A review by lifeofchrstnlvly
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

…the past never stays where we try to keep it, stuffing it deep into the back of a closet and hoping to forget.

I feel bad for Chloe. She's surrounded by people who are either liars or immoral.

I did guess early on the plot twist, but I did not expect this to have many (minor) plot twists. Those little plot twists kept me engaged and made me skim this. However, I needed some help with this book.

Sometimes the transition of Chloe's thoughts from the present to the past (or vice versa) could be more apparent. It could have been more seamless. One minute we're reading about what Chloe was thinking about now/in the present, then the next minute, we're transported to her past, reading about what past Chloe was feeling at that moment. I don't know if this is intentional since Chloe is supposed to be an unreliable narrator, but it sometimes kept me confused. I've read enough thrillers to know there's a better way to do this.

Additionally, some parts are really repetitive. Since this is a first-person POV (Chloe's POV), we know her whereabouts and thoughts, so there is no need to recount what we read in the past chapters. We just read about 1 or 2 chapters about what happened over the weekend because we were "with her" as readers; there's no need to have 2 or 3 paragraphs of summary the chapter after.

It really bothered me how many times the words "flick," "flicker," "flicking," and "flicking" was mentioned (if you're curious: flick = 6, flicker = 13, flicking = 5, flickering = 9... that's a whole lot for a book less than 400 pages).

Overall, I did enjoy this book. I understand this is the author's debut novel. As she writes more books, her writing style will get better. It was okay, I'm glad I read it since it entertained me, but it had some problems. 2.5 stars.
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