Reviews - One by One | The StoryGraph

5.56k reviews for:

Alright, first of all, it's not a "Locked Room Mystery;" it's a Closed Circle mystery.

Second, it was a creepy book full of suspense, for the most part. I'll give it that.

However, more importantly, this book is all over the place. If I didn't know it was written by Ruth Ware, I would've thought it was someone's first crack at a mystery novel right after getting their creative writing certificate.
Most of the characters are mostly indistinguishable douchebags. Erin has zero personality. Liz is... whatever the fuck Liz is.

The two biggest problems with this book are a, its weak-assed plot, and b, the boring and pointless last 1/3 of the book where

Spoiler

everyone else fucked off conveniently, leaving Erin to deal with psycho-Liz

.
When I say the plot is weak, I mean it's laughably transparently predictable, as well as illogical. Anyone who's read an Agatha Christie can spot the repeated mention of

Spoiler

the red ski jacket

and figure out who the culprit is from there. And that's only about 1/3 into the book with zero body count yet. The book, in its long-winded epilogue, somehow does not explain how

Spoiler

Liz knew in advance the weather would be terrible, that Topher would insist everyone doing one last run, that Eva would show up when no one was around, that she was going to ski la Sorcière despite the blizzard and the closure

. If this is all improvisation, then how do you explain

Spoiler

Liz having the foresight to bring the red jacket

? It's also extremely stupid for

Spoiler

Eva to blackmail Liz, knowing perfectly well that the latter killed someone in cold blood. For someone as shrewd and cunning as Eva, this is an out-of-character miscalculation.

Additionally, the last third of the book is such a bloody drag that I was skipping pages. Ware obviously wrote herself into a corner and had to

Spoiler

get rid of all the other characters

so that the reader can focus on

Spoiler

Liz's psychopath origin story

. And I literally groaned when I realized there were still at least 10 chapters after

Spoiler

Liz kicked the bucket

to wrap up all the loose ends with all the cardboard cutout characters that no one cares about. Ware should have ended the book when it was still good.

I can't believe this book is being so hyped up whereas in reality, it's so underwhelming and poorly written. And it was a very interesting premise with limitless potential too. What a disappointing read.

carrienp1420's review against another edition

3.0

An updated version of Agatha Christie's - And Then There Were None

auskee42's review against another edition

5.0

I love all of Ruth Ware's books that I've read so far, and this is the best yet. It felt like a game of Clue; a who-dunnit set in the French Alps. I went back and forth for a while on who I thought the antagonist was before it was revealed, and even after that Ware continues to delve more into their psyche and the reasoning behind their actions. Very fast paced and easy to follow.

anamaslesa's review against another edition

3.0

This was a fun read, but was very reminiscent of The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. Not sure if I would have enjoyed it better if I read this one first, but the story seemed played out to me. Still enjoyed the reading experience though.

vmbookie's review against another edition

3.0

This was just an okay type of mystery. It was fairly easy to predict what was going to happen/twists, however it was still entertaining. I just couldn’t put it down.