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busdjur's review
3.0
I wasn't really prepared for this not being a classic lovestory and it was a nice surprise. It was really thrilling to read this and see some of the darker shades a lovestory can involve..
biancarunswild's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
thebookmonger's review
4.0
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I couldn't put it down from the moment I started. The narrative moves at a quick pace, and you feel as though you are caught in the spiral of an unmistakably unhealthy affair. The writing comes across as very authentic, and draws on the dangerous fantasy that we all have lurking somewhere inside of us. However, after reading this novel, I appreciate my domestic, well-adjusted partner in life! Future readers, enjoy!
amy67's review
dark
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
2.0
ncrabb's review
4.0
It all begins as an incredible adventure into passion that gets more exhilarating with each passing moment. Alice Loudon lives a quiet London life. She has a relatively nondescript boyfriend with whom she lives, and friends who eagerly include her in their circle of activities.
That all changes on a fateful day when she exchanges a lingering look with a man who utterly shakes her up and rearranges every aspect of her life. They ultimately engage in a frothy quickie in his flat, and his skills as a love maker are apparently unparalleled. He is Adam, a mountain climber widely touted as a hero among other climbers for his work in saving a group of people on a particularly dangerous climb.
So completely smitten is Alice with Adam that she ends her relationship with the nondescript boyfriend, packs her things, and moves into Adam's place. As his darkening influence over her grows, her willingness to associate with others decreases until she is thoroughly isolated from the people and things that once mattered. Her life is filled with Adam, but in a dark twisted way. When she begins to express her fears and concerns, no one will listen to her. After all, the girl must be mad, right? He's the great hero--the real good guy. Her fear that he will some day kill her is mere paranoia on her part.
This is a gritty and dark story that all too many women will relate to in one way or another. The seemingly perfect man turns out to be the very personification of hell, but no one will listen to you or even take your side. This is a gripping psychologically suspenseful story of gradual horror and identity change. It is not Adam who has changed, but Alice herself. I was constantly reminded of the old experiment of placing the frog into the water and ever so gradually turning up the heat until the frog is dead. These authors skillfully turn up the heat ever so slowly, allowing you to see what is happening to Alice. So intricately is this dark tale woven that you find yourself engulfed in tension, hoping someone somewhere will listen to her. You'll also be left amazed and frightened at how easy it is to change one's identity in an abusive relationship. I would not be at all surprised that this became a Lifetime movie. It's exactly the kind of plot Lifetime would gravitate to, minus the low-budget cheesiness that is a trademark of Lifetime movies. Indeed, this is a jarring, disturbing story that will chill you and leave you shaken.
I would be fascinated to learn more about the authors's relationship to the London police. In all of their books I've read so far, the police are portrayed largely as ham-handed buffoons whose mistakes are legion and whose successes are almost matters of luck rather than skill.
I can't say that I always like the characters these authors create. They're all a bit quick to hit the sheets with whatever moves, and their propensity to smoke more and profane louder than anyone else in the room is legendary. That said, none of them are cookie-cutter one-dimensional people. There's a complicated darkness about these women, and their lives are written with such skill that you cheer for them and badly want them to succeed. You even find it easier than it should be to forgive them for those seemingly out-of-character acts of stupidity in which some of them engage from time to time. This book's title is appropriate indeed. So pillowy soft is the psychological shroud in which Alice is gradually wrapped that you will be deeply saddened at the change in Alice, highly sympathetic to her circumstances, and genuinely troubled by the reality that you almost certainly associate with women who, like Alice, are losing the very essence of self, paralyzed and helpless as that self--that identity is sucked into a hellish vortex of shadow and terror. French does a masterful job of subtly reminding you that women who are abuse victims aren't uneducated pathetic creatures who step blissfully and cluelessly into bad relationships. Instead, they are all too often beautiful, capable women who offer much to a world that won't extend a lifeline when that intelligence and beauty is overshadowed by fear and uncertainty.
That all changes on a fateful day when she exchanges a lingering look with a man who utterly shakes her up and rearranges every aspect of her life. They ultimately engage in a frothy quickie in his flat, and his skills as a love maker are apparently unparalleled. He is Adam, a mountain climber widely touted as a hero among other climbers for his work in saving a group of people on a particularly dangerous climb.
So completely smitten is Alice with Adam that she ends her relationship with the nondescript boyfriend, packs her things, and moves into Adam's place. As his darkening influence over her grows, her willingness to associate with others decreases until she is thoroughly isolated from the people and things that once mattered. Her life is filled with Adam, but in a dark twisted way. When she begins to express her fears and concerns, no one will listen to her. After all, the girl must be mad, right? He's the great hero--the real good guy. Her fear that he will some day kill her is mere paranoia on her part.
This is a gritty and dark story that all too many women will relate to in one way or another. The seemingly perfect man turns out to be the very personification of hell, but no one will listen to you or even take your side. This is a gripping psychologically suspenseful story of gradual horror and identity change. It is not Adam who has changed, but Alice herself. I was constantly reminded of the old experiment of placing the frog into the water and ever so gradually turning up the heat until the frog is dead. These authors skillfully turn up the heat ever so slowly, allowing you to see what is happening to Alice. So intricately is this dark tale woven that you find yourself engulfed in tension, hoping someone somewhere will listen to her. You'll also be left amazed and frightened at how easy it is to change one's identity in an abusive relationship. I would not be at all surprised that this became a Lifetime movie. It's exactly the kind of plot Lifetime would gravitate to, minus the low-budget cheesiness that is a trademark of Lifetime movies. Indeed, this is a jarring, disturbing story that will chill you and leave you shaken.
