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3.15 AVERAGE
3.15 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Guessed who had done it pretty early on.. kept me interested throughout.
Jason's boss goes away to London to grieve his wife's death and returns with a new, very young wife. Marcie. who had an affair with Jason Maddox and then he divorced his wife and married her, instantly feels jealous as she sees her husband eyeing Keisha. Marcie has always felt insecure because she didn't come from old money. Therefore, she may have married into this world of wealth but she’ll never be part of it. But when things start happening that could jeopardize all that she has worked hard to achieve, she will stop at nothing to hold on to it.
I loved the storyline of this book. It kept me engrossed and wanting to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. My only complaint is that I felt that Marcie and Keisha's characters came across as flat to me. Other than that it was an excellent book, and I loved the twist at the end. Definitely worth the read!
I loved the storyline of this book. It kept me engrossed and wanting to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. My only complaint is that I felt that Marcie and Keisha's characters came across as flat to me. Other than that it was an excellent book, and I loved the twist at the end. Definitely worth the read!
This was boring, it was confusing, and it was also just a big yikes.
I want to like Sarah Pinborough because Behind Her Eyes was SO good for me. But Cross Her Heart was fine but nothing special and Dead to Her was just actually offensive and bad.
The characters' racial identities were used as a cheap plot device instead of an actual commentary on racism or racial issues, and while I can't personally speak to the representation of Voodoo in this book, I'm willing to bet that it should have not been handled the way it was.
Do yourself a favor and don't read this.
I want to like Sarah Pinborough because Behind Her Eyes was SO good for me. But Cross Her Heart was fine but nothing special and Dead to Her was just actually offensive and bad.
The characters' racial identities were used as a cheap plot device instead of an actual commentary on racism or racial issues, and while I can't personally speak to the representation of Voodoo in this book, I'm willing to bet that it should have not been handled the way it was.
Do yourself a favor and don't read this.
Marcie has good reason to suspect her husband for his wandering eye. It's only logical since she's the second wife once mistress. After her hard work to marry a man who she thought would give her everything she never had, Marcie will do anything to prevent a third wife. In comes Keisha to this Southern high society. She's younger, funnier, and different. Yet, when Keisha's much older new husband lands himself in a coma, there's foul play amongst a cast of vengeful elites.
I can say that this is not a good mystery by any means. With poor red herrings that have absolutely nothing to contribute to the story, we get a bloated plot. What remains is a simple case of revenge best served cold and I mean Arctic because there is hardly any mention of this possible motive until 90% of the way through. It baffles me the only way to conceal who did it was to not even write them in the story. Maybe I'm being too harsh because the culprit was always there lurking in the background except there were no clues to point of a sordid past. No photograph or memento. You know, the usual artifacts to tie in voodoo into this. And when I say voodoo, I mean a pale imitation hardly meriting since it just seems like careful planning disguised as magic.
While every character is flawed and commits their own crimes, the book attempts to suggest they get what they deserve. People make choices, how it's possible you'll have to suspend disbelief, to save themselves. What I like most about this book is the twist with Keisha and Marcie. It was a nice respite and I thought the story would go down a much more believable path. However, characters like Marcie won't allow a nice ending. She is after all a dead woman walking. I recommend this for hard core fans of the genre and won't feel fatigued of another intrepid murder mystery.
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
First of all I want to applaud Sarah Pinborough for her ability to create stories that have such unique settings and characters. Each of her thrillers have a super unique vibe and feeling to them. With that said, I loved her book Behind Her Eyes and really didn't like Cross Her Heart. This was another one that I didn't really feel much for. It kept my attention but it just didn't have any kind of pay off in the end. I had thought Pinborough was an auto-buy author but after her last two books have left me feeling meh, I might give her one more chance but sadly might have to accept that her books just aren't for me.
Well, I’m officially done with this author. I really enjoyed her first thriller with a unique twist, but her second and third (this one) were meh.
Let me just preface this review by saying domestic thrillers? Not really my thing. I knew that going into this book, but I've only really read one or two and I wanted to give them another try. I've also heard good things about Sarah Pinborough and was excited to try her as an author.
I would say this was overall an enjoyable read, but was, at times, a bit of a struggle to get through.
I feel like the first third of the book was, honestly, pretty unnecessary. This did NOT need to be 400 pages like whatsoever. I really thought things were going to pick up at the halfway mark, but that was not the case. It didn't pick up until the last third or even quarter of the book. The pacing was a bit off to say the least.
And I won't give any spoilers, but at the climax there was a lot of back and forth of what the reader was meant to believe and I really did not enjoy that part. It felt very clunky and convoluted. I also guessed the conclusion pretty early on, so maybe that had something to do with it.
There was also this cast of 'privileged white woman adding commentary on the privilege of white women while writing a character who is a privileged white woman' over the whole thing that was, I don't know, maybe meant to Mean something, but I sort of found the whole thing laughable.
Really though, as I was reading this, I wasn't having a bad time. I was interested to see where the story was going, what would happen next, etc, etc. What really got me was the ending, which is the name of the game with thrillers, I guess.
This book was trying to be smart. It was trying to be really, really smart, but it failed in that. And when you fail in your main objective as a book, that is detrimental to the reading experience.
That's my main gripe with this book. Yeah the plotting was messy in places, the pacing was...interesting, Pinborough lacked nuance in her addition of social commentary to the plot, but overall those things are whatever if a book delivers, and this just didn't. This was meant to be a thriller and I simply didn't find myself thrilled.
I would say this was overall an enjoyable read, but was, at times, a bit of a struggle to get through.
I feel like the first third of the book was, honestly, pretty unnecessary. This did NOT need to be 400 pages like whatsoever. I really thought things were going to pick up at the halfway mark, but that was not the case. It didn't pick up until the last third or even quarter of the book. The pacing was a bit off to say the least.
And I won't give any spoilers, but at the climax there was a lot of back and forth of what the reader was meant to believe and I really did not enjoy that part. It felt very clunky and convoluted. I also guessed the conclusion pretty early on, so maybe that had something to do with it.
There was also this cast of 'privileged white woman adding commentary on the privilege of white women while writing a character who is a privileged white woman' over the whole thing that was, I don't know, maybe meant to Mean something, but I sort of found the whole thing laughable.
Really though, as I was reading this, I wasn't having a bad time. I was interested to see where the story was going, what would happen next, etc, etc. What really got me was the ending, which is the name of the game with thrillers, I guess.
This book was trying to be smart. It was trying to be really, really smart, but it failed in that. And when you fail in your main objective as a book, that is detrimental to the reading experience.
That's my main gripe with this book. Yeah the plotting was messy in places, the pacing was...interesting, Pinborough lacked nuance in her addition of social commentary to the plot, but overall those things are whatever if a book delivers, and this just didn't. This was meant to be a thriller and I simply didn't find myself thrilled.