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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
The idea was intriguing but there were so many characters and it was told from so many perspectives that it was really hard to keep track of what was happening.
If you're expecting another "The Girl On the Train," adjust your thinking.
"It has to get better," I thought.
No. It doesn't and it didn't.
Despite all the skipping around from the too many characters needlessly involved in this tale, the biggest problem is there isn't much of a story. Women are drowning in the river. Suicide, murder? The characters are all over the place and there is no real cohesion or explanation for anything.
Yes, there is a cliffhanger ending - who really killed Nel? But we knew halfway in so it was just a lazy ending to keep promoting these 'surprise ending' novels that are getting too much press.
If you absolutely have to read it, save yourself the $ and borrow from the library or a friend.
"It has to get better," I thought.
No. It doesn't and it didn't.
Despite all the skipping around from the too many characters needlessly involved in this tale, the biggest problem is there isn't much of a story. Women are drowning in the river. Suicide, murder? The characters are all over the place and there is no real cohesion or explanation for anything.
Yes, there is a cliffhanger ending - who really killed Nel? But we knew halfway in so it was just a lazy ending to keep promoting these 'surprise ending' novels that are getting too much press.
If you absolutely have to read it, save yourself the $ and borrow from the library or a friend.
Just couldn't get past the first few chapters. It seemed so unimaginative and maybe I should have pushed through or maybe it wasn't for me just at that time.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 stars. I truly don’t understand my reading experience with this novel, since I was entertained and I read it fast despite barely anything happening in it.
I’m going to start talking about the point of views. There were too many and at first it was unnecessarily confusing; then I got more used to it but still sometimes I had to go back to the begging of the chapter to check who was narrating. That’s my main issue, many of the voices were interchangeable, and they lacked something to make them distinct. And the thing is that so many points of view weren’t necessary, in fact they added little to the story. I think that if we had gotten just a couple of points of view, or all of them in third person except for one in first one, the novel would have improved significantly. The addition of Nel’s book pages, while interesting, stalled an already fractured story and they didn’t manage to draw enough similarities with the main plot for them to be relevant.
As for the characters, I consider Julia and Lena the main ones in the sea of characters with a point of view in the novel. Julia was really useless, and while her tragic backstory linked well with the plot, gave us an insight of what Nel was like and also gave Julia some deepness, her actions through the novel and her mental state added little to the main plot; many times I found myself wanting to scream to her face to do something or at least to move aside. Lena was even more unlikable to me than Julia, she at least made the plot move, but having to read her thoughts made me so tired, I tried but I couldn’t like her, not even as a character you are supposed to dislike. The rest of the characters felt quite unidimensional; not because the third person narrator was reserved to them (wasn’t the case always), but because they never did or said anything to make them stand out. In the end, the more interesting characters for me were Helen and Patrick, but only when they interacted, because you could smell something rotten about their relationships. Nickie could have been a very interesting one, but she was wasted with just being a crazy mean old lady to everyone and never telling anything in a straight way when she seemed to have all the answers and supposedly she wanted to help.
When it comes to the plot, I have to ask, what plot? Like I said somehow I enjoyed reading this novel, but barely anything happens. It was ridiculous how they never found anything that could point to Nel’s death not being an accident or a suicide, and yet her death was the main mystery of the novel. I think that it would have worked better if at some point of the novel they had found some signs of foul play, instead of keeping the reader wondering when it would happen. There wasn’t any real suspense, because there wasn’t a real mystery; at some point I wondered if this was going to be more of a drama than a thriller. And that’s the thing; this novel is advertised as a thriller but nothing exciting happens. If I was told it was a drama about the relationships of a dysfunctional family hit by disgrace and the workings of a small village, I would have enjoyed it better.
There was also that random subplot with Mark and Katie that at least made for some thrilling investigation, but the conclusion of it, with that final over the top confrontation between Mark and Lena, was a bit too much for me. I’m kind of upset that we don’t get to know what happened to Mark, at least through Lena’s thoughts, it may have gave us an insight into why her personality gave a 180º turn.
