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kyrajanson's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jenzhg's review against another edition
1.0
1.2/5 ⭐
Honestly, this book is the epitome of that one very slim chance of reading a bad book due to spontaneity.
Firstly, I want to discuss the writing. I think the writing could be dreadfully mundane at times yet gorgeous at times. Here are the quotes that left me with a burning desire to carve into my own desk:
"I wondered if a boy bred and raised by a man with hungry fists and an appetite for pain could ver escape the violence in his blood."
"I feel like we're all balancing on a house of cards, no one quite brave enough to say fuck it, and topple the whole thing to the ground."
"Made a meal of the crumbs of time Yates spent with her-- never enough, always leaving her hungry for more."
"All of it masquerading as innocent, but really just a gateway drug for girls starved for affection, desperate for someone to love them. He doesn't force us with a heavy hand. He manipulates with a gentle touch, guides us exactly where he wants us to go. So in the end, we blame only ourselves."
I've said it before and I'll say it again, what a talent it is to spin complicated emotions into beautiful phrases.
Anyways, onto the aspects I didn't like.
1. Marketed as a mystery
I don't think it should be marketed as a mystery at all since it is clear what the author had prioritized-- the tragedy behind the Roanoke girls. A good mystery has suspense, it has thriller elements, it keeps the readers on the edge of their seats--It's a good page-turner. But this book wasn't that.
More than half of the book was just us following Lane fighting against the effects of her mother's abuse and living under this blanket of fear, running around saying, "For Allegra!" and crying on Cooper's shoulders (An Aside: I love Cooper). Furthermore, throughout the story Lane goes and checks these places in Kansas that she KNOWS Allegra wouldn't have visited and yet she still goes? Like shouldn't the first instinct be to check places she HAD been to? That logic was really flawed.
Secondly, she keeps saying, "It's what Allegra would have wanted" but didn't Allegra want Lane to run away from the Roanoke house? Like...??? I get that at the end we find out that it wasn't just Allegra's mysterious death that caused her to stay but also the weird attraction she feels towards her father, Yates Roanoke (who's also considered her Grandpa...fucked up, I know). See, I just think that we were robbed of those scenes-- where she's combatting against this forbidden desire to be with Yates (typing this is making me convulse with disgust). That's why I felt like the forbidden attraction to Yates couldn't be considered one of the reasons. Hell, I think paying tribute to her mother would've made so much more sense.
1.5 What I think It should've been
I seriously loved the aspects that discussed the effects of abuse within this book (if you couldn't tell from the quotes above). Amy Engel has so much potential to turn this book into something similar to 'The Silence of the GIrls' by Pat Barker had she not added the "mystery" to it.
The characters' decisions and way of thinking were so wretched and fucked up and so in tune with the abuse they faced. For example, Lane. Lane is definitely not my favourite character but I can understand where she comes from, she seeks pain because that's what she's familiar with. It's what she thinks she deserves.
Furthermore, I like how the ending wasn't idealistic by any means. Connor doesn't swoop Lane up like some cheap fairy-tale romance but instead provides her with a wall to lean against when she slips back into an episode. I also liked how they don't just forget about their traumatic pasts or dilute the situation down but rather acknowledge it and work around it.
In conclusion, I wished Amy Engel could've just scraped the whole mystery aspect and focused solely on the Roanoke girls' tragedies instead. That would've definitely been a 4-stars-book.
Honestly, this book is the epitome of that one very slim chance of reading a bad book due to spontaneity.
Firstly, I want to discuss the writing. I think the writing could be dreadfully mundane at times yet gorgeous at times. Here are the quotes that left me with a burning desire to carve into my own desk:
"I wondered if a boy bred and raised by a man with hungry fists and an appetite for pain could ver escape the violence in his blood."
"I feel like we're all balancing on a house of cards, no one quite brave enough to say fuck it, and topple the whole thing to the ground."
"Made a meal of the crumbs of time Yates spent with her-- never enough, always leaving her hungry for more."
"All of it masquerading as innocent, but really just a gateway drug for girls starved for affection, desperate for someone to love them. He doesn't force us with a heavy hand. He manipulates with a gentle touch, guides us exactly where he wants us to go. So in the end, we blame only ourselves."
I've said it before and I'll say it again, what a talent it is to spin complicated emotions into beautiful phrases.
Anyways, onto the aspects I didn't like.
1. Marketed as a mystery
I don't think it should be marketed as a mystery at all since it is clear what the author had prioritized-- the tragedy behind the Roanoke girls. A good mystery has suspense, it has thriller elements, it keeps the readers on the edge of their seats--It's a good page-turner. But this book wasn't that.
