Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
This book dragged on for entirely too long to the point I lost interest about half way through. It was picked for book club or else I might have not finished it.
Yeah I pretty much hate-finished this one, half hoping it wasn’t as predictable as it seemed. But with a title like that I should have known better. Fittingly, there’s also a terrible epilogue included.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.45. Would have been higher, but phrases were re-used many times throughout the novel, and in close relation.
Kara McIntyre is the only member of her family to survive a terrible massacre on Christmas Eve. Twenty years later, her brother who is charged with the murders is released on a technicality during the investigation. Kara begins getting text messages saying "She's alive." Did another family member also survive and she was not aware of it? As Kara tries to recreate the events of that fateful night, she comes up with more questions than answers. Will she ever know the entire story and truth?
This book got me out of my reading slump. It was an easy read and hard to put down.
Mildly entertaining with a likable heroine. But the first few chapters were ruined by the plot and past murder being rehashed about 10 times too many and you know your ending is contrived when even the characters have to say well that's a mess and doesn't quite make sense but it is what it is. Overall not the worst but certainly not the best.
This is not going to be a favourite of mine. The first hundred pages were just too longwinded and it only established the setting and the actual killing of the main character’s family. I had hoped I could learn much more about Kara, the main character, but then, finally, she stumbles across a new murder victim, her brother appears, and she is confused and cannot really say whether he might be the one who killed her family or not.
What I did not like was that, although Kara supposedly is the main character, there are several chapters out of other characters’ point of view. Basically, she doesn’t even happen for quite a while when a nosy journalist and two police detectives try to find out more. Later on, there are also chapters where you experience everything out of the murderer’s perspective. There is nothing wrong with that, and done right it can add to the atmosphere and create a lot of suspense. Here, it was just another character among many.
This could have been a really good book, but the main character wasn’t really that much of a developed character at all, because there were so many others who were similarly underdeveloped. The mystery was definitely just that, and towards the end when things became clear and obvious it was embarrassingly simple and not interesting anymore. I was disappointed by that, since there had been so much useless musing of all sorts of characters about who might be the culprit, and to be honest, much of that felt like it was just there to fill pages, because none of it moved the story, and it was not interesting either. So, I am sorry to say that this is a 2.5 out of 5 stars book for me.
What I did not like was that, although Kara supposedly is the main character, there are several chapters out of other characters’ point of view. Basically, she doesn’t even happen for quite a while when a nosy journalist and two police detectives try to find out more. Later on, there are also chapters where you experience everything out of the murderer’s perspective. There is nothing wrong with that, and done right it can add to the atmosphere and create a lot of suspense. Here, it was just another character among many.
This could have been a really good book, but the main character wasn’t really that much of a developed character at all, because there were so many others who were similarly underdeveloped. The mystery was definitely just that, and towards the end when things became clear and obvious it was embarrassingly simple and not interesting anymore. I was disappointed by that, since there had been so much useless musing of all sorts of characters about who might be the culprit, and to be honest, much of that felt like it was just there to fill pages, because none of it moved the story, and it was not interesting either. So, I am sorry to say that this is a 2.5 out of 5 stars book for me.