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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
There were a lot of surprises in this book! There are many psychological elements in this book as well. The main thread through the book is handling a mother who is a narcissist. The relationship between mother and daughter is often explored in many different works of fiction. This mother-daughter relationship is tainted with the mother's un-diagnosed psychological illness. Her entire life is just one big game where she controls all of the moving parts in order to come out on top. This relationship drives the story which makes it very interesting.
By the time you're 50% into a book, you should at least be able to have a sense of how the plot is being driven. 50% of the way through this book and I still couldn't tell you what anyone's motivations were or how the plot was being driven forward.
Halfway through this book, the characters were all still very one dimensional, hadn't experienced any sort of development whatsoever, and seemed just.... Underwhelming.
Overall, if you can avoid reading this one, do so.
Halfway through this book, the characters were all still very one dimensional, hadn't experienced any sort of development whatsoever, and seemed just.... Underwhelming.
Overall, if you can avoid reading this one, do so.
There were a few points during this book where I wondered if I would finish it. But I persevered and am glad. The plot was laid out from the first chapter and had a clear narrative - shared between the returning missing teenager and the detective investigating. If I’m honest, it plodded for a while and I questioned if the chapters needed to be so long in some sections. It could have been punchier for the plot.
Saying that, I liked the seed of the story and it was enough to see me through to the end. The last few chapters were much better paced and nicely crafted. I’d managed to guess a part of the conclusion but was glad to be surprised overall with how it turned out. Not a bad read if you’re a fan of this crime/thriller genre.
Saying that, I liked the seed of the story and it was enough to see me through to the end. The last few chapters were much better paced and nicely crafted. I’d managed to guess a part of the conclusion but was glad to be surprised overall with how it turned out. Not a bad read if you’re a fan of this crime/thriller genre.
Read Completed 10/10/22 | 3.75 stars
I didn't fully love this as it was unfolding but in the end, I appreciated that it was a different sort of read and vibe. We have an unreliable narrator, a missing sister, a seriously messed up family, and a story that needs to unfold. I didn't know where it would end up and how it would go so I appreciated the journey!
I didn't fully love this as it was unfolding but in the end, I appreciated that it was a different sort of read and vibe. We have an unreliable narrator, a missing sister, a seriously messed up family, and a story that needs to unfold. I didn't know where it would end up and how it would go so I appreciated the journey!
It had enough of a mystery to keep me reading but the pay off wasn’t that great.
Eh this was fine.
I thought the writing was pretty poor, and the whole thing was told rather than shown. At times it felt like I was reading a textbook on narcissism rather than a novel. At the beginning, it's noted that narcissism is very rare - only 6% of the population. This isn't very rare, at all. (Also, a google search tells me the real estimate is 1% - rarer, but I still wouldn't call that extremely rare and no one has ever heard of it. For comparison, 1-2% of the population are redheads, and people believe I exist.)
I don't really understand why it was such a big deal for Abby to have suggested the mom was a narcissist during the first investigation?
The other big thing with which I took issue was that after Cass says she wants to live with her dad, she's forced to call her mother Mrs Martin - how does no one think that this is weird????
Also there were multiple typos? The most egregious of which being an instance of "there're" when it should have been "they're" (though I do appreciate the attempt to use there're)
I thought the writing was pretty poor, and the whole thing was told rather than shown. At times it felt like I was reading a textbook on narcissism rather than a novel. At the beginning, it's noted that narcissism is very rare - only 6% of the population. This isn't very rare, at all. (Also, a google search tells me the real estimate is 1% - rarer, but I still wouldn't call that extremely rare and no one has ever heard of it. For comparison, 1-2% of the population are redheads, and people believe I exist.)
I don't really understand why it was such a big deal for Abby to have suggested the mom was a narcissist during the first investigation?
The other big thing with which I took issue was that after Cass says she wants to live with her dad, she's forced to call her mother Mrs Martin - how does no one think that this is weird????
Also there were multiple typos? The most egregious of which being an instance of "there're" when it should have been "they're" (though I do appreciate the attempt to use there're)
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Debated between a 3.5 and a 4 for the rating, because I found the book a bit too slow-paced and drawn out. However, I really didn't guess one of the twists, and that's really all I ask for in a thriller/mystery.
I got sucked into this and had to have answers. I needed to know what happened to Emma, I needed to know where she was. I just felt like it took a long time to get there. I enjoyed the characters, they were complex and unreliable and I felt like they fit perfectly into the story.
Going into this, I didn't realise Dr Winter's role would be to explain all the psychology, and I found that a bit boring and tedious at times - it felt like a lot of what she was saying was repetitive. It also sort of reminded me of "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn, where the main character, Camille deals with her mother having Munchausens.
Overall, the story itself was wonderfully written, and I really wasn't sure how it would end!
I got sucked into this and had to have answers. I needed to know what happened to Emma, I needed to know where she was. I just felt like it took a long time to get there. I enjoyed the characters, they were complex and unreliable and I felt like they fit perfectly into the story.
Going into this, I didn't realise Dr Winter's role would be to explain all the psychology, and I found that a bit boring and tedious at times - it felt like a lot of what she was saying was repetitive. It also sort of reminded me of "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn, where the main character, Camille deals with her mother having Munchausens.
Overall, the story itself was wonderfully written, and I really wasn't sure how it would end!