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A review by ashleysue75
Locust Lane by Stephen Amidon
3.0
I enjoyed the idea of this novel more than the execution. A story about small town secrets, characters who make questionable decisions, families with checkered histories…all components for a great read, but I felt it didn’t quite live up to its potential.
While the plot kept my interest, I found it difficult to connect with the characters. They were all flawed in a very human way, but their redeeming personality traits were not presented in a way that balanced out their negative ones.
The structure caused me to lose interest as well. While an alternating POV can be used to great effect when revealing different perspectives of the same situation, here it felt a bit redundant.
I also found the death of a main character about 2/3 of the way into the book to be a bit too convenient. I felt the author just wasn’t sure how to tidily wrap up this person’s storyline and found this was the easiest way to do so.
There were multiple important, relevant issues that were brought up in this storyline, but none were explored sufficiently to really alter the reader’s viewpoint.
My biggest problem with this novel, however, was that a character who was presented as someone to root for turned out to have committed a horrific act that was pathetically excused by some twisted form of peer pressure. Anyone who can pull a Brock Turner doesn’t deserve our empathy or a sympathetic spin.
There was much to keep the reader engaged in this novel, but I ultimately encountered too many issues to recommend it as a must-read.
My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for m honest feedback.
While the plot kept my interest, I found it difficult to connect with the characters. They were all flawed in a very human way, but their redeeming personality traits were not presented in a way that balanced out their negative ones.
The structure caused me to lose interest as well. While an alternating POV can be used to great effect when revealing different perspectives of the same situation, here it felt a bit redundant.
I also found the death of a main character about 2/3 of the way into the book to be a bit too convenient. I felt the author just wasn’t sure how to tidily wrap up this person’s storyline and found this was the easiest way to do so.
There were multiple important, relevant issues that were brought up in this storyline, but none were explored sufficiently to really alter the reader’s viewpoint.
My biggest problem with this novel, however, was that a character who was presented as someone to root for turned out to have committed a horrific act that was pathetically excused by some twisted form of peer pressure. Anyone who can pull a Brock Turner doesn’t deserve our empathy or a sympathetic spin.
There was much to keep the reader engaged in this novel, but I ultimately encountered too many issues to recommend it as a must-read.
My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for m honest feedback.