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ellewhile 's review for:
Blood Will Out
by Jo Treggiari
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Teen for the ARC!
This book spoke to me at the beginning. It has a nice cover, an interesting synopsis, and a seemingly likeable narrator. That's... about it. I tried to like this book, I really did! It was just slow and unoriginal, and the writing wasn't good enough to make up for that.
One of the major issues with this book is the characters- specifically, the main character. She had no original or intriguing ideas. Her POV was so bland that it was like reading a news interview or some other detached-yet-opinionated writing segment. Not to mention that everyone behaved so unrealistically!
(Spoilers below)
I mean, this girl drives a car with a guy who's head was shot off in the passenger seat, and her parents don't even cry or anything when she gets home safe?! They were trying to get her to go to school like a week after she was kidnapped by an unknown perpetrator?! I think the most emotion the dad showed was when he yelled at the police officer interviewing Ari (our mc).
The police were another thing altogether. What small town police officer wouldn't jump on the opportunity to work a possible case? Apparently the one Ari talked to, because he rudely insisted that he wouldn't even look into a possible kidnapping because the victim hadn't been missing for at least 24 hours. It's not like someone had butchered and displayed a bunch of pets a week before. I doubt their town has seen a proper crime since forever ago - a fact pointed out by the main character previously in the novel. *Huff*
I had hoped throughout the book that the writing would get better, that the story would take an interesting 360, but that never happened. The writing stayed the same: standard, if not a bit bland, with practically no world building. There was basically no atmosphere at all (somehow?). Treggiari had intended to craft an unreliable narrator in order to keep us readers guessing, but the writing wasn't good enough for her to pull that off. Ari's memories/recollections were just confusing and I often had no I idea what was really happening. This was made worse by ideas that were introduced yet not explained; I was so lost!
On the very first page the word "she" is repeated around twenty thousand times, giving the impression that this was a mildly popular yet lightly edited fanfic. That theory is further supported by the unstructured paragraphs (what was up with that?) and writing level.
Also, Ari was just dumb. She thought lesser of girls only because they were younger than her, but she had no reason to? She acted like being in the bottom of a well for eighteen hours allows you to see the secret of the universe.
That's not even accounting for the whodunit problem. The character pool was so small that you could figure out who the psycho was with good ol' process of elimination at the 50% mark. With the way this novel ended, I can't tell if there's going to be a sequel or not, but I hope there isn't. Treggiari has a lot of potential as a writer, but I believe she should leave this book to rest and work on something else. When she comes out with something else (as long as it's not a sequel) I'll pick it up.
This book spoke to me at the beginning. It has a nice cover, an interesting synopsis, and a seemingly likeable narrator. That's... about it. I tried to like this book, I really did! It was just slow and unoriginal, and the writing wasn't good enough to make up for that.
One of the major issues with this book is the characters- specifically, the main character. She had no original or intriguing ideas. Her POV was so bland that it was like reading a news interview or some other detached-yet-opinionated writing segment. Not to mention that everyone behaved so unrealistically!
(Spoilers below)
I mean, this girl drives a car with a guy who's head was shot off in the passenger seat, and her parents don't even cry or anything when she gets home safe?! They were trying to get her to go to school like a week after she was kidnapped by an unknown perpetrator?! I think the most emotion the dad showed was when he yelled at the police officer interviewing Ari (our mc).
The police were another thing altogether. What small town police officer wouldn't jump on the opportunity to work a possible case? Apparently the one Ari talked to, because he rudely insisted that he wouldn't even look into a possible kidnapping because the victim hadn't been missing for at least 24 hours. It's not like someone had butchered and displayed a bunch of pets a week before. I doubt their town has seen a proper crime since forever ago - a fact pointed out by the main character previously in the novel. *Huff*
I had hoped throughout the book that the writing would get better, that the story would take an interesting 360, but that never happened. The writing stayed the same: standard, if not a bit bland, with practically no world building. There was basically no atmosphere at all (somehow?). Treggiari had intended to craft an unreliable narrator in order to keep us readers guessing, but the writing wasn't good enough for her to pull that off. Ari's memories/recollections were just confusing and I often had no I idea what was really happening. This was made worse by ideas that were introduced yet not explained; I was so lost!
On the very first page the word "she" is repeated around twenty thousand times, giving the impression that this was a mildly popular yet lightly edited fanfic. That theory is further supported by the unstructured paragraphs (what was up with that?) and writing level.
Also, Ari was just dumb. She thought lesser of girls only because they were younger than her, but she had no reason to? She acted like being in the bottom of a well for eighteen hours allows you to see the secret of the universe.
That's not even accounting for the whodunit problem. The character pool was so small that you could figure out who the psycho was with good ol' process of elimination at the 50% mark. With the way this novel ended, I can't tell if there's going to be a sequel or not, but I hope there isn't. Treggiari has a lot of potential as a writer, but I believe she should leave this book to rest and work on something else. When she comes out with something else (as long as it's not a sequel) I'll pick it up.