982 reviews for:

The Spare Room

Andrea Bartz

3.04 AVERAGE

jelkebooks's profile picture

jelkebooks's review

1.0
mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This took me a while to rate. I just went back and forth on the rating for quite some time. I have to say that a one star rating seemed a bit harsh for me. I didn't absolutely hate this book. That being said I truly do not have a single postive thought about this book. It was just so extremely underwhelming. I still can't wrap my head around it. So I still landed on a one star rating.
I do have to say this started off alright to me. Overall it was an extremely slow read. Almost nothing happened in this book. At the start that was alright, because there was this undercurrent of something's not right here. It kept me engaged enough to start reading. However, with a start like that you really need to stick the landing, and this book didn't do that. 
For starters, the actual mystery didn't really come into play until like the 75% mark. It took us so damn long to get there, and the characters themselves weren't engaging enough to keep the book going for me. Kelly in particular was just an exhausting character to be in the POV from. But then we actually get into the thick of it, and it's so incredibly dragged out. There were like 3 different points where I thought this book could perfectly end but it just kept going. This also meant that the reveals just felt extremely lackluster as well. They came out of nowhere, and (in my opinion) just weren't satisfactionary answers to the questions raised through the book. By the end this just became a shore to read. 
So yeah, this book just really didn't work for me. I think that's a shame because this book did sound incredibly interesting to me. I just feel like this failed to deliver on every single front. There truly wasn't a single thing I liked. 

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tms792's review

2.0

Honestly not sure what I just read. That said - major props to the author for the twist.

kokokiero's review

1.75
tense medium-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

queen_tassy's review

3.0

I was obsessed with this book by the halfway mark, not wanting to sleep or take breaks because I just HAD to know the answers. After that though, everything fell forced… until the twist; but at that point I was no longer invested in the story so it made no real difference. All in all, mid.
mysterious
cherrycorner's profile picture

cherrycorner's review

2.0
slow-paced
julia091's profile picture

julia091's review

3.5
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

hmetwade's review

1.75
dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark tense 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

It had moments of tension that kept me reading but overall the plot felt too jumbled for my taste. The plot twist came out of nowhere and honestly felt contrived. I hated every character in this book at one point so I wasn’t all that invested either, unfortunately 
dark mysterious slow-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