The conclusion of the main plot wasn’t any better. It was quite predictable, both Patrick’s and Sean’s implication. The fact that there was no investigation, clues or anything to bring suspense that lead us to that moment, and the fact that Patrick confessed out of nowhere, made the ending even more lukewarm.
Giving it a thought I think the reason I kind of liked reading this novel is the way it was written and also that, all in all, the author managed to create an eerie stage for the novel, including the whole urban legend regarding the drowned women. The drama was also good, and as I said, if the novel just focused on it and dwelled more on it, it would have been a good one. It is a shame that this novel had so little to offer otherwise; with some changes this could have been an amazing thriller, the base was there.
I’m going to start talking about the point of views. There were too many and at first it was unnecessarily confusing; then I got more used to it but still sometimes I had to go back to the begging of the chapter to check who was narrating. That’s my main issue, many of the voices were interchangeable, and they lacked something to make them distinct. And the thing is that so many points of view weren’t necessary, in fact they added little to the story. I think that if we had gotten just a couple of points of view, or all of them in third person except for one in first one, the novel would have improved significantly. The addition of Nel’s book pages, while interesting, stalled an already fractured story and they didn’t manage to draw enough similarities with the main plot for them to be relevant.
As for the characters, I consider Julia and Lena the main ones in the sea of characters with a point of view in the novel. Julia was really useless, and while her tragic backstory linked well with the plot, gave us an insight of what Nel was like and also gave Julia some deepness, her actions through the novel and her mental state added little to the main plot; many times I found myself wanting to scream to her face to do something or at least to move aside. Lena was even more unlikable to me than Julia, she at least made the plot move, but having to read her thoughts made me so tired, I tried but I couldn’t like her, not even as a character you are supposed to dislike. The rest of the characters felt quite unidimensional; not because the third person narrator was reserved to them (wasn’t the case always), but because they never did or said anything to make them stand out. In the end, the more interesting characters for me were Helen and Patrick, but only when they interacted, because you could smell something rotten about their relationships. Nickie could have been a very interesting one, but she was wasted with just being a crazy mean old lady to everyone and never telling anything in a straight way when she seemed to have all the answers and supposedly she wanted to help.
When it comes to the plot, I have to ask, what plot? Like I said somehow I enjoyed reading this novel, but barely anything happens. It was ridiculous how they never found anything that could point to Nel’s death not being an accident or a suicide, and yet her death was the main mystery of the novel. I think that it would have worked better if at some point of the novel they had found some signs of foul play, instead of keeping the reader wondering when it would happen. There wasn’t any real suspense, because there wasn’t a real mystery; at some point I wondered if this was going to be more of a drama than a thriller. And that’s the thing; this novel is advertised as a thriller but nothing exciting happens. If I was told it was a drama about the relationships of a dysfunctional family hit by disgrace and the workings of a small village, I would have enjoyed it better.
There was also that random subplot with Mark and Katie that at least made for some thrilling investigation, but the conclusion of it, with that final over the top confrontation between Mark and Lena, was a bit too much for me. I’m kind of upset that we don’t get to know what happened to Mark, at least through Lena’s thoughts, it may have gave us an insight into why her personality gave a 180º turn.
The conclusion of the main plot wasn’t any better. It was quite predictable, both Patrick’s and Sean’s implication. The fact that there was no investigation, clues or anything to bring suspense that lead us to that moment, and the fact that Patrick confessed out of nowhere, made the ending even more lukewarm.
Giving it a thought I think the reason I kind of liked reading this novel is the way it was written and also that, all in all, the author managed to create an eerie stage for the novel, including the whole urban legend regarding the drowned women. The drama was also good, and as I said, if the novel just focused on it and dwelled more on it, it would have been a good one. It is a shame that this novel had so little to offer otherwise; with some changes this could have been an amazing thriller, the base was there.
Not even 10% of the way in and there're already too many narrative voices - I feel some of them could've been introduced at a later point. also a lot of quite pointed "I'm putting this here for later" type foreshadowing, which felt more like each chapter was ending on a cliffhanger, than woven in storytelling?