Reviews

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

telercoi's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

tomesandtash's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

Eve Black is the sole survivor of the last attack by serial killer, The Nothing Man, and twenty years after the death of her entire family, she releases a tell-all book about the night she lost everything and the stories of all the other victims. She makes one promise with this book - to find The Nothing Man after all these years. 

This book is told from two perspectives; The Nothing Man himself and the book that threatens to expose his identity. The entire story is extremely compelling. I was worried that the sections of the in-universe book would feel clunky and boring but the author managed to keep it interesting while making it seem like a convincing true-crime book. Following Jim was also so interesting. He is a completely deplorable man and I loved watching him spiral into madness as he kept reading the book. 

I did see most of the twists coming but the way the story was crafted meant it still felt exciting and satisfying. This is a really interesting, unique thriller that I would highly recommend! 

SPOILERS

I thought the “twist” where Eve actually killed her father instead of Jim, thinking that her dad was The Nothing Man, was a bit out of nowhere. It could have been an interesting plot point but it was so quickly glossed over and never mentioned again that I just think it could have been left out. I don’t know if the point is to show that even the victims can be unreliable and it’s left slightly ambiguous as to whether she remembers this and chose to leave it out because it would make her sound bad or if she truly had blocked it out. That would have been an interesting discussion to have but the format of the story doesn’t allow for that to be explored so I could have done without it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Rape

staylorbaptiste's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

shallowell's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

lhbyrne94's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

brandeezee's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

joojootrain's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

alexking's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, and Murder

2357aya's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

sophersss's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Wow this was a cleverly written book… or I guess a book within a book. It was bizarre that this serial killer is reading the book about him and like you’re reading along with him. So creepy. Thinking about it, the direction of the plot seems so obvious now, but it was super captivating as I was reading it. It’s always interesting to me to read from the point of view of a twisted narrator because the psychology of it is just fascinating. The way they think, their crazy mindset and worldview is just so hard for me to understand like I could never think the way they do. So this was cool to see this terrible man get what he deserved. The tension was really good and even though true crime isn’t really my thing, I really felt for the main character. The last twist that revealed what really happened hit me hard and just - it was all just done so well. Very interesting read.