I would be fascinated to learn more about the authors's relationship to the London police. In all of their books I've read so far, the police are portrayed largely as ham-handed buffoons whose mistakes are legion and whose successes are almost matters of luck rather than skill.
I can't say that I always like the characters these authors create. They're all a bit quick to hit the sheets with whatever moves, and their propensity to smoke more and profane louder than anyone else in the room is legendary. That said, none of them are cookie-cutter one-dimensional people. There's a complicated darkness about these women, and their lives are written with such skill that you cheer for them and badly want them to succeed. You even find it easier than it should be to forgive them for those seemingly out-of-character acts of stupidity in which some of them engage from time to time. This book's title is appropriate indeed. So pillowy soft is the psychological shroud in which Alice is gradually wrapped that you will be deeply saddened at the change in Alice, highly sympathetic to her circumstances, and genuinely troubled by the reality that you almost certainly associate with women who, like Alice, are losing the very essence of self, paralyzed and helpless as that self--that identity is sucked into a hellish vortex of shadow and terror. French does a masterful job of subtly reminding you that women who are abuse victims aren't uneducated pathetic creatures who step blissfully and cluelessly into bad relationships. Instead, they are all too often beautiful, capable women who offer much to a world that won't extend a lifeline when that intelligence and beauty is overshadowed by fear and uncertainty.
urlphantomhive's review against another edition
4.0
READ IN DUTCH
Alice is a woman who has it all, good job, relationship...
She leaves everything behind to run off with her new boyfriend, even though she doesn't know anything about him. He soon turns violent and obsessive. This seems the moment for Alice to run away again, but she doesn't.
It's called a novel of obsession, and that's certainly what it was. That part definitely was interesting, but Alice's stupid decisions annoyed me. I've heard the stories so I know things like this actually happen, but I can't see why she stays there. The writing as always was nice to read, this is one of Nicci French's books I liked better.
I once watched the first few minutes of the movie they made from this book, but it was plain horrible! Couldn't stand to watch it.
Alice is a woman who has it all, good job, relationship...
She leaves everything behind to run off with her new boyfriend, even though she doesn't know anything about him. He soon turns violent and obsessive. This seems the moment for Alice to run away again, but she doesn't.
It's called a novel of obsession, and that's certainly what it was. That part definitely was interesting, but Alice's stupid decisions annoyed me. I've heard the stories so I know things like this actually happen, but I can't see why she stays there. The writing as always was nice to read, this is one of Nicci French's books I liked better.
I once watched the first few minutes of the movie they made from this book, but it was plain horrible! Couldn't stand to watch it.
melissacharitos's review against another edition
2.0
Vre-se-lijk, dit boek. Een soort slechte versie van 50 tinten, totaal niet wat je van een thriller verwacht. Gelukkig korte hoofdstukken, waardoor het boek snel uit was. Toch 2 sterren voor de ietwat verassende wending.
nocto's review
I loved French's first book The Memory Game, but wasn't so impressed by her second. This third book is more a suspense thriller than a murder mystery. It plays psychological games with you again but is still not as good as The Memory Game. Good but not brilliant.
maureensbooks89's review against another edition
3.0
My family is full of huge Nicci French fans. Especially my mom. She has almost every book from Nicci French. That why I also own four Nicci French books but I have only read one. So that’s why in this vacation I decided to read another Nicci French novel. ‘Killing me softly’ was the one I picked first.
‘Killing me softly’ is a story about Alice. Alice is a scientist who works on the development of a new anticonception medicin. Alice lives an easy life and lives with her boyfriend Jake. Alice has a group of friends she has known forever and everything seems to work out perfectly. Jake is an amazing and sweet guy and Alice and Jake are very happy together. But then, one day, Alice sees Adam standing on the other side of the road. There eyes meet and instantly Alice and Adam are pulled together. Alice and Adam start an intense affaire and soon Alice leaves her live with Jake behind and moves in with Adam. But soon after Alice leaves her old life behind, she finds out that an intense and obsessive relationship isn’t perfect. Adam isn’t who he seems to be and soon Alice doesn’t know how to get her freedom back.
‘Killing me softly’ is an intense and sometimes really scary and strange story. In the beginning I didn’t really get the story. I don’t understand how people can lie and manipulate to the people they love, so it was hard for me to relate to the characters. And it was going very fast. But soon I became fascinated by the strange relationship between Alice and Adam. This story is really a thriller and keeps you fascinated until the end.
I give ‘Killing me softly’ three stars and look forward to reading another Nicci French novel.
‘Killing me softly’ is a story about Alice. Alice is a scientist who works on the development of a new anticonception medicin. Alice lives an easy life and lives with her boyfriend Jake. Alice has a group of friends she has known forever and everything seems to work out perfectly. Jake is an amazing and sweet guy and Alice and Jake are very happy together. But then, one day, Alice sees Adam standing on the other side of the road. There eyes meet and instantly Alice and Adam are pulled together. Alice and Adam start an intense affaire and soon Alice leaves her live with Jake behind and moves in with Adam. But soon after Alice leaves her old life behind, she finds out that an intense and obsessive relationship isn’t perfect. Adam isn’t who he seems to be and soon Alice doesn’t know how to get her freedom back.
‘Killing me softly’ is an intense and sometimes really scary and strange story. In the beginning I didn’t really get the story. I don’t understand how people can lie and manipulate to the people they love, so it was hard for me to relate to the characters. And it was going very fast. But soon I became fascinated by the strange relationship between Alice and Adam. This story is really a thriller and keeps you fascinated until the end.
I give ‘Killing me softly’ three stars and look forward to reading another Nicci French novel.