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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
After almost throwing this book across the room multiple times out of anxious suspense, all I can say is ‘holy shit.’ Willingham had me captivated from cover to cover trying to piece together clues and create my own theories about the ending.
I don’t read thrillers a lot because more often than not I guess the ending within the first few chapters and it gets boring. This book had enough twists and turns that even though I had my suspicions of who the killer was (a few different people to be honest), I never could completely commit to one theory.
The past and present timelines were woven together so expertly that they often bled into each other in a way that should confuse you as a reader, but doesn’t. It helped me to understand the psyche of the narrator and how she was simultaneously living in the past and present.
Willingham’s writing was so strong that you couldn’t help but feel the emotions of each character and feel involved personally in their stories. They were all so damaged in their own way that gave them a depth that is often missing from thrillers. Their backstories, all traumatic, were not outlandish stories used for dramatization - they were meant to feel like authentic people. People you know. People you could believe in and trust.
Chloe Davis was a complicated heroine. I was inclined to follow her lead and theories so many times because her being a doctor of psychology made her come across as credible. However, her abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs to numb her trauma made her extremely unreliable. The juxtaposition between the professional Doctor Chloe Davis and the unhinged Chloe Davis was part of what made this story so enthralling. It sent her on a wild goose chase we had no option but to follow because since she didn’t know what was real from what was her own paranoia we weren’t able to differentiate between the two either.
The ending was so fast-paced, with so much happening all at once in a perfect synergy. My only wish is that there were one or two more chapters that go into details on the “after” of the story, but that didn’t take away from how incredible the ending was. I could not recommend this more.
Read the full review and more at:
Website: https://bookblurbs13.wixsite.com/reviews
Instagram: @bookblurbs13 - https://www.instagram.com/bookblurbs13/
After almost throwing this book across the room multiple times out of anxious suspense, all I can say is ‘holy shit.’ Willingham had me captivated from cover to cover trying to piece together clues and create my own theories about the ending.
I don’t read thrillers a lot because more often than not I guess the ending within the first few chapters and it gets boring. This book had enough twists and turns that even though I had my suspicions of who the killer was (a few different people to be honest), I never could completely commit to one theory.
The past and present timelines were woven together so expertly that they often bled into each other in a way that should confuse you as a reader, but doesn’t. It helped me to understand the psyche of the narrator and how she was simultaneously living in the past and present.
Willingham’s writing was so strong that you couldn’t help but feel the emotions of each character and feel involved personally in their stories. They were all so damaged in their own way that gave them a depth that is often missing from thrillers. Their backstories, all traumatic, were not outlandish stories used for dramatization - they were meant to feel like authentic people. People you know. People you could believe in and trust.
Chloe Davis was a complicated heroine. I was inclined to follow her lead and theories so many times because her being a doctor of psychology made her come across as credible. However, her abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs to numb her trauma made her extremely unreliable. The juxtaposition between the professional Doctor Chloe Davis and the unhinged Chloe Davis was part of what made this story so enthralling. It sent her on a wild goose chase we had no option but to follow because since she didn’t know what was real from what was her own paranoia we weren’t able to differentiate between the two either.
The ending was so fast-paced, with so much happening all at once in a perfect synergy. My only wish is that there were one or two more chapters that go into details on the “after” of the story, but that didn’t take away from how incredible the ending was. I could not recommend this more.
Read the full review and more at:
Website: https://bookblurbs13.wixsite.com/reviews
Instagram: @bookblurbs13 - https://www.instagram.com/bookblurbs13/
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
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:
Yes
Chloe lives her life in the shadow of her dark past, having never reconciled the father she loved with his shocking confession and imprisonment for the murders of several young girls, even though her testimony had been a nail on his coffin. Having built her life from the broken pieces of her family, she is now a psychologist who specializes in understanding the dark impulses that lay inside her patients, and is newly engaged to a man who knows nothing of her family's past. When local girls start going missing, in a pattern that is eerily similar to her father's crime, she begins to question her reality and is hell bent on uncovering the truth. As clues begin to align, she wonders if she can trust anyone close to her or her own memories of the terrible crime from so many years ago.
.
I made two predictions from the very beginning that ended up being true and all the extraneous details and events that occurred in the middle served only to perplex me. Most of the psychological confusion occurs within Chloe's own head, which feels disorganized and panic-driven. I appreciate the perspective of a child of a murderer and what happens when family's are broken by one of their members crimes, which certainly explains Chloe's obsession with uncovering the truth. But I was not invested in her story and felt myself zoning out quite a bit. I felt bad for all the other character's she began to suspect, when failing to even look at the actual perpetrator.
.
This was a book club pick. I like listening to thriller's via audiobook, but the more I do it, the less original I find individual books within the genre.
.
I made two predictions from the very beginning that ended up being true and all the extraneous details and events that occurred in the middle served only to perplex me. Most of the psychological confusion occurs within Chloe's own head, which feels disorganized and panic-driven. I appreciate the perspective of a child of a murderer and what happens when family's are broken by one of their members crimes, which certainly explains Chloe's obsession with uncovering the truth. But I was not invested in her story and felt myself zoning out quite a bit. I felt bad for all the other character's she began to suspect, when failing to even look at the actual perpetrator.
.
This was a book club pick. I like listening to thriller's via audiobook, but the more I do it, the less original I find individual books within the genre.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Have you watched Happy Face? Similar to that. A girl raised with a serial killer in the family. I love that she becomes a psychologist to try to figure things out in her family because that is what I would do also.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8hk5gHJ/
4 star read! Really enjoyed this book, but found the plot twists predictable. Really enjoyed the story line overall
4 star read! Really enjoyed this book, but found the plot twists predictable. Really enjoyed the story line overall
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated