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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
In the small mountain town of Whistling Ridge, Emma drops her best friend Abigail Blake off at a party at the woods. Abagail promises her friend she’ll be fine, she just needs to have a little fun. However, no one sees 17 year old Abagail again.
As rumors fly around the small town that Abigail must have simply run away, after all, the Blake family has never been normal with a controlling and “God fearing” man like Samual and his silent wife Dolly and their there children, Noah, Abigail, and Jude all seeming to be hiding their own secrets of what goes on within their family home.
As Emma tries to find out more about Abigail’s disappearance, she I covers more secrets about the people of Whistling Ridge and feels like the more she learns the less closer she feels to truly knowing who her friend was.
Just a disclaimer / trigger warning: this book definitely gets dark. There is a LOT of childhood abuse and a very dark twist near the end. I won’t spoil it but it was a bit hard to read at times. I did enjoy the mystery but it is one of those stories that is hard to get through certain moments with the abuse and SA so just keep that in mind.
As rumors fly around the small town that Abigail must have simply run away, after all, the Blake family has never been normal with a controlling and “God fearing” man like Samual and his silent wife Dolly and their there children, Noah, Abigail, and Jude all seeming to be hiding their own secrets of what goes on within their family home.
As Emma tries to find out more about Abigail’s disappearance, she I covers more secrets about the people of Whistling Ridge and feels like the more she learns the less closer she feels to truly knowing who her friend was.
Just a disclaimer / trigger warning: this book definitely gets dark. There is a LOT of childhood abuse and a very dark twist near the end. I won’t spoil it but it was a bit hard to read at times. I did enjoy the mystery but it is one of those stories that is hard to get through certain moments with the abuse and SA so just keep that in mind.
Interesting characters but the story itself is slow and monotonous. For the first half I was engaged enough and some kind of anxious to know what happened, but as I got to the cliffhanger, I wasn’t excited neither expectant of how this would end.
Such a wordy overly descriptive book, I did not enjoy the way it was written. Little character development throughout so I didn’t care much for the characters, especially since every single person was named, it was hard to keep track at times. Reveals happened so slowly it was tough to enjoy. Uneventful plot.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
The very intense foreshadowing annoyed me and I thought many of the characters were too dramatic of tropes that it sucked any sense of realism away. It was also quite predictable and unsatisfactory of an ending.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
What a sicky set of circumstances. Good grief. The storytelling was masterful. I listened to the audiobook and Simpson is my all-time favorite Narrator.
I struggled with this one. The topics covered are VERY dark: incest, homophobia, Christian extremism and when it’s all piled on top of each other, it’s tough to handle.
Bailey does a good job of making things feel grim. The characters are all largely unlikeable - but in a good way - and the town of Whispering Ridge feels incredibly claustrophobic.
Ultimately, I landed on three stars. It’s good, but it was a little too heavy and a little too slow for my taste. The “reveal” wasn’t a huge surprise, the most awful character in the book is of course the one responsible. Still, if you like characters that you hate, this is the book for you.
Bailey does a good job of making things feel grim. The characters are all largely unlikeable - but in a good way - and the town of Whispering Ridge feels incredibly claustrophobic.
Ultimately, I landed on three stars. It’s good, but it was a little too heavy and a little too slow for my taste. The “reveal” wasn’t a huge surprise, the most awful character in the book is of course the one responsible. Still, if you like characters that you hate, this is the book for you.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
The author can write well, but unfortunately that is the only redeeming feature in a story filled with awful stereotypical characters and villains that are evil simply for the sake of being evil.
DNF at 30% - man I really tried but I just could not get into this, too many characters too keep track of and I just didn’t care about any of it, which is not how a thriller should be. Too bad, premise was interesting, but execution failed.