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A review by simonlorden
She Left by Stacie Grey
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I received an ARC through NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Seventeen-year-old Amy has a fight with her friends and walks out of a house party while fireworks are going off outside. When she gets home, she learns that the five friends she left behind at the cabin were all killed shortly after she left. Twenty years later, Amy - now using her middle name Therese - is one of ten people invited to a lodge by a journalist working on a story about the massacre.
The structure is familiar: ten people are trapped in a building in the middle of a storm, and they start dying one by one. There is a killer in the building, and it is almost certainly one of them. I would say that all the characters were equally suspicious, and since the killer's motive was only revealed right before the big reveal, I'm not sure it would have been possible for someone to guess right - but it's difficult to build a story where you drop enough hints but not too many. Also, maybe someone is cleverer than me.
The cast is pretty diverse, including a gay Black guy, a Mexican guy and an Asian woman, and we have a short chapter from everyone's POV where we can see into their heads a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't really find myself connecting to any of the characters, although Lorelei, the formerly homeless addict who managed to clean up her life was probably my favorite.
Overall it's an entertaining read, but not particularly extraordinary in its genre.
Seventeen-year-old Amy has a fight with her friends and walks out of a house party while fireworks are going off outside. When she gets home, she learns that the five friends she left behind at the cabin were all killed shortly after she left. Twenty years later, Amy - now using her middle name Therese - is one of ten people invited to a lodge by a journalist working on a story about the massacre.
The structure is familiar: ten people are trapped in a building in the middle of a storm, and they start dying one by one. There is a killer in the building, and it is almost certainly one of them. I would say that all the characters were equally suspicious, and since the killer's motive was only revealed right before the big reveal, I'm not sure it would have been possible for someone to guess right - but it's difficult to build a story where you drop enough hints but not too many. Also, maybe someone is cleverer than me.
The cast is pretty diverse, including a gay Black guy, a Mexican guy and an Asian woman, and we have a short chapter from everyone's POV where we can see into their heads a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't really find myself connecting to any of the characters, although Lorelei, the formerly homeless addict who managed to clean up her life was probably my favorite.
Overall it's an entertaining read, but not particularly extraordinary in its genre.