Reviews

All by Myself, Alone by Mary Higgins Clark

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jodiebth's review against another edition

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How could she, a gemologist who could find a flaw in any gemstone, so misjudge a human being?

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEANNNNN

jamballdonut's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

After reading and enjoying a book from the "Under Suspicion" series, I decided to give a solo MHC book a go, and gosh do I regret that decision. The first too many chapters focused on each main character and explained in too much detail every tiny fact and feature of them.

I guessed the killer almost as soon as they were introduced, even though there were multiple suspects (Really, it was almost as though every character introduced could have been the killer, which felt like too much). There was no real twist, and the ending almost felt like a cop out.

The writing felt clunky and was hard to get absorbed into; there seemed to be no real flow or ease to the writing. I'm also not a fan of how much MHC uses character names in her writing - In a conversation between 2 people, they address each other by name at the beginning almost every time they start a new sentence and it feels so unnatural. I can't remember the last time I said somebodies name to their face when talking to them, unless they were distracted or something, but none of the characters are distracted enough to warrant their name being said. Once I noticed it, I couldn't stop focusing on it and it became a massive distraction.

Also, the sudden relationship between Celia and.. whatever his name was (I'm writing this review 2.5 weeks after finishing the book, so details are hazy) felt very rushed/forced. He came out of seemingly nowhere, they seemed to have no real chemistry (At least that we were told about), and then in the epilogue they were engaged after 3 months??? If it wasn't the last pages of the book, I would've DNF'd it based solely on that.

Content Warnings

pinot_and_pageturners_318's review

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1.0

Not Mary Higgins Clark, as far as I can tell. Writing was overly simplistic and redundant. Decided to leave this one unfinished and move on.

happy_reading_heather's review

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

in_emmas_library's review

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3.0

3.5

Really easy and entertaining read but I found the begining to be a big info dumpy.

I really liked a lot of the characters too and how they all had their own stuff going on.