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damnthereiam's review against another edition
3.0
There were times when this book was really really good and I was on the edge of my seat and didn't want to put it down. Then the book went on and on and on and it's almost like in the last few chapters the author was like "okay time to quickly wrap it up". I feel like there was more to learn about certain characters and I would be interested to see if they're in the second book. And I did not care for Jones much or feel sorry for him, I'll probably read book 2 to see if my opinion improves of him because the story was good.
bookworm_enni's review against another edition
4.0
I really like all the different story lines and how they are woven together. Lisa Unter's character have so much depth and their flaws make them all the more likable and believable. A great read and I wish I had read this one before reading Darkness, my old friend. I think it would have made me enjoy that one even more.
mmmadeli's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This was okay...slow and somewhat dull and the character of Maggie really grated on me. Read it because I read Last Girl Ghosted and loved it so wanted to check out some of Unger's other work.
What really got me was how everyone reacted after it was revealed what happened to Sarah. They kept saying it was an accident, but by my reading Travis hit her and she fell and hit her head, which is...homicide. But even worse, these kids let an innocent man be convicted and incarcerated, leading to his suicide in prison. They grapple with that somewhat, but by the end most people seem to have concluded that he was a bad guy who probably(??!) would have killed some other girl eventually anyway. Maybe even the main character! So it was...all for the best? How convenient for Jones to have this moral crisis resolved so cleanly. Idk, I'm a public defender so maybe I've got a bias here but that is just...really disturbing to me.
Honestly the resolution to the Charlene mystery was also really weird. Marshall kidnapped her but...just to talk...and both his dad and grandpa were just cool with keeping her alive in the boathouse? Travis found out and decided to rape her just because? I know they're bad dudes but come on. It's just cartoonish.
Honestly the resolution to the Charlene mystery was also really weird. Marshall kidnapped her but...just to talk...and both his dad and grandpa were just cool with keeping her alive in the boathouse? Travis found out and decided to rape her just because? I know they're bad dudes but come on. It's just cartoonish.
marryallthepeople's review against another edition
1.0
This book was just hard to manage - the "thrilling" pace was anything bit, and the constant changing of views was confusing at best, redundant at most.
courtthebookgirl's review against another edition
4.0
Another fantastic book by Lisa Unger! I truly enjoyed this book, and it took me just under 24 hours from cover to cover. The story is fast-paced and suspenseful, with excellent writing and character development. I was surprised by a few turns in the book, and pleased with the ending. I highly recommend!
dannb's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this one...this characters felt a little "thin" to me, but in fairness to Ms. Unger, I just finished reading a K Follett tome. (I'm a little addicted to his characters and his research.)
For parents...good read to remind us that our teenages are trying to be grownups. For kids...good read to remind you that we parents are imperfect but most of us love you fiercely.
For parents...good read to remind us that our teenages are trying to be grownups. For kids...good read to remind you that we parents are imperfect but most of us love you fiercely.
gettinglostinagoodbook's review against another edition
I was wrapped up in both storylines throughout the entire book. While the endings were somewhat predictable Unger was able to keep me interested with the suspense and occasional twists she added. At times the book was a little difficult to follow as there were so many narrators, but it was interesting to see the same story from so many points of view.
bellatora's review against another edition
2.0
If this had been the first Lisa Unger book I had ever read, I would have been unlikely to read another one. I fortunately know that her later books are a vast improvement (I still find her a hit-or-miss author, but she's had some hits for me, especially her most recent Hollows book, [b:Ink and Bone|27276336|Ink and Bone|Lisa Unger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1464907792l/27276336._SY75_.jpg|47328227]).
This one was just an unwieldy mess. It is ostensibly about Maggie, a psychologist in a small upstate New York town, her police detective husband, Jones, and the missing girlfriend of their teenage son. There was also another girl who went missing and was found murdered when Maggie and Jones were teenagers themselves. Of course there is some connection between the two.
These are basic enough mystery components, but they can still be worked into something enjoyable. Unfortunately, Unger decides to throw in everyone's POV, whether or not it is helpful or interesting. The most confounding is exterminator Charlie, a nice enough guy who has a crush on the dispatcher. He is the last person to see the missing girl, when he sees her get into a car. That is it, that is his whole purpose. He was briefly a witness. There is literally no reason we need his POV - every piece of plot information he has comes out through other, more important, POV characters anyway. Did Unger want to write a novel about Charlie the Exterminator and just shoved him into this book because his was going nowhere?
Unger also switches between different character POVs and different time periods without a transition, usually within the same chapter. This is especially difficult to handle on audiobook, when I am several minutes in before I realize we have moved on to a different time character, or it's the same character in a flashback.
She also manages to make any "mystery" not mysterious at all - every context clue lets you know exactly who kidnapped the missing girl. I kept thinking perhaps there would be a twist, but the twist here is that there is no twist. The story telegraphs the bad guy to you and then just lets you sit through twenty flashbacks and a half dozen characters to get to the resolution.
But then! It's not over yet. I realized that what I thought was the end actually was not because I had over a half dozen chapters left! It is not a bad idea for an author to linger on the aftermath - usually the books quickly end once the whodunnit is solved, but there is a lot to be mined in what happens after. Plus, I suppose the girl murdered several decades ago still needed to find a resolution - although I had exactly zero interest in muddling through that mess any more than I already had. Unger's handle of the aftermath added nothing really to the book and characters and just made me realize even more how little I cared about everything. It is not a good sign when you get near the end of the book and you go, "It's STILL not over?!?!.
