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3.08 AVERAGE
3.08 AVERAGE
I haven't read Isabel Allende's other novels (I know I really need to), but this one looked like fun. It is a good old fashioned detective story set in SF where the detective is a 17 year old girl aided by her on line friends and her granddad. 8 murders later we are dealing with a serial killer and a kidnapping and a Navy Seal hunting for the killer down to the wire. It was fun and engaging. A real pulp fiction treat. Not a great novel but enjoyable.
This book was excellent up until about 85% of the way through, when it turned into a one star disaster. There's so much going for it in terms of detail, and its diverse and fully-formed characters. Unfortunately, the switch to killer's perspective is super cheesy and it falls apart from there. Interesting read, especially as a genre switch for Allende.
Took ages to read, too slow and plot not believable.
I wanted to love this one, but there were too many problems. It's well written, of course, in that lovely, descriptive prose Allende could write with in her sleep, but the plot is just ok and the ending was terrible - abrupt and unsatisfying. So disappointing!
I struggled between 4 and 5 stars for this one. The writing is really good and the characters are really well-constructed; however, there are some things I just couldn't get past. For example, there is NO WAY that a police detective in the city of San Francisco is going to allow his former father-in-law access to murder investigation files that subsequently get shared with the police detective's teenaged daughter whose group of online, misfit friends are playing the game Ripper. No one can suspend disbelief that far. But if you ignore that bit, the story is a thriller and fast-paced and I'll admit that my heart was in my throat for the last several chapters, and for that reason, I'm going with 4 stars!
I'm definitely going to add Isabel Allende to my reading list.
I'm definitely going to add Isabel Allende to my reading list.
I wasn't so sure about this one when I started, but was drawn in more and more as I kept reading. Different from her other books, which I think caused it to feel fresh and new, not that I mind her usual stuff!
I was disappointed by this book. It is NOTHING like her early work. It has it's moments, but it's basically too long. I understand why she included the Ripper convention-- the online crime solving group, but I found it unbelievable. The crime itself is ok--sort of creative, but there is lots of extraneous details.given that the book has a teenager as a main character, the crimes are pretty gruesome. I think it would be impossible to deduce the ending from having read the novel. Some of the descriptions go on for pages. Allende should have cut at least 100 pages. It is hard to believe that Allende wrote this. It is very pedestrian.
I liked it, but didn't love it. It was a good mystery, and didn't get resolved until the very end, so the build up was great! It was originally written in Spanish, and I felt like something in the translation made the flow a little awkward. I don't think the author quite nailed the voice of a teenager either.
¡ay dios mío! allende says she wrote this as "a joke." yeah, that's what i'd say too if i managed to get a book this bad published. anything i could say about this book will come off as hyperbole. it's THAT BAD. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/14/isabel-allende-joke-crime-fiction-ripper