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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I loved Survive the Night so thought I'd pick up another Riley Sager, but this one just didn't do it for me and felt very middle of the road. There were creepy elements like the camping and the Scientology-esque Hawthorne institute, but I for sure missed the fun campiness that STN had. Our narrator just felt too serious and I didn't really warm to him this time around.
There wasn't a big cast of characters and this one lacked red herrings that you expect from this genre. I didn't get the why right, but I did get the who. This was so built up and there was some real tension, so I thought the ending would be fantastic and this one really didn't hinge on that. There were so many possibilities and routes this author toys with, it could've been something creepy, culty or paranormal and I was waiting for the author to blow me away. However, in the end when the big mystery of what happened to Billy is unveiled it just felt rather mundane. I felt like as a reader I'd been duped, so much of this book is suspense and we'd been hanging on the edge of our seat for nothing.
I enjoyed some of the ride and the storytelling, but this book could've done so much more and it left me feeling unimpressed and unsatisfied.
There wasn't a big cast of characters and this one lacked red herrings that you expect from this genre. I didn't get the why right, but I did get the who. This was so built up and there was some real tension, so I thought the ending would be fantastic and this one really didn't hinge on that. There were so many possibilities and routes this author toys with, it could've been something creepy, culty or paranormal and I was waiting for the author to blow me away. However, in the end when the big mystery of what happened to Billy is unveiled it just felt rather mundane. I felt like as a reader I'd been duped, so much of this book is suspense and we'd been hanging on the edge of our seat for nothing.
I enjoyed some of the ride and the storytelling, but this book could've done so much more and it left me feeling unimpressed and unsatisfied.
I listened to this one mostly on audio and really enjoyed it! The narrator was really great and engaging, and I just had a good time reading this story.
I thought the characters were fleshed out really well and had lots of depth. I enjoyed how Sagar revealed only the bits that were necessary about the characters at various points in time to keep you on your toes. It was a book about flawed people and how flaws are essential to the human character. We all have flaws and it’s how we deal with them that makes us the people we are. I really felt this message in the book. It wasn’t about evil or immoral actions or people, it was just simply about the inherent flaws that make us human. I enjoyed Ethan as a main character and liked how we followed his journey to try and remember what happened to his best friend. He wasn’t a simply character at all, and had lots of depth which made me relate to him a lot.
Sagan’s writing was truly something else! He has a way of building tension and suspense without you even realising. He weaves plot twists in so flawlessly, and I didn’t expect any of what happened to actually happen. The switching timelines was also another creative aspect that I enjoyed. We got to read multiple people’s points of view through this method and it really opened up the book way more to explore the events that took place. There was just something in Sagar’s writing that was so addictive and palpable and I really felt all the tension and scary vibes within the novel.
Overall, I would recommend this to my thriller lovers and I can’t wait to read more of Sagar’s works.
I thought the characters were fleshed out really well and had lots of depth. I enjoyed how Sagar revealed only the bits that were necessary about the characters at various points in time to keep you on your toes. It was a book about flawed people and how flaws are essential to the human character. We all have flaws and it’s how we deal with them that makes us the people we are. I really felt this message in the book. It wasn’t about evil or immoral actions or people, it was just simply about the inherent flaws that make us human. I enjoyed Ethan as a main character and liked how we followed his journey to try and remember what happened to his best friend. He wasn’t a simply character at all, and had lots of depth which made me relate to him a lot.
Sagan’s writing was truly something else! He has a way of building tension and suspense without you even realising. He weaves plot twists in so flawlessly, and I didn’t expect any of what happened to actually happen. The switching timelines was also another creative aspect that I enjoyed. We got to read multiple people’s points of view through this method and it really opened up the book way more to explore the events that took place. There was just something in Sagar’s writing that was so addictive and palpable and I really felt all the tension and scary vibes within the novel.
Overall, I would recommend this to my thriller lovers and I can’t wait to read more of Sagar’s works.
A little spooky, a little twisted and doesn’t make you guess who did it until the very end. My guess was so far off the truth, I‘m embarrassed (though I did at least guess that Claudia was dead). Typical Riley Sager, I‘d say. Can‘t wait for his newest book to come out as paperback.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
the first 200 pages were snoozetown population this book BUT THEN the plot picked up and did get pretty good
I feel like I should have expected the various twists and turns throughout the book because, looking back, they were all set up so nicely, but I absolutely did not. This book is creepy, thrilling, heartbreaking, and I could not put it down. The pacing of the book is excellent — I found very few spots, if any, where it seemed to drag. The writing flows very well and doesn’t feel “stuffed” so to speak for the sake of making the prose prettier, like some authors are guilty of, but it’s also not a super easy, quick, turn-your-brain-off read, either, like some thrillers can be. It’s well balanced and I really enjoyed my time with it.