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nrogers_1030's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
There were wayyy too many characters for my brain to keep up with.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Gun violence
bookishmillennial's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
Thank you to Sourcebooks for the ARC - I am providing an honest review on my own accord.
Okay, I understand that thrillers and horror can sometimes introduce characters that you are essentially rooting for their demise. I read a lot of horror and thrillers so I understand we need a few people that are wildly unlikeable. However, I did not like anyone in this book, and maybe that is entirely intentional! Maybe that is the point!
The racism, sexism, and anti-unhoused attitudes displayed from multiple characters continued to take me out of the story though. The main character Therese thinks condescendingly about Lorelei, an unhoused person who is called "crazy" probably about 700 million times. She also says, "If I would have guessed that the homeless addict who lived in the park would be the person with the best theory about the killer...." and this continued flippant and glib description is just .... not it.
There's also a section where Therese is first introduced to Wendy, an Asian American woman, and admits to having racist thoughts about her (assuming she was friends with the one other Asian person) and then thinks of her as "exotic". Again, I understand these are not people you root for. However, Therese is posited as our "final girl" so actually .... yes, I'm supposed to root for her! *sigh*
Regardless of the -isms, I really didn't feel the clues pointing to the killer were woven in cleverly at all. We just are given an info-dump of the final reveal in the last few pages, which I find to be frustrating and lackluster. She left, she came back, and she solves the murders from 20 years ago, but I have no idea how because I was not given any viable hints throughout this story.
cw: murder, gun violence, injuries, sexism, racism, classism, anti-unhoused attitudes, blood, child death, cursing, death, homophobia, kidnapping, suicide (*the murderer makes it look like a suicide*)
Thank you to Sourcebooks for the ARC - I am providing an honest review on my own accord.
Okay, I understand that thrillers and horror can sometimes introduce characters that you are essentially rooting for their demise. I read a lot of horror and thrillers so I understand we need a few people that are wildly unlikeable. However, I did not like anyone in this book, and maybe that is entirely intentional! Maybe that is the point!
The racism, sexism, and anti-unhoused attitudes displayed from multiple characters continued to take me out of the story though. The main character Therese thinks condescendingly about Lorelei, an unhoused person who is called "crazy" probably about 700 million times. She also says, "If I would have guessed that the homeless addict who lived in the park would be the person with the best theory about the killer...." and this continued flippant and glib description is just .... not it.
There's also a section where Therese is first introduced to Wendy, an Asian American woman, and admits to having racist thoughts about her (assuming she was friends with the one other Asian person) and then thinks of her as "exotic". Again, I understand these are not people you root for. However, Therese is posited as our "final girl" so actually .... yes, I'm supposed to root for her! *sigh*
Regardless of the -isms, I really didn't feel the clues pointing to the killer were woven in cleverly at all. We just are given an info-dump of the final reveal in the last few pages, which I find to be frustrating and lackluster. She left, she came back, and she solves the murders from 20 years ago, but I have no idea how because I was not given any viable hints throughout this story.
cw: murder, gun violence, injuries, sexism, racism, classism, anti-unhoused attitudes, blood, child death, cursing, death, homophobia, kidnapping, suicide (*the murderer makes it look like a suicide*)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Cursing, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Sexism, Classism, Murder, Blood, Death, Suicide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
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