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_chelseachelsea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
To review it properly makes spoilers inevitable, so if you’re reading this BEFORE you’ve read STN, I’ll leave you with this: nothing about this book is what you expect; that means you are going to be both delightfully engaged and incredibly frustrated.
Spoilers begin below.
And when Marge, desperate and angry, asked Charlie to kill her, I was totally bought-in on the drama. I even thought to myself, “It’s good that the true identity of the Campus Killer is still a mystery. That’s realistic. In real life people often don’t find out who killed their loved ones.”
Then Sager fucked it up.
The big “Robbie is the killer” twist felt forced, rushed, and ridiculous. Charlie dated this man for a year and didn’t recognize him from behind when he approached Maddy? Maddy herself didn’t yell out “Charlie wait, Robbie’s here!” when she saw him? Robbie, the ruthless killer, didn’t overpower Marge the second he realized she was lying about Charlie in the diner? It just didn’t line up for me. There’s nothing I hate more in a thriller than a forced last-minute twist, and leaving the CK a mystery would have paid off so much better. Charlie could have parted ways with Robbie as friends and still ended up with Josh/Jake.
Speaking of, that’s my second plot beef. Why does Charlie need to end up with Josh/Jake? In what world would that relationship be healthy? Trauma-bond romances in thrillers are getting very old.
But here’s the real conflict for me as a reader. Sager does some things with the narrative in this novel that are, as I said above, both the greatest strengths and biggest weaknesses of the book.
Let’s start with the use of unreliable narrators. Sager really impressed me on this one. Typically a book is able to pull off one, maybe two UN’s in a single story, but every single narrator in STN novel turns out to be one, right down to “Charlie” herself (who, I guess, was actually Movie Charlie?)
But the problem with the main line of narration being a movie version of what actually happened is that a) we’re left with no idea if we ever got any real insight into our protagonist and what her actual experiences were, and b) we’re left deeply confused about what actually happened. If there was no fire, for example, then how did the climax actually play out? Were the scenes between Charlie and Maddy genuine, or were they made up to add emotional depth to the “movie”?
And therein lies my biggest frustration. I think the “you’ve secretly been reading the Hollywood version of events this whole time” twist was creative and well-executed - it certainly took a lot of literary gymnastics to pull off - but I also feel robbed of Charlie’s story. The tears I shed over the surprisingly poignant moments when she’s lost in a memory of Maddy feel cheap, like Sager wanted me to be caught up in the emotion only to yank it out from under me. The thrill of the big climax and the plot twists and the gasps I let out feel even cheaper, because I (like Charlie) don’t know what was real and what wasn’t.
And all of this begs the question - did Sager trick us out of love, or spite? By feeding us a thriller that hits many familiar notes and leans into film tropes, is he trying to say he’s smarter than us? Does he want us to feel duped and stupid for buying into it? Or is he simply making a general statement about the dramatization of reality?
Sager’s author’s note explains that this novel is a love letter to cinema, but to me the final twist felt like a middle finger to us: the audience members who ate up the bullshit he was feeding us without thinking twice; the morons who trusted every narrator he presented, believed his version of events, and fell for his big trick.
No matter how clever that trick was, it still feels like antagonization.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Cancer, Gore, Gun violence, and Car accident
ericarao's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, and Murder
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt
theidlereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, and Terminal illness
Minor: Rape
unboxedjack's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, and Gaslighting
Minor: Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
writtenbydnicole's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
kris386's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, and Car accident
Moderate: Death, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Minor: Cancer, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, and Suicide attempt
blakethebookeater's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Terminal illness and Alcohol
sfbookgirl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent