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gardenteacakesbooks's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
alisonme's review against another edition
3.0
I did enjoy the majority of the book, but the build up was slow, and the ending did not land as strongly for me as it could have. It did have a big surprise that I did not see coming, so overall it was a good read.
lacytelles's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars
I love this Aussie thriller writer.
This is a great mystery, and I definitely recommend it for anyone who likes a good mystery.
I love this Aussie thriller writer.
This is a great mystery, and I definitely recommend it for anyone who likes a good mystery.
janeta12's review against another edition
4.0
3.5. Cool setting, slogged a bit in the middle then finished kind of abruptly.
erimybearimy's review against another edition
4.0
Not very spoilery spoiler:
Oh it was all along!
VERY spoilery spoiler:
Trigger warning:
Oh it was
Spoiler
toxic masculinityVERY spoilery spoiler:
Trigger warning:
Spoiler
suicidekiwiflora's review against another edition
5.0
Oooh Jane Harper, another brilliant and tricky whodunnit from this prolific Australian writer. She proved with her previous novel The Lost Man that she doesn't need the likes of someone like Federal police agent Aaron Falk to be the primary crime solver. But like her previous novels the nature and the unrelenting strength of the Australian landscape, plus the small and closed community setting are dominant and to the fore in this novel too. We have had the farming community in the middle of a drought, the team of work colleagues lost in the bush, the cattle ranch in outback Queensland. She likes to move us around - now we are in a beach community on Tasmania, the wild coast close by, with the Survivors - a group of dramatic rock formations - standing guard over the beach and caves nearby.
Kieran Elliott has returned to the community he grew up in with his wife Mia, also a local, and their baby Audrey. Kieran's parents still live here, his father increasingly demented, putting huge strain on his mother. He has returned to help his mother at this difficult time. The return dredges up a terrible time some 15 years prior when Kieran was in his late teens, Mia mid teens. Kieran makes a dreadful mistake that results in the death of two men - his older brother Finn, and the father of his best friend, the Survivors being the only witnesses to what really happened. He has never got over the guilt of this tragedy, feeling 100% responsible for the deaths. Also going missing at the same time was a teenage girl, Gabby, who was Mia's best friend. The couple's return, predictably, causes waves in the town, many still holding Kieran responsible for the deaths, and with the disappearance of Gabby never being fully explained, feelings are running a little hot.
Then the body of another young woman, Bronte, who lives in the town, washes up on the beach. It's a small community, someone must know something, and everyone is either under suspicion or is equally suspicious of everyone else. It doesn't help that Bronte was sharing a house with the girlfriend of Kieran's best friend, his father was seen talking to Bronte, his mother seems to be hiding something, Gabby's still grieving mother behaving most peculiarly, and so on. Naturally what happened years before is dredged up, the local and out of town police involved. It is the caves and the Survivors that are central to the story. Their dangerous and ominous present never far away. Even the walk down a perilous set of steps to the beach conjures fear and danger, this combined with the dangers of an incoming tide to cave explorers never far from the reader's mind.
It is a great read, never a dull moment. As in her other books, Jane Harper knows how to turn the tension handle, the secrets as they are exposed surprising, alarming, and as we know, with tragic outcomes. Kieran, as the prodigal guilt ridden son, is very credible, as are his parents, his old school friends Ash and Sean who never left the town. The 'living in a goldfish bowl' mentality of small town life is so well drawn, everyone knowing the other's business, the reader feels the claustrophobia, how hard it would be to escape all of this. I still think The Dry is the best of her novels, but this one is certainly up there with a great story line, tension, and characters.
