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A review by sandrareilly513
Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard
2.0
Adele Rafferty became an actress by accident -- a chance meeting at a casting call when she was just a child led to her budding stardom on a successful TV show in Ireland. But after fleeing to L.A. for a clean slate and bigger dreams, Adele struggles to find acting gigs in a big town with countless other actresses vying for the same "big break". So when she gets an out-of-the-blue call about a super-secret, NDA-requiring lead role in an upcoming suspense movie being filmed in her home country, she skeptically yet gratefully boards the first flight back to Ireland. Adele becomes increasingly uncomfortable when she gets to the secluded cottage in the Irish countryside, especially with a skeleton crew of all men, a rude director, and no cell service. When weird things start happening, she realizes she was right to be skeptical about the role but isn't sure who -- or what -- she can trust around her. What began as Adele's revival role becomes a fight for her survival.
Thoughts: Premise = interesting, which is why I requested this NetGalley DRC. I'm a horror/thriller movie fan, so this sounded like my kind of book. And it started off strong as an intriguing meta-plot -- a young woman at a secluded Irish cottage where scary things start happening playing the part of a young woman at a secluded Irish cottage where scary things start happening who is reading a book about a young woman at the same secluded cottage where scary things start happening. I was ready for a mind-twisting story. What I got instead was some gaslighting, repetitive scenes, a mystery I solved halfway through, and a concluding explanation that was very anticlimactic. This is the second Catherine Ryan Howard book I've read and I wasn't terribly impressed with the first one, either. I will say, though, that the suspense scenes are well-written and definitely gave the plot the cat-and-mouse, who-can-she-trust vibes the story synopsis promised. I just wish there was a bigger twist to make the plot less predictable and the ending more impactful.
**Thank you, Netgalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for a honest review.
Thoughts: Premise = interesting, which is why I requested this NetGalley DRC. I'm a horror/thriller movie fan, so this sounded like my kind of book. And it started off strong as an intriguing meta-plot -- a young woman at a secluded Irish cottage where scary things start happening playing the part of a young woman at a secluded Irish cottage where scary things start happening who is reading a book about a young woman at the same secluded cottage where scary things start happening. I was ready for a mind-twisting story. What I got instead was some gaslighting, repetitive scenes, a mystery I solved halfway through, and a concluding explanation that was very anticlimactic. This is the second Catherine Ryan Howard book I've read and I wasn't terribly impressed with the first one, either. I will say, though, that the suspense scenes are well-written and definitely gave the plot the cat-and-mouse, who-can-she-trust vibes the story synopsis promised. I just wish there was a bigger twist to make the plot less predictable and the ending more impactful.
**Thank you, Netgalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for a honest review.