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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As soon as Chekov’s DNA test showed up under the Christmas tree in the prologue, I had a pretty clear idea of what DARK SECRET it was going to reveal. But credit for taking some extremely zany turns to get there.
Edited three days later: OK, I actually woke up angry about this book and the hamfisted way it tries to address women's culpability in covering for men. If you want a thriller with a more nuanced take on the same issues, go with Joshilyn Jackson's Mother May I, because that book is about a woman who a) learns her husband did something shitty in the past, but it's the specific type of shitty we made a lot of concessions for in the '90s and early '00s, and b) has to reckon with both how that changes someone she knows as a genuinely good man, and what it says about her reaction to similar events in her own past. It's thoughtful and careful, and a realistic portrayal of the sort of coming-to-terms with our own inadvertent complicity that many of us have to do at some point in our lives.
The nitwits in this book? [spoiler]They covered up a violent rape for a shitty person; someone who routinely abused one of them and who had KILLED A CAT. And this isn't someone who did har-har frat boy antics in his youth and then became a good guy -- this is a guy who STAYED SHITTY. This is a guy who serially prayed on women at work, launched a pedophile website in the guise of a video game, and according to the book, raped one of the two women who covered for him on at least one occasion. And after he's exposed as a cheating, lying, embezzling, pedo-enabler rapist, his dumbshit Zen master wife stands by him. [/spoiler] This is not inadvertent complicity; this is accessory to all this jackass's crimes. Trina was right about these idiots.
Edited three days later: OK, I actually woke up angry about this book and the hamfisted way it tries to address women's culpability in covering for men. If you want a thriller with a more nuanced take on the same issues, go with Joshilyn Jackson's Mother May I, because that book is about a woman who a) learns her husband did something shitty in the past, but it's the specific type of shitty we made a lot of concessions for in the '90s and early '00s, and b) has to reckon with both how that changes someone she knows as a genuinely good man, and what it says about her reaction to similar events in her own past. It's thoughtful and careful, and a realistic portrayal of the sort of coming-to-terms with our own inadvertent complicity that many of us have to do at some point in our lives.
The nitwits in this book? [spoiler]They covered up a violent rape for a shitty person; someone who routinely abused one of them and who had KILLED A CAT. And this isn't someone who did har-har frat boy antics in his youth and then became a good guy -- this is a guy who STAYED SHITTY. This is a guy who serially prayed on women at work, launched a pedophile website in the guise of a video game, and according to the book, raped one of the two women who covered for him on at least one occasion. And after he's exposed as a cheating, lying, embezzling, pedo-enabler rapist, his dumbshit Zen master wife stands by him. [/spoiler] This is not inadvertent complicity; this is accessory to all this jackass's crimes. Trina was right about these idiots.
Locked room thrillers are always interesting and can play out in many different ways and since this is my first book by Lisa Unger i was interested to see how she would play this story out. Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is about three couples, Mako and Liza, Hannah and Bruce, Cricket and Joshua. Its Hannah’s birthday so Mako rents them a cabin in the woods, what could possibly go wrong right? There's also a mystery DNA kit they all got from ‘Santa’ for Christmas thats weighing on some of their minds but no one is willing to talk about it.
The characters were definitely interesting, with the multiple POVs you get to see how everyone views each other ( Even the POV of the person who owns the cabin???), their feelings etc. But at the same time I ended up getting lost, everythings happening all at once and in such a confusing matter since POV’s change so fast. The characters weren’t likable at all for me, Hannah was somewhat tolerable but the rest of them weren’t. They all held secrets from each other, lacked depth and I just didn’t connect with a single one. Hannah was the only one I felt a tinge of connection with.
The pacing of the story went from slow to fast to slow and back to fast, and it just made the story less enjoyable. I feel for thrillers you either want it slow, or you want it fast and just going back and forth between the two paces can feel like a drag.
Overall the book was okay, and I will in the future be trying another book from this author. Thank you to Netgalley and Legends Press for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
The characters were definitely interesting, with the multiple POVs you get to see how everyone views each other ( Even the POV of the person who owns the cabin???), their feelings etc. But at the same time I ended up getting lost, everythings happening all at once and in such a confusing matter since POV’s change so fast. The characters weren’t likable at all for me, Hannah was somewhat tolerable but the rest of them weren’t. They all held secrets from each other, lacked depth and I just didn’t connect with a single one. Hannah was the only one I felt a tinge of connection with.
The pacing of the story went from slow to fast to slow and back to fast, and it just made the story less enjoyable. I feel for thrillers you either want it slow, or you want it fast and just going back and forth between the two paces can feel like a drag.
Overall the book was okay, and I will in the future be trying another book from this author. Thank you to Netgalley and Legends Press for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
mysterious
tense
medium-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