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A review by mxcopmy
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
2,5-3 And spoilers ahead!
I must honestly confess that I sometimes have slightly too high expectations when I dive into Slaughter's books. This is probably because I have been slogging through the Will Trent series like crazy since I was 14-15. I've always loved them, even the most recent ones I've read always struck a chord. Only with this one, I really feel like there are very big chunks missing which meant I didn't have the saturated feeling I normally always have after reading a KS.
The most righteous excuse I can perhaps bring to this is because this was her very first book she has written. The biggest reason why I always keep returning to a book of hers is because of her magically complex way of setting stories. Also to get back to those nice nostalgic feelings whenever I just see Will or Sara's name. That alone makes me perk up. The complex storyline was completely missing here, in my opinion. For instance, it is largely just 1 storyline where normally in all her other books, she can certainly relate 2-3 storylines. There were also very sloppy pieces of writing at times, making for a huge lack of comprehensiveness. To focus a bit more on this, I would like to bring up an example for this (!SPOILER ALLERT FOR THE NEXT FOUR SINS!): there is one particular section where Peet's employee (namely Will) gets a brick thrown through his window with "just watch out n*****" causing Jeffrey to determine to spend a night at Will's house. In this night, Jeffrey is shot through the leg from the window. This part of the story has just been described, but just not elaborated on. So there is no mention anywhere of what or who shot Jeffrey in the leg. Nor was it linked to the criminal acts. To go into another bit of sloppiness, I found that the part where Sara confesses to having been raped in the past was very unrealistic. How could Sara only realise so late that actually her case from 12 years ago had been committed in a similar way to the cases that had happened now? It was just really too short-lived.... and as icing on the cake, it's still not clear to me what the perpetrator's Christian motive was. Or well, anyway why he linked the Bible to his actions so often here? Anyways, so there were a lot of things that I didn't like, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I couldn't put the book down and, as a result, finished it in 48 hours. I had my eye on the person in question early in the story, but KS had then put me on the wrong track somewhere in the half of the book (you got me there, lol). And even when it was revealed that he was the one who had done it I was still full of adrenaline! I also loved the fact that we, as readers, figured out who it was slightly in advance before Sara and Jeffrey could come to that fact. This makes you go over your toll a bit more! Conclusion: so it was still a surprise this late in the book! Crazy cool!
I had decided to delve into the Grand County series after finding Sara such an incredibly strong and inspiring character in the Will Trent series books. I'm definitely going to continue this series because I'm doing it mainly for Sara anyway (and because I have more positive experiences with Slaughter's reading than negative ones anyway ;) ).
By the way, can these old covers be used again for her books? At least these REALLY give you the sense of suspicion and creepiness to a thriller. I love it! So I really read the book constantly with the cover in the back of my mind because it settled a bit more darkly!
I must honestly confess that I sometimes have slightly too high expectations when I dive into Slaughter's books. This is probably because I have been slogging through the Will Trent series like crazy since I was 14-15. I've always loved them, even the most recent ones I've read always struck a chord. Only with this one, I really feel like there are very big chunks missing which meant I didn't have the saturated feeling I normally always have after reading a KS.
The most righteous excuse I can perhaps bring to this is because this was her very first book she has written. The biggest reason why I always keep returning to a book of hers is because of her magically complex way of setting stories. Also to get back to those nice nostalgic feelings whenever I just see Will or Sara's name. That alone makes me perk up. The complex storyline was completely missing here, in my opinion. For instance, it is largely just 1 storyline where normally in all her other books, she can certainly relate 2-3 storylines. There were also very sloppy pieces of writing at times, making for a huge lack of comprehensiveness. To focus a bit more on this, I would like to bring up an example for this (!SPOILER ALLERT FOR THE NEXT FOUR SINS!): there is one particular section where Peet's employee (namely Will) gets a brick thrown through his window with "just watch out n*****" causing Jeffrey to determine to spend a night at Will's house. In this night, Jeffrey is shot through the leg from the window. This part of the story has just been described, but just not elaborated on. So there is no mention anywhere of what or who shot Jeffrey in the leg. Nor was it linked to the criminal acts. To go into another bit of sloppiness, I found that the part where Sara confesses to having been raped in the past was very unrealistic. How could Sara only realise so late that actually her case from 12 years ago had been committed in a similar way to the cases that had happened now? It was just really too short-lived.... and as icing on the cake, it's still not clear to me what the perpetrator's Christian motive was. Or well, anyway why he linked the Bible to his actions so often here? Anyways, so there were a lot of things that I didn't like, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I couldn't put the book down and, as a result, finished it in 48 hours. I had my eye on the person in question early in the story, but KS had then put me on the wrong track somewhere in the half of the book (you got me there, lol). And even when it was revealed that he was the one who had done it I was still full of adrenaline! I also loved the fact that we, as readers, figured out who it was slightly in advance before Sara and Jeffrey could come to that fact. This makes you go over your toll a bit more! Conclusion: so it was still a surprise this late in the book! Crazy cool!
I had decided to delve into the Grand County series after finding Sara such an incredibly strong and inspiring character in the Will Trent series books. I'm definitely going to continue this series because I'm doing it mainly for Sara anyway (and because I have more positive experiences with Slaughter's reading than negative ones anyway ;) ).
By the way, can these old covers be used again for her books? At least these REALLY give you the sense of suspicion and creepiness to a thriller. I love it! So I really read the book constantly with the cover in the back of my mind because it settled a bit more darkly!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, Medical content, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicide, and Violence