Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

41 reviews

vj_thompson's review

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challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow, wow, wow. The ENDING!!!

The Night Shift is probably up there in being one of my favorite thrills. I didn’t see the ending coming at all. I did get one of the plot twists. I liked that two of the three characters had flaws that they were processing through while the whole story was playing out.

The ending was the Epilogue was the sweetest thing đź’• 

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sydoodle's review

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.75


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kaitlyns22's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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laurenslittlelibrary_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I wasn’t completely blown away by this mystery/suspense. I feel like the villain could’ve been explored in more depth and that some of the side characters felt unnecessary to the story (like Rusty’s whole arrest). I did enjoy the multiple POV’s and the flashback chapter towards the end. I would’ve enjoyed a little more of the story from Jessie’s POV, but I liked how some of her side was portrayed between Ella and Sarah.  

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katemreads's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

An entertaining quick read that I feel neutral on. I can see why a lot of people like this. And overall I did enjoy this quick read but it felt like a weak thriller to me; more of a smaller thriller within a larger small town drama. 

The book follows three perspectives and only one feels like it’s diving into the murders while the other two on are a separate journey that intersects with the cases. Those two felt more like a personal journey to resolve past issues from the first set of murders. I get why, but it felt more like the second set of murders opened old wounds and that was the main part of their journey rather than the thriller piece of being invested into the connection between the first set of murders and the second; if any at all. 

There was also a character who was important to the story but kind of dropped out around the halfway point, only to return at the end. I felt their storyline was used as a plot device for these two perspectives mentioned above. While I can understand because this story isn’t about this person, the whole thing never would have occurred without them. I felt it was a bit of a disservice to use them to move the plot along for other characters and not explore deeper into their story. Some other aspects of the story also felt there for just the plot. Of course there are red herrings in thrillers, but I just wasn’t convinced on most of them. This led me to feeling I spent so many pages reading about something that ended up nowhere. Since I didn’t buy in in the first place, it felt like a cheap payout/investment. Speaking of, I guessed the “who done it” very early on. It felt a bit obvious to me which may have contributed to my skepticism with the red herrings; and lack of enjoyment of them. 

On the positive side, I loved the FBI agent’s perspective! Her character and personality were so vivid and easy to picture. I enjoyed her storyline and the investigation. I have to say that the author seemed to clearly put a lot of work into learning about FBI protocols and investigating as well as the legal system; at least from what I can tell. Both of those aspects felt 100% authentic to me. 

As much as it may sound like I didn’t like this book, it was a fun enjoyable read! Right after I read it I’d have given it 4 stars. Just the more I think about it the more I’m a bit unsatisfied with choices the author made; at least for my reading preference. Overall I’d recommend giving it a try!  

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jennyoli96's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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nrogers_1030's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The identity of the killer is pretty predictable. That being noted, it still had enough twists to be a good read. Atticus’s passing was so heartbreaking

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detrasystem's review

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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kingrosereads's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

A mass murder mystery-thriller with some 90s throwback scenes. 

On New Year's Eve 1999, the teenaged employees of Blockbuster in Linden, New Jersey, are excited to welcome in Y2K. But before they can close, they’re all brutally murdered. All but one. The remaining survivor, Ella, is haunted by the events of that night. Fifteen years later, an eerily similar attack happens in an ice cream shop in Linden, again with only one survivor, Jesse. Ella returns to town, now a therapist, to help Jesse navigate her new world and hopefully solve both crimes once and for all.

The story has multiple POVs: Ella, Chris (the brother of the alleged Blockbuster murderer and now public defender), and Agent Keller (a very pregnant FBI agent assigned to help the local PD). I wasn’t a fan of Ella or how her character was written, but I thought Jesse was really compelling. Chris was also written well, but the women in his life not so much. Keller was okay, but kind of just there and sorta just randomly solves the crimes. Atticus was my one true love in this whole book. The best personality, that guy. 

I gotta say, I’m not always a fan of thriller novels since the ones I’ve read tend to be really predictable and have annoying pacing, but this book was paced well and had me on the edge of my seat a few times. At some point, different mysteries became predictable and the main big bad in this story had a rather rushed climax with minimal information on the resolution. The book’s murders are much like the yogurt shop murders that happened in Austin 1991, and I can’t see the author’s choice of motive really fitting in this kind of case. Also, hated that the only character of color was killed. 

A decent thriller. 

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our_bookish_reads's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.0

This wasn't amazing, it did nothing for me and I'm happy it's done. The ending sucked. I only liked the female narrator who read ch. 71 (she read others, I just didn't keep track).  The other female and the male narrator were so dreadfully dull and boring, so bland... I'd rather hear a computer read their chapters out.

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