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danielghurst's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Sexual content
Minor: Car accident, Rape, and Sexual violence
fictionmajorette's review
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
2.0
Full thoughts: https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2021/09/five-strangers-ev-adamson.html
The part I liked the most was the characters and character relationships. The book alternates POV between Jen and her best friend Bex. The two have been friends since meeting in college and have been there for each other through some pretty rough times. While most of the story takes place in present day, we do get some flashbacks to significant moments in Jen's life and how Bex was there for her. We know Jen has had a rough time lately with her 5 year relationship ending at the same time as losing her column in the paper, but she has been slowly getting back into a routine with the help of Bex and another journalist named Penelope, who Jen lives with and has an interesting somewhat mentor/mentee relationship. Jen isn't the typical investigative journalist protagonist, which I really liked. She's a bit of a mess and while she can pull it together for a little while, we see a lot of times how a small event can trigger a massive panic spiral. Penelope is the calculating investigative journalist character, which often put her at odds with Jen due to their differing views and philosophies.
The POV switching was interesting because it would often happen while we were in the middle of a scene with only Jen and Bex. It was an interesting way to get both sides of the current scene, but I often found myself forgetting which POV we were in. However, due to the POV switching, there are multiple times where the reader finds out information before Jen does which I felt really lessened the impact of the reveal once Jen does find out.
The actual plot and investigation thread felt very unnatural because it felt like Jen basically had to have her hand held through the entire book. Between Bex, Penelope, and the mystery Twitter account messaging her, it really felt like Jen had very little autonomy. Before reading, I thought the mystery of this book was going to hinge on the different witnesses seeing different versions of the same events and Jen then investigates to see which version is correct. That is not what happened in this book.
I did like the overall ending reveal and how that was handled. However, I did think that Jen doing a full 180 didn't feel authentic to her character. She spent 75% of the book convinced the answer was X and becoming obsessed with X then, at the end, she gets a couple of clues that the answer is really Y and then she's completely fine with leaving X in the dust. I think the little clues that she gets about Y weren't enough to so suddenly dispel her obsession with X and it, again, felt like Jen was just being manipulated by the people around her.
Overall, this book has an interesting premise, but the execution left me wanting more.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scarlet for the ARC in exchange for review
Expected publication date is October 5, 2021.
The part I liked the most was the characters and character relationships. The book alternates POV between Jen and her best friend Bex. The two have been friends since meeting in college and have been there for each other through some pretty rough times. While most of the story takes place in present day, we do get some flashbacks to significant moments in Jen's life and how Bex was there for her. We know Jen has had a rough time lately with her 5 year relationship ending at the same time as losing her column in the paper, but she has been slowly getting back into a routine with the help of Bex and another journalist named Penelope, who Jen lives with and has an interesting somewhat mentor/mentee relationship. Jen isn't the typical investigative journalist protagonist, which I really liked. She's a bit of a mess and while she can pull it together for a little while, we see a lot of times how a small event can trigger a massive panic spiral. Penelope is the calculating investigative journalist character, which often put her at odds with Jen due to their differing views and philosophies.
The POV switching was interesting because it would often happen while we were in the middle of a scene with only Jen and Bex. It was an interesting way to get both sides of the current scene, but I often found myself forgetting which POV we were in. However, due to the POV switching, there are multiple times where the reader finds out information before Jen does which I felt really lessened the impact of the reveal once Jen does find out.
The actual plot and investigation thread felt very unnatural because it felt like Jen basically had to have her hand held through the entire book. Between Bex, Penelope, and the mystery Twitter account messaging her, it really felt like Jen had very little autonomy. Before reading, I thought the mystery of this book was going to hinge on the different witnesses seeing different versions of the same events and Jen then investigates to see which version is correct. That is not what happened in this book.
I did like the overall ending reveal and how that was handled. However, I did think that Jen doing a full 180 didn't feel authentic to her character. She spent 75% of the book convinced the answer was X and becoming obsessed with X then, at the end, she gets a couple of clues that the answer is really Y and then she's completely fine with leaving X in the dust. I think the little clues that she gets about Y weren't enough to so suddenly dispel her obsession with X and it, again, felt like Jen was just being manipulated by the people around her.
Overall, this book has an interesting premise, but the execution left me wanting more.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scarlet for the ARC in exchange for review
Expected publication date is October 5, 2021.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Suicide
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity
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