Scan barcode
nadinee24's review against another edition
2.0
Whistle in the Dark is a slow burning mystery where the mystery is an afterthought. The synopsis of this book intrigued me, which is why I requested it on Netgalley. Unfortunately, Whistle in the Dark is an incredibly slow moving, boring mystery that doesn’t deliver.
Whistle in the Dark focuses on Jen as she tries to help her daughter, Lana, recover from being lost in the woods for four days. Jen becomes obsessed with figuring out what happened to her daughter. As the novel progresses, Jen becomes more and more paranoid and neurotic.
Healey focuses on Jen’s paranoid and neurotic thoughts and behaviors, but does little to create a worthwhile reading experience. Instead, the novel becomes a by the numbers story as Jen discovers a clue, obsesses over it, and repeats. At the same time, Healey’s portrayal of a dedicated and scared mother is well written. Jen does everything in her power to help her child, but always falls short. For this reason, it seems as if there are two different novels within Whistle in the Dark competing for space. One of the novels is a contemporary story about a mother’s desperate and frantic search for answers on how to help her teenage daughter suffering from depression. The other novel is a mystery about a mother’s despairing search for answers about her teenage daughter’s disappearance. I understand what Healey was attempting to accomplish, alas the execution was lacking.
The only reason I read the novel in its entirety was to find out what happened in those four missing days. Unfortunately, the reveal is lackluster and should have been obvious from the first few chapters.
***I received an ARC via Netgalley for an honest review.
Whistle in the Dark focuses on Jen as she tries to help her daughter, Lana, recover from being lost in the woods for four days. Jen becomes obsessed with figuring out what happened to her daughter. As the novel progresses, Jen becomes more and more paranoid and neurotic.
Healey focuses on Jen’s paranoid and neurotic thoughts and behaviors, but does little to create a worthwhile reading experience. Instead, the novel becomes a by the numbers story as Jen discovers a clue, obsesses over it, and repeats. At the same time, Healey’s portrayal of a dedicated and scared mother is well written. Jen does everything in her power to help her child, but always falls short. For this reason, it seems as if there are two different novels within Whistle in the Dark competing for space. One of the novels is a contemporary story about a mother’s desperate and frantic search for answers on how to help her teenage daughter suffering from depression. The other novel is a mystery about a mother’s despairing search for answers about her teenage daughter’s disappearance. I understand what Healey was attempting to accomplish, alas the execution was lacking.
The only reason I read the novel in its entirety was to find out what happened in those four missing days. Unfortunately, the reveal is lackluster and should have been obvious from the first few chapters.
***I received an ARC via Netgalley for an honest review.
flowerbob's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
jess_hitch's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
reading_ace's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
carriemonnier's review against another edition
2.0
The mom was annoying and the daughter was obnoxious. I didn't mind the writing, but the two main characters annoyed me so much that I can't give it more stars. I also found the ending lacking.
sam_griffin's review against another edition
3.0
I won this book in a free draw!! Hooray! Winning things makes me feel invincible. Where's Wolverine? I could take him.
Moving on.
I appreciated that the end wasn't cliche or expected, but I felt that the entire book was too long and too focused on repetitive notions of unlikeable characters. There were a number of subplots that seemed to go without a payoff or were created to lead the reader astray in our predictions, but didn't seem to really go anywhere or have any reason.
An interesting idea and a quick read, but I wasn't fully satisfied with the end or the characters.
2.75/5
Moving on.
I appreciated that the end wasn't cliche or expected, but I felt that the entire book was too long and too focused on repetitive notions of unlikeable characters. There were a number of subplots that seemed to go without a payoff or were created to lead the reader astray in our predictions, but didn't seem to really go anywhere or have any reason.
An interesting idea and a quick read, but I wasn't fully satisfied with the end or the characters.
2.75/5
sophcart_'s review against another edition
3.0
I was underwhelmed by most of this story. I felt the main characters were developed well but the storyline wasn’t great at keeping my attention (hence taking a month to finish). Far too much nothing going on in this book.
callum_mclaughlin's review against another edition
2.0
This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, so it's with a heavy heart that I give it this low rating. Perhaps my own self-inflicted hype even played a part in my eventual lukewarm feelings towards it.
