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read_by_katherine's review
5.0
Three couples are spending a week in Italy together to celebrate a birthday among old friends. It soon becomes clear that terrible secrets are being kept within the group and someone turns up dead.
The Final Party is a book that I simply could not put down, I inhaled it within the space of 24 hours.
I liked the fact that you know someone is dead but have no idea who and I was immediately hooked by the first chapter. I enjoyed following along from the different character perspectives, picking up clues and hints to try and figure out the truth. The beautiful descriptions of the villa and Sorrento made it feel like I was right there in the sunshine.
The addictive plot kept me glued to the pages until the very end. I absolutely loved that this book was full of twists, lies and secrets as it made for a real rollercoaster of a read.
If you are a fan of psychological thrillers you will adore The Final Party.
Thank you NetGalley and Hera Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
yvo_about_books's review
2.0
Finished reading: May 12th 2023
"Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm just being overly suspicious. I hope I am. Because rightly or wrongly, they'd do best to leave the past in the past."
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Hera in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
WARNING: it's unpopular opinion time again!!
I've been meaning to try this author for quite some time now, and I couldn't resist The Final Party after reading the blurb. I have great memories from visiting Sorrento when I was younger, and I was looking forward to revisit this magical Italian destination in this story. I was also intrigued by the premise, with one of the characters ending up dead and the mystery kind of having that locked-room vibe. I fully expected to have an excellent time with this book... But sadly, it wasn't ment to be.
First of all I have to stress that I still love the premise of this book, with the six friends going on vacation and one of them ending up dead. The prologue had a lot of promise, and I was looking forward to a great time discovering who died and who was behind their death. What I didn't expect was to have no body at all showing up until almost reaching the end of the story. Yes, I mean that the actual prologue doesn't happen until at least 90% into the story, and this was quite a disappointment to be honest. Why? Well, The Final Party isn't exactly the locked-room whodunit I was expecting, and I can't say that I enjoyed what the plot offered instead.
The Final Party uses a multiple POV structure, with no less than seven! different POVs as well as flashbacks to the past. This could get quite tedious, and especially since the characters started to sound quite similar before long. I was never able to warm up to any of them, and this lack of connection was made even worse by the fact that the main focus of this story seems to be on repeating their character traits and physical descriptions over and over again. And I mean this literally: when the POV switches, the next character in line deems it necessary to repeat the same descriptions AGAIN, up until the point you want to tear out your hair and start screaming. I also don't get why the six characters are supposed to be friends, because they sure don't come over that way. They are constantly bitching and whining about each other, and they didn't behave like close friends AT ALL. It was all very superficial and immature to be honest, and with such a huge part of the story focusing on the group of characters, it's easy to understand why I ended up having such a hard time reading The Final Party.
Another thing I hated was the constant mention of the secrets and cliffhanger chapter endings without giving us a little hint at the truth in return. While I like surprises, having the secrets and past events referred to over and over again without any clarification got old very fast. I'm talking about at least three quarters of the book, where nothing much happened except for a constant repeat of the same things... It made me want to throw my kindle against the wall. I'm honestly not sure why I even bothered to finish The Final Party other than that I didn't want to have to deal with two DNF in a row... But I sure regret having wasted so much time on this story, because not even the ending was satisfying. In fact, it was mostly an anti-climax, and extremely rushed at that.
All in all, unfortunately I most definitely didn't have a good time reading The Final Party despite the promising blurb. The pace is extremely slow during most of the story, the characters are extremely unlikeable, there are way too many repetitions and the plot itself very unsatisfying. The final part felt rushed and too much like the author tried to include as many 'shocking' twists as possible... With the result that this story lost the little credibility it had. That said, I've seen a lot of positive reviews, so it might just be my fickle reading mood acting up again... Just don't say I haven't warned you if you end up damaging your kindle in the process.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, and Stalking
Moderate: Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Bullying
boekenbabbel's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
6 old friends, all with secrets of their own, go on a trip together. Only five will return at the end of the week. Secrets do kill …
I liked this book a lot more than I expected. I thought this would be a very straight forward story that we’ve all read many times before, but that was not the case. There were so many twists and turns that I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. There were some twists that were a bit predictable, but they still left me hungry for more. Add a beautifully described scenery and twisted, but loveable characters to the story and I’m sold. I’ll definitely check out other works by this author.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hera Books for the ARC of this book!
I liked this book a lot more than I expected. I thought this would be a very straight forward story that we’ve all read many times before, but that was not the case. There were so many twists and turns that I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. There were some twists that were a bit predictable, but they still left me hungry for more. Add a beautifully described scenery and twisted, but loveable characters to the story and I’m sold. I’ll definitely check out other works by this author.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hera Books for the ARC of this book!
jessgarcia28's review
3.0
This book kept me guessing and captured and maintained my attention. It was enjoyable from the beginning. I wish the were half star ratings. The plot was great and the characters were good but the only drawback was that the characters perspectives seem to be the same and retold. The story is set in Italy, when a group of old friends reunite for a 40th birthday reunion. Events, from 18 years prior that they all thought would stay buried, start getting unveiled through mysterious text. Each person has their own piece to this puzzle that you must put together to solve. I would hasn't rated 4 stars, but I felt there was a bit of repetition throughout the story from each perspective.
hb6wdy's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
_readwithsha's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
stellyshadows's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. Boy oh boy this one was such a page turner! So many twists and lies. I absolutely loved everything about this book, down to the 3 couples we have. 6 best friends who are all tied together under difference circumstances that keeps the reader guessing and slowly but surely the truth comes to light. I would have finished in one sitting but as usual life gets in the way. I've been in a slump too and this helped a lot. I highly recommend anyone who loves lies and twists to give this one a try, very much drama filled. Personally up to this point, this is probably been the best action packed book I've had from here.
readwitray's review
4.0
A great thriller
Six from head to Italy for one of their friends 40th birthday. Things from the past bring with tension and jealous between the friends and their trip.
This is a great thriller. We get everyone POVs from present and the past. You feel like you can trust certain people and then the book goes and does a 180.
You don’t guess the twist at the end which is always a win in my book. You can feel the tension between the characters and really feel what is going on during this trip.
Definitely will be reading this authors back catalogue
Six from head to Italy for one of their friends 40th birthday. Things from the past bring with tension and jealous between the friends and their trip.
This is a great thriller. We get everyone POVs from present and the past. You feel like you can trust certain people and then the book goes and does a 180.
You don’t guess the twist at the end which is always a win in my book. You can feel the tension between the characters and really feel what is going on during this trip.
Definitely will be reading this authors back catalogue