Scan barcode
A review by bookph1le
Bloodline by Jess Lourey
2.0
2.5 stars
This had a great setup, but the execution left something to be desired. Read past the spoiler tags at your own risk, as I'm going to be giving the big secret away.
Had the book used white supremacy as the big evil, the couple of racial element woven into the book would also have given it more impact. As it was, I didn't understand why they were there, because they felt more like window dressing than any serious attempt to acknowledge the racial atmosphere of the time period. To me, it came across as signaling, "This lady is white, but she is totally not racist".
Lastly, I had issues with the main character. In the end, her behavior did make more sense, given what she realizes about herself and the impact that trauma would have had on a person, but I found her hard to figure out. One second she's thinking like a wily fox, but the next she's spouting everything that's inside her head. Small wonder she couldn't get away from major creepy town. Her erratic behavior felt too much like convenience, like she was clever when the book needed her to figure out what was going on but lacking in any sense of self-preservation or any self-control when that served the plot by keeping her trapped.
Overall, this book was just...a lot.
This had a great setup, but the execution left something to be desired. Read past the spoiler tags at your own risk, as I'm going to be giving the big secret away.
Spoiler
I thought this book was heading in the direction of the town being a supposed Aryan utopia, which I think would have been a lot better and a lot more disturbing that the weird pseudo-religious plot involving incest, incest, and more incest. All the talk of purity made me think the town's aim was to create a master race, and while that was technically what was going on, the concept didn't make much sense.Had the book used white supremacy as the big evil, the couple of racial element woven into the book would also have given it more impact. As it was, I didn't understand why they were there, because they felt more like window dressing than any serious attempt to acknowledge the racial atmosphere of the time period. To me, it came across as signaling, "This lady is white, but she is totally not racist".
Lastly, I had issues with the main character. In the end, her behavior did make more sense, given what she realizes about herself and the impact that trauma would have had on a person, but I found her hard to figure out. One second she's thinking like a wily fox, but the next she's spouting everything that's inside her head. Small wonder she couldn't get away from major creepy town. Her erratic behavior felt too much like convenience, like she was clever when the book needed her to figure out what was going on but lacking in any sense of self-preservation or any self-control when that served the plot by keeping her trapped.
Overall, this book was just...a lot.