Things in this novel started out really well, with a great concept and a good amount of intrigue. It was very readable, and I powered through the whole thing in a single weekend, which has to say something in and of itself. Though they are very different in content, it has a similar narrative structure to Healey's debut, Elizabeth is Missing, in that a mystery is used as the basis to explore the inner workings of her protagonist's mind. In Elizabeth is Missing, that's an elderly woman with dementia who is worried about her missing friend; in this, it's a mother struggling to understand her teenage daughter, who has just returned following an unexplained disappearance that lasted four days.
The problem I ended up having with Whistle in the Dark, however, was the exact same problem that I had with Healey's debut, which is that it simply tried to be too many things at once, and lost its impact as a result. It begins very well as a character study of the mother and daughter, exploring the ideas of motherhood as an identity, teenage mental health, and a family's attempts to recover after trauma. This was undoubtedly where the novel's strengths and potential were, but it's the mystery element that was ramped up as the story progressed, and I felt this was to the detriment of the character development.
The mystery element itself starts out with a crime-thriller vibe, before rather bizarrely delving into the ideas of the supernatural, and religious fanaticism. It felt to me, however, like there was a lot of going in circles, without much in the way of actual plot progression. And with so many ideas thrown into the mix as to what may have been behind Lana's disappearance, the eventual 'reveal' fell completely flat, feeling both obvious and underwhelming.
On a side note, I also wasn't always entirely comfortable with the way the author discussed physical appearance. Both an overweight character and a character with an apparent facial deformity are referred to in a cutting manner, with needless critique of the way they look. It wasn't anything too extreme, but it felt cold and jarred me out of the story, so I thought it was worth flagging up.
Ultimately, it's a book with lots of potential that is indeed intriguing enough to keep the pages turning, but despite taking on much, it sadly delivers little. The actual experience of reading it wasn't unenjoyable, but it left me with no lasting feelings of interest or excitement whatsoever. To put it bluntly, Elizabeth is Missing was a fantastic character study of someone with dementia that was hampered by a mediocre mystery; Whistle in the Dark is, what could have been, a fantastic character study of a mother in turmoil, once again hampered by a mediocre mystery.
Things in this novel started out really well, with a great concept and a good amount of intrigue. It was very readable, and I powered through the whole thing in a single weekend, which has to say something in and of itself. Though they are very different in content, it has a similar narrative structure to Healey's debut, Elizabeth is Missing, in that a mystery is used as the basis to explore the inner workings of her protagonist's mind. In Elizabeth is Missing, that's an elderly woman with dementia who is worried about her missing friend; in this, it's a mother struggling to understand her teenage daughter, who has just returned following an unexplained disappearance that lasted four days.
The problem I ended up having with Whistle in the Dark, however, was the exact same problem that I had with Healey's debut, which is that it simply tried to be too many things at once, and lost its impact as a result. It begins very well as a character study of the mother and daughter, exploring the ideas of motherhood as an identity, teenage mental health, and a family's attempts to recover after trauma. This was undoubtedly where the novel's strengths and potential were, but it's the mystery element that was ramped up as the story progressed, and I felt this was to the detriment of the character development.
The mystery element itself starts out with a crime-thriller vibe, before rather bizarrely delving into the ideas of the supernatural, and religious fanaticism. It felt to me, however, like there was a lot of going in circles, without much in the way of actual plot progression. And with so many ideas thrown into the mix as to what may have been behind Lana's disappearance, the eventual 'reveal' fell completely flat, feeling both obvious and underwhelming.
On a side note, I also wasn't always entirely comfortable with the way the author discussed physical appearance. Both an overweight character and a character with an apparent facial deformity are referred to in a cutting manner, with needless critique of the way they look. It wasn't anything too extreme, but it felt cold and jarred me out of the story, so I thought it was worth flagging up.
