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A review by powerpuffgoat
Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The idea of this book got me hooked. I love a whodunit, and I always like to theorise on the outcome. I thought with this book, I will stand an even better chance because I will be learning information "live" with the rest of the characters. Or at least that's how this book was marketed.
Well, first of all, that turned out to be untrue. For almost every revelation, it turned out that one of the characters already knew about it and more often than not, tried to hide it from the others, as well as the audience. Plus, the producer had a whole vat of secrets from the get-go.
The format... Again, I don't hate it in principal, I just don't think it added anything to the book. If anything, I found it harder to get into this book because it was, well, a literal script.
The parts that weren't written as a script (emails, texts, voicemails, newspaper clippings, faux-Reddit threads) ranged from deliberately cryptic to almost satirical. Forum threads in particular, I thought, were very much like the wild theories you see people throw out on Reddit, whether it's a true crime doc or a fictional TV show.
The story itself wasn't too bad. In a typical modern thriller fashion, it had a big cast of characters, lots of red herrings, regularly timed twists, and a big showdown, so to say.
About midway through, I locked in my theory about who the killer might be. I mean, all signs were pointing to it (I thought)!
Then we had the fake-out ending. Disappointing. Then we had the real ending, and I kept hoping my theory would come into play. They didn't even mention it. Not once. The real ending was meh. Naturally, all wrapped up with a pretty bow and spelled out for us, the audience, until the very end.
All in all, though, it was worth the 99p I paid for the kindle edition.
The format... Again, I don't hate it in principal, I just don't think it added anything to the book. If anything, I found it harder to get into this book because it was, well, a literal script.
The parts that weren't written as a script (emails, texts, voicemails, newspaper clippings, faux-Reddit threads) ranged from deliberately cryptic to almost satirical. Forum threads in particular, I thought, were very much like the wild theories you see people throw out on Reddit, whether it's a true crime doc or a fictional TV show.
The story itself wasn't too bad. In a typical modern thriller fashion, it had a big cast of characters, lots of red herrings, regularly timed twists, and a big showdown, so to say.
Then we had the fake-out ending. Disappointing. Then we had the real ending, and I kept hoping my theory would come into play. They didn't even mention it. Not once. The real ending was meh. Naturally, all wrapped up with a pretty bow and spelled out for us, the audience, until the very end.
All in all, though, it was worth the 99p I paid for the kindle edition.