Reviews - What Remains | The StoryGraph

301 reviews for:

What Remains

Wendy Walker

3.5 AVERAGE

katelands_booknook's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

thebookwormkatie's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

Thank you @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing for an eARC of What Remains by Wendy Walker.

I was super excited to be approved for this one because I was obsessed with Walker’s novel DON’T LOOK FOR ME.

What Remains is fast-paced and plot driven. I’ve heard before that if you’re writing a thriller or mystery, you should write it backwards because then you’ll understand all the loopholes and connections. What Remains plays with that a bit for the actual crime itself, and I found that fascinating. It also incorporates the psychology behind the crime, so I feel like true crime lovers will enjoy that as well.

I do think for me, the “thriller” part of this story started a little too abruptly. I wasn’t convinced by the cat and mouse chase. I think I just needed it to go a level deeper.

Also, the main character made some choices that made me absolutely irate, but that’s just my personal reaction 🙃

Overall, it wasn’t a five-star read like the last book I read, but I think it is a good thriller beach read for the summer. I’ll still pick up whatever Walker writes next 😊

Content Warnings

reading_under_covers's review against another edition

3.0

Major trigger warnings in this one!

I find my rating hovering between three and four stars because our main character Elise does some really silly things in this book (that I guess can be blamed on her trauma??) that made me question her profession.

That point aside, Wendy Walker once again delivers a fast-paced, hard to put down story, with a nice twist thrown into the mix.

Content Warnings

randi_reads's review against another edition

4.0

Pink towels.

The decision to buy pink towels for her two daughters will change Detective Elise Sutton’s life forever.

While in the department store, shooting erupts and Elise sees a man aiming a gun at a tall man and she shoots the gunman.

Elise has tremendous guilt afterwards and seeks the man she saved to justify her actions.

Bad move.

Soon, the man she saved begins to obsess over her and stalk her.

I really enjoyed this book. The author really showed how the stalker got into Elise’s head. Mind games.

Four stars for the psychological suspense novel.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy. All thoughts and op are my own.

martine3's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

the_boozy_baking_bibliophile's review against another edition

3.25

This one was a bit jarring, starting out with a shooting in a department store and flipping between multiple POV. Except you don’t know who the other POV really is. I liked it but was pretty frustrated with the main character. It felt like too much of the book took place in her head with her thoughts and they were fairly jumbled at times IMO. And the why behind what happened seemed a bit far fetched for me.

melaniestewart16's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

sand_between_pages's review against another edition

Thank you to Libro FM for this ALC! While I absolutely LOVE audiobooks, this is one that I think may be better via hard copy. I had a difficult time following the story. (This isn't the narrators' fault, they were really great! The nature of the story, in my opinion, isn't best in audio format.)
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I really enjoy Wendy Walker's books. What Remains is a cat-and-mouse story that delves into the human psyche and what it is truly like to take a life. I loved how Walker explored different crime scenes, crime techniques, and essentially, how to get away with murder. I think anyone that enjoys true crime would enjoy this read! I also think that those who are interested in the psychology of killing would enjoy this book!
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I didn't hate it and I didn't love it. But I do rec it not in audio format ;).

sarahsbookstack's review against another edition

4.5

mysterious fast-paced

Elise- She's a cop who one day shoots a kid shooting up a shopping mall but he's the only casualty. The man she saves right before killing the gunman disappears from the mall. Weeks go by until she finds and follows him and he turns and attacks her. What made him do this?

I love this character Elise. She does really good work with cold cases. I was on the edge of my seat as she tried to uncover the mystery of this man. The lengths this man goes to to scare her is unreal and creepy.

Wendy Walker is always a great thriller writer and this book just blew me away. It's a bit shorter than other thrillers but it still packs a punch.

mjsbooktopia's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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