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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
fast-paced
5 stars for the wholesome ending, 3 stars for the killer reveal, 4 stars for a well integrated use of pov switching.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
This shit was low key so sad
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I am a fast reader, and a book like this should have taken a few days to read, at most a week. But I found myself putting it down and having no urge to pick it back up again for days. It took me almost three weeks to finish this book. I had several issues with this book.
The Middle of the Night is told in dual timelines. Present day, Ethan is living in his childhood home for the first time in thirty years. He is completely, and understandably, traumatized by Billy’s kidnapping. The worst part is that he doesn’t know what happened that night. He was asleep and didn’t see anything or he blocked it out. Billy’s remains are found less than a mile from their home and strange occurrences start happening around the house. Ethan is positive it's Billy’s ghost trying to get him to find out what happened to him. As Ethan searches for clues, flashbacks from the day Billy went missing are scattered throughout the story. Each flashback is told from a different person, but mostly it’s Ethan's POV. It’s a good setup for a story about a thirty-year mystery, but it somehow doesn’t work. We go from the present day to flashbacks. I thought some of the flashbacks weren’t necessary for the story. Also, the timing of some was off. Just when I would start to get invested in the present day, I was thrown back into a flashback. The same went with the flashbacks; I would like the POV of that character, and then the next flashback would be someone else.
The characters. I did not like Ethan. I understand what he went through was traumatic, and he’s got a lot of issues. But every time he found a little nugget of information, he would jump to conclusions and confront the person about it like a bull in a China closet. He would realize that he was wrong and just move on. This got repetitive and boring. The rest of the characters were either okay or forgettable, except for Henry, whom I loved. At one point, I had to go back to figure out who someone was. I didn’t remember which one of the neighbors he was.
The ghosts. This aspect of the story could have been developed more. I wanted more things to happen that could have been paranormal and not easily explained away.
The twists. I did not guess the first twist, but it wasn’t necessary. It was more for shock value than adding to the story. The second twist was utterly predictable. I guessed it very early on, and it was not jaw-droppingly shocking. The third twist/reveal was anticlimactic. After we found out the truth, I thought, 'That makes total sense.' Again, not shocking.
This is my first Riley Sager book. Although I found this to be boring and predictable, I will give him another chance.
Stars: 2.5 stars ⭐️⭐️
Spice: 0
Eyeroll: 3🙄 🙄🙄
Genre: Thriller
Series: No
Format: Hardcover
Narrator: NA
Narrator Rating: NA
Cliffhanger: No
The Middle of the Night is told in dual timelines. Present day, Ethan is living in his childhood home for the first time in thirty years. He is completely, and understandably, traumatized by Billy’s kidnapping. The worst part is that he doesn’t know what happened that night. He was asleep and didn’t see anything or he blocked it out. Billy’s remains are found less than a mile from their home and strange occurrences start happening around the house. Ethan is positive it's Billy’s ghost trying to get him to find out what happened to him. As Ethan searches for clues, flashbacks from the day Billy went missing are scattered throughout the story. Each flashback is told from a different person, but mostly it’s Ethan's POV. It’s a good setup for a story about a thirty-year mystery, but it somehow doesn’t work. We go from the present day to flashbacks. I thought some of the flashbacks weren’t necessary for the story. Also, the timing of some was off. Just when I would start to get invested in the present day, I was thrown back into a flashback. The same went with the flashbacks; I would like the POV of that character, and then the next flashback would be someone else.
The characters. I did not like Ethan. I understand what he went through was traumatic, and he’s got a lot of issues. But every time he found a little nugget of information, he would jump to conclusions and confront the person about it like a bull in a China closet. He would realize that he was wrong and just move on. This got repetitive and boring. The rest of the characters were either okay or forgettable, except for Henry, whom I loved. At one point, I had to go back to figure out who someone was. I didn’t remember which one of the neighbors he was.
The ghosts. This aspect of the story could have been developed more. I wanted more things to happen that could have been paranormal and not easily explained away.
The twists. I did not guess the first twist, but it wasn’t necessary. It was more for shock value than adding to the story. The second twist was utterly predictable. I guessed it very early on, and it was not jaw-droppingly shocking. The third twist/reveal was anticlimactic. After we found out the truth, I thought, 'That makes total sense.' Again, not shocking.
This is my first Riley Sager book. Although I found this to be boring and predictable, I will give him another chance.
Stars: 2.5 stars ⭐️⭐️
Spice: 0
Eyeroll: 3🙄 🙄🙄
Genre: Thriller
Series: No
Format: Hardcover
Narrator: NA
Narrator Rating: NA
Cliffhanger: No
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced