Reviews

Jennifer Hillier has done it again - - she did not disappoint!! This book kept me engaged from page 1, it kept me guessing, and I couldn’t get to the end fast enough. SO GOOD!! I give this book 4.5 ⭐️s bc it was really good. Definitely recommend!!

allybarone65's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

justinkhchen's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5 stars

The beigest of beige, Things We Do in the Dark is inoffensive, and a fine way to pass the time, but it is also one of the most middle-of-the-road thriller I've read this year.

The biggest pitfall with Things We Do in the Dark is that it hooks you in with a very strong beginning, then does a 180 and reveals it is just a framing device for a second plot line that is much less interesting. The crux of the book, about the straining relationship between a daughter and her abusive mother, never truly engages on an emotional level. Not only does that make explicit showing of abuse coming across a bit exploitative, the absence of empathy from the reader has a domino effect on the overall experience — I feel unbothered even when characters make critical, plot-turning decisions.

It also suffers from being overly predictable when it comes to its reveals. Things We Do in the Dark features a lot of the classic thriller tropes, and plays them way too safe (especially for seasoned readers). When the plot sets up two girls being identical looking, and has the same tattoos, there are only so many ways this scenarios can play out, and neither of them is worth 100+ pages of build up. Like a deflating balloon, it also ends on a shockingly tepid note. As if the author simply needed to wrap things up and hand over the manuscript, major plot points were resolved in the most banal ways ('undetermined' is never an exciting answer), tonally things get extremely melodramatic and cheesy, in sharp contrast to the more realistic tone from earlier.

Having listened to the audiobook, Carla Vega's performance is a definite highlight, whose lively delivery managed to keep me focused even when I was mentally checked out of the story itself. Overall, mediocrity is the word to describe Things We Do in the Dark — I can't praise it or despise it in a passionate way, it simply just exists.

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**