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A review by beth7891
The Glass Forest by Cynthia Swanson
1.0
A good mystery is difficult to write. The genre is saturated in this day and age, understandably so. We all have our own preferences in how the story unfolds. How the clues are given to us. The nature of the crime. The motive, if any. Is it a cold case? Or a race against time before the criminal strikes again? All are respectable, but what a story must have above all else in any genre are engaging and relatable characters, which this book did not have.
The story spans about two decades and includes the perspective of three women: Sylva, the independent daughter of an immigrant mother and missing throughout most of this novel, Ruby, her daughter, and Angie, a young mother whose entire identity is being a good wife and mother and wishes only to please her husband.
Ruby and Sylja were fine, but Angie only existed to be the character everyone dumped information into so that we eventually learned what happened. No real mystery. No character growth. No solution, because no one sees any real justice. We had the victim of the crime. One of the criminals, and Angie. We were literally told everything that happened which could have made this novel suspenseful.
Nothing about this book was interesting. I read it only to get it off of my shelf, and persevered only because I didn't want another DNF to throw off my reading goal. So basically I finished this out of spite. I'm glad to be done with it.
I'm also irritated because I mixed up this title with the book I had actually wanted to read, which was The Glass Hotel. My fault.
The story spans about two decades and includes the perspective of three women: Sylva, the independent daughter of an immigrant mother and missing throughout most of this novel, Ruby, her daughter, and Angie, a young mother whose entire identity is being a good wife and mother and wishes only to please her husband.
Ruby and Sylja were fine, but Angie only existed to be the character everyone dumped information into so that we eventually learned what happened. No real mystery. No character growth. No solution, because no one sees any real justice. We had the victim of the crime. One of the criminals, and Angie. We were literally told everything that happened which could have made this novel suspenseful.
Nothing about this book was interesting. I read it only to get it off of my shelf, and persevered only because I didn't want another DNF to throw off my reading goal. So basically I finished this out of spite. I'm glad to be done with it.
I'm also irritated because I mixed up this title with the book I had actually wanted to read, which was The Glass Hotel. My fault.