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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
fast-paced
Another intriguing mystery by Tana French. Her knack for twisting and turning the plot never fails to keep me enthralled to the end. The audiobook narrator did a masterful job with the characters.
Pros:
- Beautiful writing. Absolutely immersive.
- I like that the reader can get to know the characters so well that we can really empathize with them.
- Cassie is such a gem. I would love to have her as my friend.
Cons:
- Rob is a fucking melodramatic woe-is-me twit who only thinks with his penis. His unlikability is on par with whats-her-face in The Girl on the Train.
- As soon as Rosalind makes an appearance it's transparent that she has something to do with Katy's death. The fact that she gets away with it in the end is not my favourite way to deal with a villain, but okay, I digress. However...
- Why the hell do you write a mystery but not give the reader the answer?!
- Beautiful writing. Absolutely immersive.
- I like that the reader can get to know the characters so well that we can really empathize with them.
- Cassie is such a gem. I would love to have her as my friend.
Cons:
- Rob is a fucking melodramatic woe-is-me twit who only thinks with his penis. His unlikability is on par with whats-her-face in The Girl on the Train.
- As soon as Rosalind makes an appearance it's transparent that she has something to do with Katy's death. The fact that she gets away with it in the end is not my favourite way to deal with a villain, but okay, I digress. However...
- Why the hell do you write a mystery but not give the reader the answer?!
I have never been more frustrated with a book. I feel cheated. Duped! Hoodwinked! Who writes a mystery novel and then doesn’t actually solve the mystery???? What was the point? Why make the main character be involved in an unsolved crime that’s clearly related to the current crime if you’re not going to also solve the unsolved crime?
Yes, you might think that’s a spoiler, but it’s not. It’s a much needed warning sign. This book spends near equal time talking about both crimes, so you will be well within your rights to become deeply invested in the unsolved one. You will wonder where it’s going. You will be on the edge of your seat as bits and pieces of the past unfurl. You will care about it more than the current crime because it’s far more interesting. And it will all be for nothing.
Why?????
Why spend all that time and effort on something you’re never going to resolve? Why do that to your readers? This is a mystery novel! The whole point is logical solutions to things! If I wanted unsolved crimes, I’d read that subset of true crime books. Unsolved fictional crimes just scream “the author has no idea what they’re doing and has no idea how to end this in a believable way”. Maybe it will be solved in later novels, but I doubt it and I don’t care. Far too much of this novel was spent focusing on this crime for the solution to be pushed off.
Maybe I should have seen it coming. After all, everything about this book’s end is steeped in misery and disappointment, why spare this bit that treatment?
I hate having to say that because this one started out promising. I loved the setup of intertwined cases 20+ years apart. I liked the characters and their relationships. I loved the humor. This should have been an easy four-stars from me. Instead, it’s getting two because of the above issues and because of how disappointed I was with the main character.
The star of the show is Detective Rob Ryan with his partner – Detective Cassie Maddox – taking a strong supporting role. Rob starts out okay, but quickly devolves into an ass and you’re enjoyment of this will largely depend on how much you like him. I don’t mind characters who act like jerks if they’re given some likable characteristics or if they’re supposed to be people you love to hate, but Rob doesn’t have any of that going for him. His only excuse is that he’s traumatized by his past, which is understandable, but doesn’t make me like him. At best I felt somewhat sorry for him. That feeling of pity was largely overwhelmed by my dislike of how he treated other people, the choices he made, and his plodding narrative style. This guy went on more internal monologues than a cartoon villain and, at certain points, he even acted like one.
Cassie, on the other hand, is fantastic. I wish we’d gotten to see as least some of the story from her perspective because she’s the character I loved. She deserved so much better than Rob.
If you like brooding characters and depressing stories, then this one is going to be right up your ally. If you like at least a little positivity in your endings and can’t stand an unfinished mystery, then keep out of the woods.
Yes, you might think that’s a spoiler, but it’s not. It’s a much needed warning sign. This book spends near equal time talking about both crimes, so you will be well within your rights to become deeply invested in the unsolved one. You will wonder where it’s going. You will be on the edge of your seat as bits and pieces of the past unfurl. You will care about it more than the current crime because it’s far more interesting. And it will all be for nothing.
Why?????
Why spend all that time and effort on something you’re never going to resolve? Why do that to your readers? This is a mystery novel! The whole point is logical solutions to things! If I wanted unsolved crimes, I’d read that subset of true crime books. Unsolved fictional crimes just scream “the author has no idea what they’re doing and has no idea how to end this in a believable way”. Maybe it will be solved in later novels, but I doubt it and I don’t care. Far too much of this novel was spent focusing on this crime for the solution to be pushed off.
Maybe I should have seen it coming. After all, everything about this book’s end is steeped in misery and disappointment, why spare this bit that treatment?
I hate having to say that because this one started out promising. I loved the setup of intertwined cases 20+ years apart. I liked the characters and their relationships. I loved the humor. This should have been an easy four-stars from me. Instead, it’s getting two because of the above issues and because of how disappointed I was with the main character.
The star of the show is Detective Rob Ryan with his partner – Detective Cassie Maddox – taking a strong supporting role. Rob starts out okay, but quickly devolves into an ass and you’re enjoyment of this will largely depend on how much you like him. I don’t mind characters who act like jerks if they’re given some likable characteristics or if they’re supposed to be people you love to hate, but Rob doesn’t have any of that going for him. His only excuse is that he’s traumatized by his past, which is understandable, but doesn’t make me like him. At best I felt somewhat sorry for him. That feeling of pity was largely overwhelmed by my dislike of how he treated other people, the choices he made, and his plodding narrative style. This guy went on more internal monologues than a cartoon villain and, at certain points, he even acted like one.
Cassie, on the other hand, is fantastic. I wish we’d gotten to see as least some of the story from her perspective because she’s the character I loved. She deserved so much better than Rob.
If you like brooding characters and depressing stories, then this one is going to be right up your ally. If you like at least a little positivity in your endings and can’t stand an unfinished mystery, then keep out of the woods.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good, thrilling story and tight, glorious prose.
Here's a quote I liked: "Maybe she, like me, would have loved the tiny details and the inconveniences even more dearly than the wonders, because they are the things that prove you belong." Lovely, no?
Here's a quote I liked: "Maybe she, like me, would have loved the tiny details and the inconveniences even more dearly than the wonders, because they are the things that prove you belong." Lovely, no?
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gripping mystery book, the ending whodunnit was kind of... meh, without giving anything away. I also didn’t really connect with the main character (what even happened there?) but I understood his feeling from trauma and his slow deterioration. And it kept me up until 2:00am to solve the crime so it definitely did the job!!!