Kieran Elliott has returned to the community he grew up in with his wife Mia, also a local, and their baby Audrey. Kieran's parents still live here, his father increasingly demented, putting huge strain on his mother. He has returned to help his mother at this difficult time. The return dredges up a terrible time some 15 years prior when Kieran was in his late teens, Mia mid teens. Kieran makes a dreadful mistake that results in the death of two men - his older brother Finn, and the father of his best friend, the Survivors being the only witnesses to what really happened. He has never got over the guilt of this tragedy, feeling 100% responsible for the deaths. Also going missing at the same time was a teenage girl, Gabby, who was Mia's best friend. The couple's return, predictably, causes waves in the town, many still holding Kieran responsible for the deaths, and with the disappearance of Gabby never being fully explained, feelings are running a little hot.
Then the body of another young woman, Bronte, who lives in the town, washes up on the beach. It's a small community, someone must know something, and everyone is either under suspicion or is equally suspicious of everyone else. It doesn't help that Bronte was sharing a house with the girlfriend of Kieran's best friend, his father was seen talking to Bronte, his mother seems to be hiding something, Gabby's still grieving mother behaving most peculiarly, and so on. Naturally what happened years before is dredged up, the local and out of town police involved. It is the caves and the Survivors that are central to the story. Their dangerous and ominous present never far away. Even the walk down a perilous set of steps to the beach conjures fear and danger, this combined with the dangers of an incoming tide to cave explorers never far from the reader's mind.
It is a great read, never a dull moment. As in her other books, Jane Harper knows how to turn the tension handle, the secrets as they are exposed surprising, alarming, and as we know, with tragic outcomes. Kieran, as the prodigal guilt ridden son, is very credible, as are his parents, his old school friends Ash and Sean who never left the town. The 'living in a goldfish bowl' mentality of small town life is so well drawn, everyone knowing the other's business, the reader feels the claustrophobia, how hard it would be to escape all of this. I still think The Dry is the best of her novels, but this one is certainly up there with a great story line, tension, and characters.
leni_paul's review against another edition
3.0
Call me whatever you want, but these days I only finish a book if its compelling, I only read every page if its exciting me in some way...and I can't explain why, but I read every page of this story! And it did not meet that criteria.
I'm baffled by some of the reviews on this book. The book was uneven. It was slow. The plot was swamped by the setting and enormous cast of characters.
Perhaps the setting, the characters and the premise promised so much that I kept reading, waiting for something to happen. There is a real lack of suspense throughout yet I kept reading.
And as another reviewer says, it was hard to care for any of the characters. Keiran is so boring. His back story is a lad's tale of no interest to me. The other guys all blurred a little for me. I wanted Ash to have buried someone in the garden. Please...or do the snotty author in. The baby might as well have not existed, all it did was get put in a carrier, fed and carried around, it had no personality. Demented Brian is a fizzler...Keiran's mother was a really interesting person up until the scene of forgiveness which just felt rushed and unbelievable...in fact it stands out for me as almost destroying the otherwise, really believable world created.
I love slow unfolding stories and this almost works. I think someone like Sally Rooney gets the balance of suspense and slow story telling a little better.
Thank you to the author for your hard work in bringing us a portrait of a small Australian town. I'm glad so many reviewers have thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was a worthwhile read.
I'm baffled by some of the reviews on this book. The book was uneven. It was slow. The plot was swamped by the setting and enormous cast of characters.
Perhaps the setting, the characters and the premise promised so much that I kept reading, waiting for something to happen. There is a real lack of suspense throughout yet I kept reading.
And as another reviewer says, it was hard to care for any of the characters. Keiran is so boring. His back story is a lad's tale of no interest to me. The other guys all blurred a little for me. I wanted Ash to have buried someone in the garden. Please...or do the snotty author in. The baby might as well have not existed, all it did was get put in a carrier, fed and carried around, it had no personality. Demented Brian is a fizzler...Keiran's mother was a really interesting person up until the scene of forgiveness which just felt rushed and unbelievable...in fact it stands out for me as almost destroying the otherwise, really believable world created.
I love slow unfolding stories and this almost works. I think someone like Sally Rooney gets the balance of suspense and slow story telling a little better.
Thank you to the author for your hard work in bringing us a portrait of a small Australian town. I'm glad so many reviewers have thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was a worthwhile read.