Take a photo of a barcode or cover
“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive, and will come forth later, in uglier ways. —SIGMUND FREUD”
Well, this was quite a thriller indeed! I was hooked. I read this in three sittings. The first half was slow, but the second half really picked things up. Even though the twist surprised me, I'm not sure if I like it that much. I feel like I should have picked up on it earlier.
Graphic: Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Sexual harassment
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Alcohol
Graphic: Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder
Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Stalking, Car accident, Toxic friendship
In the positive column, it’s an easy read that does tend to pull you in. The chapters are short, and things do move at a pretty decent pace, but that’s kind of the end of it. It’s engrossing and it makes you want to know the answers, but the content is kind of off putting.
All of the characters are flawed in very overt ways. There’s not much subtlety or even really attempts at redemption. Everyone is kind of awful. A lot of the scenes were frustrating, too. While the brief chapters were engaging, they often felt cut off too soon. As Theo was interviewing people from Alicia’s life, I’d find myself wanting him to ask more (or sometimes any) questions, but he was already leaving. He seemed irritated with having to talk to people to find answers to this mystery that he inserted himself into.
Also the ending was honestly kind of dumb now that I think about it, to the point that it’s inspired me to add a spoiler warning. The ONLY reason we know what happened, because of the structure of the story and the writing style, is because Alicia writes it down in her diary. So Theo gives her a potentially fatal overdose of morphine, then leaves her alone long enough to write several pages about what he did? He didn’t take the diary with him? He didn’t even wait until she fell asleep? Hell, the whole thing was going to leave him completely unimplicated until his own obsession took him back to the scene of the crime.
I think half the goal of the twist is to get you, the reader, to reread the book with the new knowledge of Theo. It does successfully upend the entire narrative in an interesting way, it’s just missing something along the way. I found myself more annoyed than amazed.
On the flip side, I ended up reading almost half the book in one sitting last night and stayed up until 2 am to finish it, so it’s certainly engaging.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Alcohol
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Drug abuse, Murder
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness
Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, Stalking
Minor: Sexual content
I will say you can guess the twist if you’ve read enough of the genre but it didn’t take away the enjoyment from the story.
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder
A great audiobook for a long road trip.
Moderate: Drug abuse, Stalking, Murder
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Abandonment