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geoffreylittle's review
2.0
The start is especially strong, and it's no secret that Johnson is a gifted writer. However, the story takes on a melodramatic tedium early and often. The married couple, the mother and father, are just not interesting -- and just keep going at it with each other. Oh man. I expect more inventive plottyness with a mystery-thriller. I just felt like I was watching a soap opera unfold after a point.
the_enobee's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars to Descent. This was one heck of a page-turner! I could not put this book down and plowed through the almost 400 page book in less than three days. So there's that! This book was flawed for a number of reasons, but overall this was a positive experience.
Pros:
Highly addictive page turner
Awesome atmosphere
Captured the Rockies perfectly
Fantastic action sequences
Powerful images
Cons:
Every male character is a cowboy philosopher
Highly derivative prose style mimicking Cormac McCarthy that seems to get stronger as the book goes on
Sean's anorexia (sure, he's skinny now and doesn't eat snickers and of course changed, but never being hungry or wanting food?)
All that time we see Grant, and then Grant and Sean in Colorado and none of the time spent looking for Caitlin?
The finding of the other missing girl's body didn't make a lot of sense. Wouldn't her dissappearance also have been big news? Wouldn't the media have connected the two missing girls?
There were definitely some annoyances, but this was an enjoyable thriller and I will check out more of Tim Johnston's books.
Pros:
Highly addictive page turner
Awesome atmosphere
Captured the Rockies perfectly
Fantastic action sequences
Powerful images
Cons:
Every male character is a cowboy philosopher
Highly derivative prose style mimicking Cormac McCarthy that seems to get stronger as the book goes on
Spoiler
Sean's anorexia (sure, he's skinny now and doesn't eat snickers and of course changed, but never being hungry or wanting food?)
All that time we see Grant, and then Grant and Sean in Colorado and none of the time spent looking for Caitlin?
The finding of the other missing girl's body didn't make a lot of sense. Wouldn't her dissappearance also have been big news? Wouldn't the media have connected the two missing girls?
There were definitely some annoyances, but this was an enjoyable thriller and I will check out more of Tim Johnston's books.
jmj697mn's review
2.0
The ending was satisfying but what a slog to get there. There could have been 100 less pages and I would have been much happier. The atmosphere created was lovely but this is no fast-paced thriller.
sarieinsea's review
4.0
I need some thinking time with this, but my quick reaction is this book is beautifully written AND thrilling, a "literary thriller," as they say. Skip the mediocre Girl On A Train and read this instead. Descent is hard to read at times - it explores the random unfairness of life, and it's pretty gut-wrenching, but well worth it in the end. I would give this a 4.5 if I could. This would make an excellent movie. Let's hope someone good gets their hands on it.
lyndseylibros's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
1.75
Ugh was this book sponsored by Big Tobacco? So many descriptions of characters smoking cigarettes that added nothing to the story. Same with Sean’s/Shawn’s side story. It added nothing to the book and the story with Lester (?) was just weird.
Caitlyn is the quintessential Mary Sue character. No fewer than three people told Caitlyn’s parents that she was the strongest person they knew. She was perfect and could do no wrong.
Caitlyn is the quintessential Mary Sue character. No fewer than three people told Caitlyn’s parents that she was the strongest person they knew. She was perfect and could do no wrong.
alisonjfields's review
2.0
Three Billboards outside of an episode of CSI, as written by the manliest, most humorless Cormac Mc Carthy fan in history. I mean, you could read this or you could just smoke a Marlboro and ride your horse away from a brawl with a rapist on a brutal cold desert morning that causes makes your cheekbones look super-manly under all that virile stubble and think about how much better “Silence of the Lambs” would have been if Jodie Foster would stop all that infernal womanly yammering.
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to read Tim Johnston..
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to read Tim Johnston..
apochemu's review
1.0
This was certainly no thriller. I had a hard time focusing and kept zoning out cuz it was so boring. The writing style was obnoxious; it was often unclear what was even happening. I didn't care about any of the characters; they were all so blah and distant. Most of the book just seemed so pointless and I couldn't stop rolling my eyes at the ending. There was also a lot of swearing, which I didn't appreciate, and a third of the book is about someone smoking. Seriously, I felt like every other page was a detailed scene about someone smoking a cigarette. So not exactly a page turner...
rmarcin's review
4.0
Solid first novel, but I thought it went on a little long, and the ending was a bit too pat for me.