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A review by marleyrollins
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
3.0
Meh, this was alright. Your standard average whodunnit with all the typical trappings of the genre.
✅ Remote, creepy location
✅ One of us is the murderer style intrigue
✅ Detective haunted by the past
✅ Sinister secrets thought to be long-buried now coming to light
The writing was okay, it was fairly tightly plotted, and the pacing was good. If you’re looking for your next thrilling beach read, this will work.
Some of the elements of the book were a little bit silly, for example the fact that Elin, while on holiday, apparently travels with a knife and a torch at all times, just in case she needs to solve a mystery. That and the fact that some of the reveals were very very obvious, such as what happened to Sam.
I also found the ending a little bit unsatisfying- I was expecting it to build up to the unearthing of this heinous crime that goes back decades and is more deeply tied into the history of the location, but that wasn’t quite what happened, which was a shame because I think a lot more could have been done with the medical abuse angle.
There was something I really didn’t like about this book though, and it’s something I wish mystery novels would hurry up and retire. I hate that so many books like this one use sexual violence against women in order to further the plot and act as a motive for the killer. I feel like it really trivialises sexual assault, and connotes this idea that women are disposable and their suffering and misery are just vehicles to enhance the character development and story arc of others. Can we plz stop doing this now? Thnx
⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me because although it was well written and kept me hooked, it didn’t do anything particularly interesting or novel with the genre.
✅ Remote, creepy location
✅ One of us is the murderer style intrigue
✅ Detective haunted by the past
✅ Sinister secrets thought to be long-buried now coming to light
The writing was okay, it was fairly tightly plotted, and the pacing was good. If you’re looking for your next thrilling beach read, this will work.
Some of the elements of the book were a little bit silly, for example the fact that Elin, while on holiday, apparently travels with a knife and a torch at all times, just in case she needs to solve a mystery. That and the fact that some of the reveals were very very obvious, such as what happened to Sam.
I also found the ending a little bit unsatisfying- I was expecting it to build up to the unearthing of this heinous crime that goes back decades and is more deeply tied into the history of the location, but that wasn’t quite what happened, which was a shame because I think a lot more could have been done with the medical abuse angle.
There was something I really didn’t like about this book though, and it’s something I wish mystery novels would hurry up and retire. I hate that so many books like this one use sexual violence against women in order to further the plot and act as a motive for the killer. I feel like it really trivialises sexual assault, and connotes this idea that women are disposable and their suffering and misery are just vehicles to enhance the character development and story arc of others. Can we plz stop doing this now? Thnx
⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me because although it was well written and kept me hooked, it didn’t do anything particularly interesting or novel with the genre.