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bookshy's review against another edition
1.0
Read like a quarter of this book. It was pretty awful so I flipped to the back to read about the author. He was wearing a necklace. I stopped reading immediately. One star is too much for this book.
merlin_reads's review against another edition
3.5
Ultimiatly it was a good book. Definitely had you guessing what the killer was up to until the end. I wish I could do half stars so I could give it 3 1/2. I just couldn't give it four, something about the last half was a little off to me, but it was a very good book.
teodora_paslaru's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book. It was not extraordinary, but it was likeable.
The biggest problem of it was that I found most of the characters boring. I disliked the two detectives who seemed a little bit superficial, to concerned with appearances, with their own look, and I disliked the killer who had noting interesting. I tend to like books with good villains. I want to be fascinated by the bad guy. I always pry for him to lose, while reading, but I like to be fascinated by him. And I did not found this killer fascinating. He was described as highly intelligent, but it seemed a bit stupid to me. And the all the FBI agents were even stupider than him. If this would be the truth in the real world, then I should fear for myself.
I also thought that this book was a little bit to slow in the beginning and that the author spend too much time describing how people looked, what they were, how their homes looked like, what kind of nail polish did they prefer, and so on.
What saved this book? Well, Paradise did. I found her to be an extraordinary character, the only one that made this book worth reading. And I think that I partially identified myself with her. Of course, I don't have her problems, because my father never tried to kill me and no man ever tried to rape me, so, I am saner from a public point of view. I don't have to face as many demons as she did.
I also liked that the author tried to make us see behind the stereotypes perceived by the society. Beauty does not rest on the way someone uses makeup or dresses herself or himself. Beauty is something that goes beyond it. Makeup is just a mask we are using to present to the world the image that they want to see of us, but the truly beautiful people are not afraid to show themselves for what they truly are. And there is the problem of mentally ill people. They are not less like us as someone who suffers for cancer is not less like us. And their illness can be as painful, if not even more painful that physical diseases.
This being said, I don't say that someone should read this book, neither that someone should not read it. Maybe I was just expecting something else and this made be a little bit disappointed. So... read it at your own risk.
The biggest problem of it was that I found most of the characters boring. I disliked the two detectives who seemed a little bit superficial, to concerned with appearances, with their own look, and I disliked the killer who had noting interesting. I tend to like books with good villains. I want to be fascinated by the bad guy. I always pry for him to lose, while reading, but I like to be fascinated by him. And I did not found this killer fascinating. He was described as highly intelligent, but it seemed a bit stupid to me. And the all the FBI agents were even stupider than him. If this would be the truth in the real world, then I should fear for myself.
I also thought that this book was a little bit to slow in the beginning and that the author spend too much time describing how people looked, what they were, how their homes looked like, what kind of nail polish did they prefer, and so on.
What saved this book? Well, Paradise did. I found her to be an extraordinary character, the only one that made this book worth reading. And I think that I partially identified myself with her. Of course, I don't have her problems, because my father never tried to kill me and no man ever tried to rape me, so, I am saner from a public point of view. I don't have to face as many demons as she did.
I also liked that the author tried to make us see behind the stereotypes perceived by the society. Beauty does not rest on the way someone uses makeup or dresses herself or himself. Beauty is something that goes beyond it. Makeup is just a mask we are using to present to the world the image that they want to see of us, but the truly beautiful people are not afraid to show themselves for what they truly are. And there is the problem of mentally ill people. They are not less like us as someone who suffers for cancer is not less like us. And their illness can be as painful, if not even more painful that physical diseases.
This being said, I don't say that someone should read this book, neither that someone should not read it. Maybe I was just expecting something else and this made be a little bit disappointed. So... read it at your own risk.
jaime_of_gryffindor's review
4.0
I read The Bride Collector a couple years ago and I really enjoyed this christian fiction thriller! This book follows FBI agent Brad Raines as he hunts a serial killer. There is so much packed into this book, and it is very well written. I love how Ted Dekker’s books always keep you thinking throughout the book and usually even a bit after finishing it. If you like thrillers, you may want to give this one a try 😊
pingin505's review against another edition
3.0
TW: Review contains mild descriptions of mental health and suicide.
Good plot, but honestly very much a representation of toxic masculinity. If I had to hear how Brad was the hero or what a woman was wearing in extreme detail one more time... Also can we talk about the “theme” of women killing themselves because they’re not beautiful enough? And it’s just left at that without really exploring that? Haha. It made it sound like, “Ruby had a bad hair day, so she threw herself off a cliff!” Which is not a good representation of a real problem and illness. Similarly, the representation of mental health? Not great at all, and done with “compassion” but super inaccurate so basically it all came off pretty patronizing even though Brad continually says, “We’re alike on the inside!” I guess he ends up with one of the mental patients and not the OG bombshell love interest from the FBI that is brutally murdered and who he cries over for 3 seconds before realizing he never really loved her anyway. (3 seconds is all the crying a man can do before he’s not manly anymore, I think.) It made me cringe and laugh out loud at some points. That all being said I still enjoyed the story you know? Read at your own risk.
Good plot, but honestly very much a representation of toxic masculinity. If I had to hear how Brad was the hero or what a woman was wearing in extreme detail one more time... Also can we talk about the “theme” of women killing themselves because they’re not beautiful enough? And it’s just left at that without really exploring that? Haha. It made it sound like, “Ruby had a bad hair day, so she threw herself off a cliff!” Which is not a good representation of a real problem and illness. Similarly, the representation of mental health? Not great at all, and done with “compassion” but super inaccurate so basically it all came off pretty patronizing even though Brad continually says, “We’re alike on the inside!” I guess he ends up with one of the mental patients and not the OG bombshell love interest from the FBI that is brutally murdered and who he cries over for 3 seconds before realizing he never really loved her anyway. (3 seconds is all the crying a man can do before he’s not manly anymore, I think.) It made me cringe and laugh out loud at some points. That all being said I still enjoyed the story you know? Read at your own risk.
jwill583's review
3.0
Definitely difficult to get into. The book is pretty slow in the beginning and is boring. The story line is decent and the end is a lot better that the overall book. Probably won’t be your favorite book but it’s a decent read.
myeverskye's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! This was my fav Ted Dekker book yet! I loved all of the characters, especially the mental patients. I really enjoyed every second of this book!
delaneybull's review against another edition
1.0
This was one of the worst novels I've read in a long time. The plot was scattered at best, the characters were woefully unexplained and underdeveloped, and the action was so slow that this book really dragged on. Brad and Paradise had no interesting plot points and their "love story" was really sudden and didn't make any sense within the context of the novel. Truly bad writing.
sus7's review
2.0
I took this audio book because it is read by John Glover. The first half to three-quarters of the story had me, then I felt it got over-long and boring. But hey, I could still listen to John Glover's voice characterizations. The last part of the story devolved into a sappy romance that not even John Glover could save...it really seems he had lost interest in dramatizing it too.
annterp's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting read for sure. Definitely gives you lots to think about.