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xojackiedaniels's review
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
**no spoilers**
As a former true crime enthusiast, I was intrigued by the premise of this thriller. It reminded me of this unsolved case of a toddler abduction I heard about a while ago. I was kind of excited to figure this one out and get some closure (I hate cold cases lol).
The setup was meh, with very low stakes set at the beginning. Main characters aren't much different by the end of the book, which is deeply disappointing:
• the mother has no backbone and is either sobbing or in a trance-like state throughout the whole story.
• the father is so unintelligent and immature, it made me cringe outwardly.
Both make the stupidest decisions a character in a thriller could make.
As for the secondary characters,
• one is described as a tramp with no personality beyond having a sexy body and liking money. Her and the mother used to be genuine friends according to the author, yet it seems like there wasn't a single reason why they'd get along.
• the motives of the perpetrator are implied but we don't get to hear from them or see what led up to their decision of kidnapping the baby. It really felt like the author introduced way too many characters that all had better motives for the kidnapping than the actual criminal.
• there is also a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder that I thought would be a good representation of DID at first... boy, was I mistaken!
• questionable representation of how mental illness affects violence towards others in general... I am so over thriller authors using disorders as plot devices!!! >:(
The plot itself was scarce, diluted with constant unrelated tangents and head-hopping just to describe the same scene all over again.
And what on EARTH was that atrocious ending? I would say the book was perfectly wrapped up and salvaged BEFORE the last couple of pages happened.
⭐1.5 for the intrigue and the genuine potential that was not done any justice.
TWs: child abduction, ableism, intrusive thoughts typical to postpartum depression, semigraphic violence descriptions, a character being gaslit while in a vulnerable mental state, themes of infidelity.
As a former true crime enthusiast, I was intrigued by the premise of this thriller. It reminded me of this unsolved case of a toddler abduction I heard about a while ago. I was kind of excited to figure this one out and get some closure (I hate cold cases lol).
The setup was meh, with very low stakes set at the beginning. Main characters aren't much different by the end of the book, which is deeply disappointing:
• the mother has no backbone and is either sobbing or in a trance-like state throughout the whole story.
• the father is so unintelligent and immature, it made me cringe outwardly.
Both make the stupidest decisions a character in a thriller could make.
As for the secondary characters,
• one is described as a tramp with no personality beyond having a sexy body and liking money. Her and the mother used to be genuine friends according to the author, yet it seems like there wasn't a single reason why they'd get along.
• the motives of the perpetrator are implied but we don't get to hear from them or see what led up to their decision of kidnapping the baby. It really felt like the author introduced way too many characters that all had better motives for the kidnapping than the actual criminal.
• there is also a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder that I thought would be a good representation of DID at first... boy, was I mistaken!
• questionable representation of how mental illness affects violence towards others in general... I am so over thriller authors using disorders as plot devices!!! >:(
The plot itself was scarce, diluted with constant unrelated tangents and head-hopping just to describe the same scene all over again.
And what on EARTH was that atrocious ending? I would say the book was perfectly wrapped up and salvaged BEFORE the last couple of pages happened.
⭐1.5 for the intrigue and the genuine potential that was not done any justice.
TWs: child abduction, ableism, intrusive thoughts typical to postpartum depression, semigraphic violence descriptions, a character being gaslit while in a vulnerable mental state, themes of infidelity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Ableism, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Dysphoria, Fatphobia, and Sexual assault
Minor: Death of parent
maseface's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Second time reading this book. I reread it because the first time I read it I wasn't on Storygraph and I wanted to log it on this site.
Firstly this isn't a bad mystery. I remember reading it the first time not knowing where it was going. Reading it back the 2nd time most things still make sense and there's only a couple of things that are weird once you know the ending.
My main problems with this book are some issues. For one thing this book has a serious Madonna/Whore complex. All women in this book are either saintly mothers who only care about their children, or evil sexually promiscuous witches who hate children. The way how they talk about the latter is incredibly malicious. It's sad that this is written by a woman because these depictions are seriously outdated and need to change. Women characters should be so much more.
Speaking of outdated depictions this book's portrayal of mental health is pretty problematic. I'm not an expert on mental health and I only suffer from depression and anxiety. But I can tell this is terrible representation portraying mentally ill people as violent and dangerous.
This might be something I noticed on only my second readthrough but I despise Marco. What he puts his wife through is unforgivable? He knew his wife had depression and subjects to an absolutely nightmarish situation.
I'm going to be reading another Shari Lapena book soon. I hope the next one is better. It's more recent so maybe her depictions are slightly more empathetic.
Firstly this isn't a bad mystery. I remember reading it the first time not knowing where it was going. Reading it back the 2nd time most things still make sense and there's only a couple of things that are weird once you know the ending.
My main problems with this book are some issues. For one thing this book has a serious Madonna/Whore complex. All women in this book are either saintly mothers who only care about their children, or evil sexually promiscuous witches who hate children. The way how they talk about the latter is incredibly malicious. It's sad that this is written by a woman because these depictions are seriously outdated and need to change. Women characters should be so much more.
Speaking of outdated depictions this book's portrayal of mental health is pretty problematic. I'm not an expert on mental health and I only suffer from depression and anxiety. But I can tell this is terrible representation portraying mentally ill people as violent and dangerous.
I'm going to be reading another Shari Lapena book soon. I hope the next one is better. It's more recent so maybe her depictions are slightly more empathetic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Ableism
maryy_r0se's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
"Her thoughts speed up and become less rational; her mind makes fantastic leaps. It's not that things don't make sense to her when she's like this — sometimes they make 'more' sense. They make sense the way dreams do. It's only when the dream is over that you see how odd it all was, how it actually didn't make sense at all."
When Marco and Anne come home from a dinner party to find their baby daughter missing, their world is turned upside-down. Unsure what is true or who to trust, the couple must try to somehow get their baby back before it's too late.
When Marco and Anne come home from a dinner party to find their baby daughter missing, their world is turned upside-down. Unsure what is true or who to trust, the couple must try to somehow get their baby back before it's too late.
Well. I guess we should start with the good parts. Unfortunately, there aren't many.
This book definitely kept my interest. It was a very quick read. Anne was overall a decent main character and relatively sympathetic. It was clear that the author spent much more time developing her than the other two main narrators. Cynthia and Alice had potential as well, but it never amounted to much.
Now my issues. This story is about the kidnapping of a baby, yet somehow the stakes always feel low, even when they absolutely shouldn’t. Marco is about as interesting as a flat tire and as sympathetic as a mosquito bite. He’s the less interesting version of Nick Dunne. Even his scandals, which are objectively bad, feel boring because he’s such a charisma vacuum. Detective Rasbach is a complete caricature of the “no nonsense” detective. I honestly don’t know why he was a primary narrator. His narration adds little, and maybe if we weren’t able to follow his thoughts the story could have built more tension. There’s a flicker of interest with this character near the end, when we learn that he grew up blue collar and this affects the way he investigates the case of this extremely wealthy family. Where was this story?? Suddenly Rasbach is slightly interesting, but this disclosure amounts to be nothing more than a few throwaway lines.
Richard also felt like a cartoon. Alice was almost interesting, but we got so little of her that it didn’t amount to much. While Cynthia had potential, she was ultimately lifeless and lacked direction. Her blatant hatred of children felt truly outlandish. Some twists surprised me, but none of them shocked me. The writing style wasn’t necessarily bad, but definitely wasn’t for me. If the book was written in present tense to build some sort of urgency, it certainly failed. All it did was distract.
But by far my biggest problem with this book is it’s downright offensive handling of mental illness. Anne is struggling with postpartum depression. On several occasions, the book assures the audience that postpartum depression does not automatically lead to harming a child. Okay. Great.
So what’s the issue?
This book goes out of its way to make sure the reader knows that Anne has postpartum depression, not postpartum psychosis. See, postpartum depression doesn’t mean you’re dangerous, but postpartum psychosis, oh boy. All three of the book’s narrators explicitly express that postpartum psychosis makes someone dangerous, and nothing ever counters this statement. I thought this might be addressed when the story progresses and it becomes clear that Anne’s mental illness extends beyond postpartum depression. Nope. Instead we find out that her dissociation caused her to attacked a classmate in high school and also she probably hits her baby. Oh, and then she murders Cynthia. All while dissociating. So according to this book, not only will psychosis make you drown your babies, but dissociation will make you stab your neighbor.
This book in general was just hugely disappointing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Ableism
Moderate: Child abuse and Infidelity
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