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nicola_carstens's review
1.0
Disappointingly, this is the worst James Patterson book I've ever read. The plot was pretty mundane, and I didn't really see the point of it. Don't read ahead if you don't want spoilers:
The main character is an American woman, Catherine Finch, captured by the Islamic State in Syria, who becomes a YouTube star by making videos of her controversial (some have said "traiterous"), opinion of the USA. At the beginning of the book, the building she is kept in is bombed with a drone.
The book then delves into a political plot where the USA are attempting to sign a peace treaty with Syria and ISIS. The fact that Catherine has been killed could also kill the entire peace treaty, and so it is in the best interests of both parties to hide the fact that she is dead.
This is accomplished by some shadowy figures, both within and without the government, and a lookalike actress they found in a casting database, who created a YouTube video after the bombing, claiming that Catherine had survived. For some reason, a villain appears as well, who is insane, has a "wife" and "child" who are actually his hostages, and who wants to buy Catherine from the Syrians (who knows why). There is also Catherine's no-good, layabout husband, who is addicted to drugs and alcohol, and sponges off his second-hand fame from his wife.
Unfortunately, they are too successful, and the world believes that Catherine survived the bombing. Also unfortunately, the real Catherine really DID survive the bombing.
The book ends with everybody dying. The villain gets blown up in a car bomb, the husband gets shot in a suicide-by-cop situation, and the real Catherine gets smothered. The actress, fortunately, escapes death, but ends up using an assumed identity to become a nursing assistant in the camps in Syria, worlds away from her real life. It felt like the author didn't know how to end the book.
The main character is an American woman, Catherine Finch, captured by the Islamic State in Syria, who becomes a YouTube star by making videos of her controversial (some have said "traiterous"), opinion of the USA. At the beginning of the book, the building she is kept in is bombed with a drone.
The book then delves into a political plot where the USA are attempting to sign a peace treaty with Syria and ISIS. The fact that Catherine has been killed could also kill the entire peace treaty, and so it is in the best interests of both parties to hide the fact that she is dead.
This is accomplished by some shadowy figures, both within and without the government, and a lookalike actress they found in a casting database, who created a YouTube video after the bombing, claiming that Catherine had survived. For some reason, a villain appears as well, who is insane, has a "wife" and "child" who are actually his hostages, and who wants to buy Catherine from the Syrians (who knows why). There is also Catherine's no-good, layabout husband, who is addicted to drugs and alcohol, and sponges off his second-hand fame from his wife.
Unfortunately, they are too successful, and the world believes that Catherine survived the bombing. Also unfortunately, the real Catherine really DID survive the bombing.
The book ends with everybody dying. The villain gets blown up in a car bomb, the husband gets shot in a suicide-by-cop situation, and the real Catherine gets smothered. The actress, fortunately, escapes death, but ends up using an assumed identity to become a nursing assistant in the camps in Syria, worlds away from her real life. It felt like the author didn't know how to end the book.
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