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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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infidelity, Torture, Vomit
Minor: Infertility
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Eerie and claustrophobic with a mystery more layered than an onion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Death, Infidelity, Torture, Vomit, Stalking, Car accident
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Holy cow, I didn’t see that coming from one million miles away. Talk about a twist! Before I got to the plot twist, I thought the book wasn’t bad, probably just your average thriller. The last 20% of the book completely changed my mind. Frieda wrote this in such a way that I literally said “wtf” because there was no way you knew that was how this would end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Torture, Stalking, Murder
Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
While I only called part of the twists, I still like the way we got there for the most part. Writing was a little childish, but that might be for the sake of the characters' loose grips on reality. It definitely had suspense and kept me reading and wondering how it would all unfold. And like I said, I was surprised at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Confinement, Vomit, Gaslighting, Alcohol
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I was so freakin convinced I knew who the bad guy was and I was SO wrong! What a wild ride. I loved the short chapters, it made the book fly by and as usual the mystery aspect was on point. Definitely a good thriller.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
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
I know this book gets high ratings, so I’m willing to admit that perhaps it just wasn’t my cup of tea, (and that’s totally okay). This was my first Frieda McFadden book and I’d be willing to give another one a try just to have a basis for comparison.
I’m giving 2 and a half stars in acknowledgment of the fact that the “whodunnit” towards the book’s end was twisty and did catch me by surprise. But the characters were, for me, so unbelievable and unlikeable that I couldn’t even bring myself to care. Perhaps the twists would have hit much harder if I could have.
The beginning felt very repetitive to me with Tricia’s declarations of how wonderful her new husband was, and certain details of the story that were hammered home again and again. Now that I’ve read the end, I understand that these details were repeated on purpose to draw your attention to a particular place, and make you think one thing was going on, while it was really a wholly different thing altogether, a bit of literary sleight-of-hand, if you will.
Although, I give stars because McFadden pulled it off and I didn’t guess correctly, in part, this was because the characters’ actions just seemed so far fetched. Even if you account for the fact that extreme mental illness and psychopathy could account for seemingly incomprehensible and over-the-top courses of action that result in a domino-effect of terrible events, surely not all the characters in the book are this disturbed.
It seems the book wanted to venture into the premise that all human beings are capable of terribly dark acts given the right circumstances. Perhaps this is true, but the circumstances that caused these characters to give in to their worst impulses were, in my opinion, fairly low-stakes. (This was not the case for all of them), but was so often enough for me to find it highly unlikely and therefore lacking believability.
That said, it was a quick read. I was able to finish it in one afternoon with plenty of breaks taken, so if you’re looking for a fast-paced, thriller read covering the themes of psychology/Psychiatry, mental illness, a grand spooky house in the middle of nowhere, a stalker and blackmail and human beings behaving at their worst, then this book just may be for you, and hopefully you’ll like it more than I did.
I’m giving 2 and a half stars in acknowledgment of the fact that the “whodunnit” towards the book’s end was twisty and did catch me by surprise. But the characters were, for me, so unbelievable and unlikeable that I couldn’t even bring myself to care. Perhaps the twists would have hit much harder if I could have.
The beginning felt very repetitive to me with Tricia’s declarations of how wonderful her new husband was, and certain details of the story that were hammered home again and again. Now that I’ve read the end, I understand that these details were repeated on purpose to draw your attention to a particular place, and make you think one thing was going on, while it was really a wholly different thing altogether, a bit of literary sleight-of-hand, if you will.
Although, I give stars because McFadden pulled it off and I didn’t guess correctly, in part, this was because the characters’ actions just seemed so far fetched. Even if you account for the fact that extreme mental illness and psychopathy could account for seemingly incomprehensible and over-the-top courses of action that result in a domino-effect of terrible events, surely not all the characters in the book are this disturbed.
It seems the book wanted to venture into the premise that all human beings are capable of terribly dark acts given the right circumstances. Perhaps this is true, but the circumstances that caused these characters to give in to their worst impulses were, in my opinion, fairly low-stakes. (This was not the case for all of them), but was so often enough for me to find it highly unlikely and therefore lacking believability.
That said, it was a quick read. I was able to finish it in one afternoon with plenty of breaks taken, so if you’re looking for a fast-paced, thriller read covering the themes of psychology/Psychiatry, mental illness, a grand spooky house in the middle of nowhere, a stalker and blackmail and human beings behaving at their worst, then this book just may be for you, and hopefully you’ll like it more than I did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy
Minor: Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a good one! I thought it was kind of slow but had so many smaller plots within the big plot that it kept my interested. Oh my goodness the ending was something I never saw coming! I kept trying to figure out the twist but never imagined what actually happened, even though after I found out, it seemed obvious! It was a very sinister ending…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder
Moderate: Vomit, Pregnancy
Minor: Torture, Alcohol