Reviews

did not see it coming that paul faked his death, once claire started finding stuff i figured he had something to do with everything.., also had a feeling ab the dad’s “suicide” but the way things played out it crazy

jepittman05's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.75

daniellamoorea's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

luminous's review against another edition

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4.0

Intense. Fast forwarded/skipped the most graphic violence. That was too much for even me.

Complicated relationship with this book. I DNF'd it twice and almost DNF'd it this time around.

First time : DNF'd in first chapter. I found the fat shaming distasteful and thought, "Oh, it's THAT kind of book."

Second time, a year later : DNF'd when Claire explored someone's computer. I didn't like the graphic violence.

This time, about a year later : at 50% Right at the halfway point. Claire gets punched in the face. It wasn't the punch. I thought I could see the direction it was going and I didn't want to read that.

I actually took a day away from the book at this point.

But I kept coming back because the story was compelling. And I realized the fat shaming was less an author opinion and more a character opinion. I realized I could skip the graphic violence. That realization took care of both DNF 2 and 3.

I'll give credit though. It's all described matter of factly. It's not glorified or made to sound sexy.

So anyway, so that aside, there were lots of twists and turns, all of which made sense and some of which were brilliant. Though Paul's incredible ability to have spies and eyes everywhere was a bit much.

Characters were okay. There is a sweetness to family relationships that the author captures well. I didn't find the characters very unique or interesting though. There was great ambiguity conveyed amongst the gray side characters. Some are good and some are bad and you don't know for sure which is which for much of the book.

I may read more from this author, but I'm not in a "Must read more by her NOW!" mood.

karen_pug's review against another edition

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4.0

Wow, disturbing, devastating, terrifying and so well written. I won’t forget this one for awhile.

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