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A review by hainyh
Guilty by Laura Elliot
1.0
I am a big fan of psychological thrillers, and can get on with most, whatever the plot. However, 'Guilty' fell short for me for a number of reasons.
The book is told in four parts, concerning the mystery of a missing school girl. The first part of the book set the scene for missing Constance, planting lots of questions in the reader's mind. The book us fairly fast-paced at this point, leaving you eager to read on to uncover the answers to Constance's disappearance. I am more used to major plot twists coming towards the end of a book, with gradual build-up and suspense throughout, until the twist is finally uncovered in a nice, meaty ending. In 'Guilty' however, the answer missing Constance (and the climax of the main storyline) was revealed in part one, less than halfway through the book. This left me baffled as I couldn't imagine what the rest of the book would address, and my reservations were justified. The remainder of the story concerned other characters in the book and their interconnected stories, but seemed to go off on a tangent, away from the topic of Constance. It felt almost as though I was reading two completely different books that had been joined together, and I didn't feel it worked. If Constance's disappearance had been the sole focus of the book, with more questions and momentum gathered for most of the book, I would have scored this much more highly.
Unfortunately for me, 'Guilty' didn't grab me. After the first part, it took a lot of effort to read through the rest of the book. It dragged, the chapters seemed disjointed, and there wasn't a huge climax to work towards.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.
The book is told in four parts, concerning the mystery of a missing school girl. The first part of the book set the scene for missing Constance, planting lots of questions in the reader's mind. The book us fairly fast-paced at this point, leaving you eager to read on to uncover the answers to Constance's disappearance. I am more used to major plot twists coming towards the end of a book, with gradual build-up and suspense throughout, until the twist is finally uncovered in a nice, meaty ending. In 'Guilty' however, the answer missing Constance (and the climax of the main storyline) was revealed in part one, less than halfway through the book. This left me baffled as I couldn't imagine what the rest of the book would address, and my reservations were justified. The remainder of the story concerned other characters in the book and their interconnected stories, but seemed to go off on a tangent, away from the topic of Constance. It felt almost as though I was reading two completely different books that had been joined together, and I didn't feel it worked. If Constance's disappearance had been the sole focus of the book, with more questions and momentum gathered for most of the book, I would have scored this much more highly.
Unfortunately for me, 'Guilty' didn't grab me. After the first part, it took a lot of effort to read through the rest of the book. It dragged, the chapters seemed disjointed, and there wasn't a huge climax to work towards.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.