, sleeping on that epilogue
review to coming, sleeping on that epilogue
jenayr's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
willowtrost's review
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0