Reviews

Just could not get around the style of writing. Felt very monotone, not a lot to draw you into the story and make you feel invested. No emotion or emotional attachment at all. Bland.

anambook's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

chickenlil64's review against another edition

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2.0

if We Were Liars and The Silent Patient had a less developed, less exciting child, it would be this book.

verahughes's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

alexa_mcternan's review against another edition

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Story wasn’t pulling me in

bookreader225's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

So I bought this book in Ireland, which means I definitely have a UK/European version of this book. I suppose I will attribute that to how utterly CONFUSING the punctuation and general sentence structure was. I didn’t have any issue with the timeline jumping, but I was often so confused by who was narrating and what they were trying to say. Others seem to have the same issue, so maybe it’s not me. Giving it 3 stars for the benefit of the doubt.

I’m still so confused by

the Noah chapter, but again, maybe that was my fault. I could have sworn that the Noah chapter was the Daniel chapter. I feel like they’re treated as if they’re the same baby? We only hear of one pregnancy for the two of them? But then again I’ve seen it speculated that Lex is the mother of one of them so who knows.

Overall, I have mixed feeling about the ambiguity of this book. While I can appreciate the vague, but still nauseating and depressing, descriptions of what went on in the house, I felt unsure of what I was supposed to take from it to the modern day. I didn’t see the twist coming, but I think it’s because I was so busy trying to keep all of the characters straight that I wasn’t focused on anticipating a twist.

Also after reading about the Turpin case, it feels icky that she VERY clearly used so many of the details of their case (matching tshirts, escape through a window, etc).

I feel like I would need to read it a second time with a pen and a paper to take notes to actually get the timeline straight. I hate feeling like that at the end of the book, but I suppose that was the author’s point. 3 stars because I don’t know what she intended to do, but if it was confuse the heck out of the reader, she did it.

Just really left with a lot of unresolved questions about this book, and the ending felt like a cop-out.

sarah_86's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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