Besides the lack of any real mystery, the terrible pacing, and the disjointed viewpoints and time periods, the worst part of this book is that I did not care about the characters. The true opposite of love is indifference, and that is where I was. I did not even have enough interest in the characters to dislike them - they were all just vaguely unpleasant. Maggie is supposedly a psychologist, but she seem to lack any real insight into herself and anyone else, and the sessions we do see her in are painfully amateurish. Jones is a terrible father and husband who spends most of his time feeling sorry for himself. Their teenage son, Rick, was the best of the lot, and maybe if the book had spent more time with him I could have been brought to care (although I kept thinking he was someone else, because Rick was an old man's name even in 2010 and I couldn't keep it straight in my mind that the teenager was Rick. I kept thinking it must be Maggie's husband). Charlene, the missing girl, was fine but then all the other characters kept telling each other (and the audience) that she was an overdramatic, manipulative user. Maggie's mother, Elizabeth, was fine but useless to the plot (I maintain the little plot information she provided could have been given through a different POV character - i.e., them having a conversation with her). Charlie was also nice enough but even more useless of a character. Henry the principal who has an unreciprocated crush on Maggie for decades was equally useless. The only character I cared about was the psychic Eloise Montgomery, who comes in briefly at the end, but who is a larger character in later Hollows books. Eloise has sparkle that every other character lacked.
I am happy that Unger has developed as a writer. Lots of times early novels are rough. Unger has better books in her. The real trick seems to be limiting the POVs she uses - it is the more tightly focused books that are often better.
This one was just an unwieldy mess. It is ostensibly about Maggie, a psychologist in a small upstate New York town, her police detective husband, Jones, and the missing girlfriend of their teenage son. There was also another girl who went missing and was found murdered when Maggie and Jones were teenagers themselves. Of course there is some connection between the two.
These are basic enough mystery components, but they can still be worked into something enjoyable. Unfortunately, Unger decides to throw in everyone's POV, whether or not it is helpful or interesting. The most confounding is exterminator Charlie, a nice enough guy who has a crush on the dispatcher. He is the last person to see the missing girl, when he sees her get into a car. That is it, that is his whole purpose. He was briefly a witness. There is literally no reason we need his POV - every piece of plot information he has comes out through other, more important, POV characters anyway. Did Unger want to write a novel about Charlie the Exterminator and just shoved him into this book because his was going nowhere?
Unger also switches between different character POVs and different time periods without a transition, usually within the same chapter. This is especially difficult to handle on audiobook, when I am several minutes in before I realize we have moved on to a different time character, or it's the same character in a flashback.
She also manages to make any "mystery" not mysterious at all - every context clue lets you know exactly who kidnapped the missing girl. I kept thinking perhaps there would be a twist, but the twist here is that there is no twist. The story telegraphs the bad guy to you and then just lets you sit through twenty flashbacks and a half dozen characters to get to the resolution.
But then! It's not over yet. I realized that what I thought was the end actually was not because I had over a half dozen chapters left! It is not a bad idea for an author to linger on the aftermath - usually the books quickly end once the whodunnit is solved, but there is a lot to be mined in what happens after. Plus, I suppose the girl murdered several decades ago still needed to find a resolution - although I had exactly zero interest in muddling through that mess any more than I already had. Unger's handle of the aftermath added nothing really to the book and characters and just made me realize even more how little I cared about everything. It is not a good sign when you get near the end of the book and you go, "It's STILL not over?!?!.
Besides the lack of any real mystery, the terrible pacing, and the disjointed viewpoints and time periods, the worst part of this book is that I did not care about the characters. The true opposite of love is indifference, and that is where I was. I did not even have enough interest in the characters to dislike them - they were all just vaguely unpleasant. Maggie is supposedly a psychologist, but she seem to lack any real insight into herself and anyone else, and the sessions we do see her in are painfully amateurish. Jones is a terrible father and husband who spends most of his time feeling sorry for himself. Their teenage son, Rick, was the best of the lot, and maybe if the book had spent more time with him I could have been brought to care (although I kept thinking he was someone else, because Rick was an old man's name even in 2010 and I couldn't keep it straight in my mind that the teenager was Rick. I kept thinking it must be Maggie's husband). Charlene, the missing girl, was fine but then all the other characters kept telling each other (and the audience) that she was an overdramatic, manipulative user. Maggie's mother, Elizabeth, was fine but useless to the plot (I maintain the little plot information she provided could have been given through a different POV character - i.e., them having a conversation with her). Charlie was also nice enough but even more useless of a character. Henry the principal who has an unreciprocated crush on Maggie for decades was equally useless. The only character I cared about was the psychic Eloise Montgomery, who comes in briefly at the end, but who is a larger character in later Hollows books. Eloise has sparkle that every other character lacked.
I am happy that Unger has developed as a writer. Lots of times early novels are rough. Unger has better books in her. The real trick seems to be limiting the POVs she uses - it is the more tightly focused books that are often better.
amkozy23's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I really only liked two of the characters in this book. It shows how even people we view as good can do terrible things, but those terrible things are very intense. Many of the adults in this book keep awful secrets for a long time and the way that the trauma is discussed is very casual. The end wrapped up nicely and answered a lot of questions but I also feel like certain things were brushed to the side. I like the way that Lisa writes but I think this book was my least favorite of hers so far.