More than half of the book was just us following Lane fighting against the effects of her mother's abuse and living under this blanket of fear, running around saying, "For Allegra!" and crying on Cooper's shoulders (An Aside: I love Cooper). Furthermore, throughout the story Lane goes and checks these places in Kansas that she KNOWS Allegra wouldn't have visited and yet she still goes? Like shouldn't the first instinct be to check places she HAD been to? That logic was really flawed.
Secondly, she keeps saying, "It's what Allegra would have wanted" but didn't Allegra want Lane to run away from the Roanoke house? Like...??? I get that at the end we find out that it wasn't just Allegra's mysterious death that caused her to stay but also the weird attraction she feels towards her father, Yates Roanoke (who's also considered her Grandpa...fucked up, I know). See, I just think that we were robbed of those scenes-- where she's combatting against this forbidden desire to be with Yates (typing this is making me convulse with disgust). That's why I felt like the forbidden attraction to Yates couldn't be considered one of the reasons. Hell, I think paying tribute to her mother would've made so much more sense.
1.5 What I think It should've been
I seriously loved the aspects that discussed the effects of abuse within this book (if you couldn't tell from the quotes above). Amy Engel has so much potential to turn this book into something similar to 'The Silence of the GIrls' by Pat Barker had she not added the "mystery" to it.
The characters' decisions and way of thinking were so wretched and fucked up and so in tune with the abuse they faced. For example, Lane. Lane is definitely not my favourite character but I can understand where she comes from, she seeks pain because that's what she's familiar with. It's what she thinks she deserves.
Furthermore, I like how the ending wasn't idealistic by any means. Connor doesn't swoop Lane up like some cheap fairy-tale romance but instead provides her with a wall to lean against when she slips back into an episode. I also liked how they don't just forget about their traumatic pasts or dilute the situation down but rather acknowledge it and work around it.
In conclusion, I wished Amy Engel could've just scraped the whole mystery aspect and focused solely on the Roanoke girls' tragedies instead. That would've definitely been a 4-stars-book.
jessyjessx's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Rape, and Child death
anna0819's review against another edition
2.0
I was disappointed in this book. It was described as a “Thriller” with “Gothic undertones”....Not really. The “secret” is revealed early on and the ending was predictable.
sare1125's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Incest, and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Suicide
paulabrandon's review against another edition
1.0
Lane Roanoke was sent to live with her grandparents as a teen after her mother committed suicide. She became best friends with her cousin, Allegra. But dirty family secrets had her running away when she was 16. Over ten years later, she's called back by her grandfather after Allegra goes missing. Lane dutifully returns to find out what happened to Allegra, but must also face the horrible secrets that made her run away in the first place.
This was awful.
Awful, awful, awful.
It was garbage. It really was.
Early on, we learn that Lane's grandfather is some sort of sick serial pervert that has sex with any female he's related to. His sisters, his cousins, his daughters, and even his granddaughter, Allegra. So then we get loooong flashbacks to Lane's years spent growing up with Allegra as we move towards a revelation that we already know is coming: Allegra was sleeping with her grandfather/father. However, most of these flashbacks actually focus on Lane's toxic relationship with town bad boy, Cooper.
Although Lane was never actually abused by her grandfather/father herself, she has spent the ten years since leaving Roanoke a complete mess. What I couldn't get my head around was why Lane couldn't go to the authorities about her grandfather's proclivities. She was already leaving Roanoke. She wasn't under any threat of being kicked out by telling the truth. Even when she's back, she never once tells Tommy, a close friend AND A POLICE OFFICER that Allegra was having a sexual relationship with her father/grandfather.
And why the everloving fuck would she even stay in the house in the first place, knowing what went on there and never doing a single fucking thing about it? Sure, go back to your hometown in solidarity with your cousin that you didn't bother keeping in touch with for a decade, but do you really need to stay in the house of the father/grandfather you know has been committing incest for as long as he's been able to get it up??? None of the actions taken by Lane make any sense, and only paint her as being a morose, self-absorbed moron.
Now, I can see what the author was trying to do with Lane. She was supposed to be "complex". No, your protagonist doesn't need to be likeable in order to enjoy a book. (Though, to be honest, it helps.) But Lane's life is made up entirely of toxic relationships and it got very, very wearying to read about. It was so hard to get on Lane's side because she was such a miserable bitch, and there was so much she could have easily done to stop what was going on at Roanoke. She never once lifted a finger to improve her life, and for 90% of the novel, she didn't grow or have any sort of arc. She just kept on being a miserable bitch.