Ultimately, it's a book with lots of potential that is indeed intriguing enough to keep the pages turning, but despite taking on much, it sadly delivers little. The actual experience of reading it wasn't unenjoyable, but it left me with no lasting feelings of interest or excitement whatsoever. To put it bluntly, Elizabeth is Missing was a fantastic character study of someone with dementia that was hampered by a mediocre mystery; Whistle in the Dark is, what could have been, a fantastic character study of a mother in turmoil, once again hampered by a mediocre mystery.
paceamorelibri's review against another edition
2.0
[b:Whistle in the Dark|35068416|Whistle in the Dark|Emma Healey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526499549s/35068416.jpg|56363875] begins with one of the most enticing premises of anything I've read all year: when Jen Maddox and her fifteen-year-old daughter Lana are away on holiday in the English countryside, Lana goes missing for exactly four days, and after she's found, she claims to have no memory of what happened to her. This book had all the potential in the world to be eerie and gripping and moving, but it sadly dropped the ball.
This is not a mystery about a girl's disappearance; at the heart of [b:Whistle in the Dark|35068416|Whistle in the Dark|Emma Healey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526499549s/35068416.jpg|56363875] is Jen and Lana's fraught relationship, which feels almost claustrophobic. You want to take both characters by the shoulders and scream at them for their inability to communicate with one another. Which isn't a criticism - I thought the tension in this relationship was [b:Whistle in the Dark|35068416|Whistle in the Dark|Emma Healey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526499549s/35068416.jpg|56363875]'s biggest strength, even if it wasn't the most pleasant reading experience.
I just felt like this book didn't quite know what it wanted to be. It was part crime thriller, part literary character study, and all the while just spinning its wheels, never really going anywhere. The same ideas are recycled ad nauseum in a sort of cyclical format that doesn't suit the kind of depth that Healey is trying to achieve here. I feel like there's a lot that could have been said about mental health, religious fanaticism, and motherhood, but none of this is fully realized. Instead we chronicle Jen's almost comical levels of paranoia as she over-analyzes every breath that Lana takes, which gets old after several hundred pages.
This also has some of the most trite dialogue I've ever read - this is one of those books where no one talks like an actual human being, but instead pontificates with the articulation of a philosophy scholar, speaking in bizarre abstractions and it ultimately detracts from the realism of their characters.
I think most readers are going to be very unhappy and underwhelmed by the ending, but I actually didn't mind it. I think it's important not to think of it as a twist or a reveal, necessarily, just kind of... a logical conclusion? I don't know. But I liked the way it was done and I liked the closure Jen was able to glean from that. I just wish it hadn't been such a drag to get to that point. I couldn't wait for this book to end.
Thank you to Harper and Emma Healey for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.
This is not a mystery about a girl's disappearance; at the heart of [b:Whistle in the Dark|35068416|Whistle in the Dark|Emma Healey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526499549s/35068416.jpg|56363875] is Jen and Lana's fraught relationship, which feels almost claustrophobic. You want to take both characters by the shoulders and scream at them for their inability to communicate with one another. Which isn't a criticism - I thought the tension in this relationship was [b:Whistle in the Dark|35068416|Whistle in the Dark|Emma Healey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526499549s/35068416.jpg|56363875]'s biggest strength, even if it wasn't the most pleasant reading experience.
I just felt like this book didn't quite know what it wanted to be. It was part crime thriller, part literary character study, and all the while just spinning its wheels, never really going anywhere. The same ideas are recycled ad nauseum in a sort of cyclical format that doesn't suit the kind of depth that Healey is trying to achieve here. I feel like there's a lot that could have been said about mental health, religious fanaticism, and motherhood, but none of this is fully realized. Instead we chronicle Jen's almost comical levels of paranoia as she over-analyzes every breath that Lana takes, which gets old after several hundred pages.
This also has some of the most trite dialogue I've ever read - this is one of those books where no one talks like an actual human being, but instead pontificates with the articulation of a philosophy scholar, speaking in bizarre abstractions and it ultimately detracts from the realism of their characters.
I think most readers are going to be very unhappy and underwhelmed by the ending, but I actually didn't mind it. I think it's important not to think of it as a twist or a reveal, necessarily, just kind of... a logical conclusion? I don't know. But I liked the way it was done and I liked the closure Jen was able to glean from that. I just wish it hadn't been such a drag to get to that point. I couldn't wait for this book to end.
Thank you to Harper and Emma Healey for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.