All the characters were awful. I didn't understand everybody's devotion to Allegra, who was a conniving, manipulative bitch herself. My stomach turned at the romaticisation of the incest inflicted on several of the characters. I was bored by the over-focus on Lane's toxic relationship with Cooper. A very significant portion of the book is taken up with their hate-fucking.
The mystery behind what happened to Allegra is secondary to all the toxic relationships everybody has with everybody else, in particular, Lane's relationship with Cooper. None of Lane's actions made sense. She could easily have stopped what was going on at Roanoke! She had already left! The book is extraordinarily slow-paced, and even though I skim-read several portions of it, it still took me over a week to finish it. It's the sort of book that makes me want to go back and reassess all the other books I've given 1 star to, because they were undoubtedly better than this rubbish.
This was awful.
Awful, awful, awful.
It was garbage. It really was.
Early on, we learn that Lane's grandfather is some sort of sick serial pervert that has sex with any female he's related to. His sisters, his cousins, his daughters, and even his granddaughter, Allegra. So then we get loooong flashbacks to Lane's years spent growing up with Allegra as we move towards a revelation that we already know is coming: Allegra was sleeping with her grandfather/father. However, most of these flashbacks actually focus on Lane's toxic relationship with town bad boy, Cooper.
Although Lane was never actually abused by her grandfather/father herself, she has spent the ten years since leaving Roanoke a complete mess. What I couldn't get my head around was why Lane couldn't go to the authorities about her grandfather's proclivities. She was already leaving Roanoke. She wasn't under any threat of being kicked out by telling the truth. Even when she's back, she never once tells Tommy, a close friend AND A POLICE OFFICER that Allegra was having a sexual relationship with her father/grandfather.
And why the everloving fuck would she even stay in the house in the first place, knowing what went on there and never doing a single fucking thing about it? Sure, go back to your hometown in solidarity with your cousin that you didn't bother keeping in touch with for a decade, but do you really need to stay in the house of the father/grandfather you know has been committing incest for as long as he's been able to get it up??? None of the actions taken by Lane make any sense, and only paint her as being a morose, self-absorbed moron.
Now, I can see what the author was trying to do with Lane. She was supposed to be "complex". No, your protagonist doesn't need to be likeable in order to enjoy a book. (Though, to be honest, it helps.) But Lane's life is made up entirely of toxic relationships and it got very, very wearying to read about. It was so hard to get on Lane's side because she was such a miserable bitch, and there was so much she could have easily done to stop what was going on at Roanoke. She never once lifted a finger to improve her life, and for 90% of the novel, she didn't grow or have any sort of arc. She just kept on being a miserable bitch.
All the characters were awful. I didn't understand everybody's devotion to Allegra, who was a conniving, manipulative bitch herself. My stomach turned at the romaticisation of the incest inflicted on several of the characters. I was bored by the over-focus on Lane's toxic relationship with Cooper. A very significant portion of the book is taken up with their hate-fucking.
The mystery behind what happened to Allegra is secondary to all the toxic relationships everybody has with everybody else, in particular, Lane's relationship with Cooper. None of Lane's actions made sense. She could easily have stopped what was going on at Roanoke! She had already left! The book is extraordinarily slow-paced, and even though I skim-read several portions of it, it still took me over a week to finish it. It's the sort of book that makes me want to go back and reassess all the other books I've given 1 star to, because they were undoubtedly better than this rubbish.
rebelkiss's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. To me, it was obvious what was going on. So many people could have stopped it at any time.
_changingtime's review against another edition
2.0
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Frankly, I would have doubted that the author had ever met a real-life woman if I hadn’t looked at the book’s cover halfway through and realised that she was one herself. To write a ‘thriller’ that revolved around a cast of big-boobed, interchangeable Ophelia’s made the author seem far more like a conjuror of the LSD-fuelled male imaginings of the 70s than any person (female or otherwise) writing today.
Head on over to http://bit.ly/2y7JSWV for this book, as well as all of the others featured in my reviews, complete with the added bonuses of free worldwide shipping and bringing a little joy to my life.
Frankly, I would have doubted that the author had ever met a real-life woman if I hadn’t looked at the book’s cover halfway through and realised that she was one herself. To write a ‘thriller’ that revolved around a cast of big-boobed, interchangeable Ophelia’s made the author seem far more like a conjuror of the LSD-fuelled male imaginings of the 70s than any person (female or otherwise) writing today.
Head on over to http://bit.ly/2y7JSWV for this book, as well as all of the others featured in my reviews, complete with the added bonuses of free worldwide shipping and bringing a little joy to my life.
lisaar91's review against another edition
5.0
Please recommend me books like this! I loved it!!
I like a dark thriller with troubled lead characters and this delivered!
I like a dark thriller with troubled lead characters and this delivered!