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A review by sipping_tea_with_ghosts
Come with Me by Ronald Malfi
2.0
Come With Me initially starts out strong and portrays grief in a poignant yet restrained manner, framing loss as more than just knowing you'll never see someone again. Unfortunately the mystery that comes alongside this idea doesn't live up to its potential. There is something alluring in a morbid fashion about seeing that the one you loved isn't the person you thought they were, but the further the book goes on, it makes the reader wonder how the protagonist ever fell in love with this person to begin with. At the start, protagonist Aaron is believable with how overwrought with grief he is and is understandably uneasy when he finds the strange pieces concerning Allison's secret life. As searches into adultery evolves into hunting a serial killer, Aaron becomes a commendable amateur detective until the second half of the book rears its ugly head.
During the second half, when flashbacks are frequent and progress hits a standstill, it really makes me wish that this whole adventure was a hundred pages shorter. Things technically progress but that's only because the names of random involved dickhead are different. One particular flashback and a revelation about Allison later officially killed off any likability of the character for me. It's ok if you make characters to be unconventional in attractiveness but when you're in the head of her idiotic husband, well it doesn't make for a fun ride. The flashback I'm harping on is a cringe-worthy sex scene that involves light bondage and reads like it was made by someone who thinks 50 Shades of Grey is good reference material. I am not joking. The only thing I gathered from this book is that Aaron must be such a loser, that he finds socially inept idiots with vigilante complexes to be his kink.
There's some decent world building but it starts to detract from the story when the local legends sound like supernatural set dressing and the ending feels simultaneously twee and mean spirited at the same time. I didn't feel satisfied by the resolution of the mystery and the actions of the protagonist in the later half borders on the irrational - mirroring his late wife with the thinking patterns of a moody teenager, tragic backstory be damned.
During the second half, when flashbacks are frequent and progress hits a standstill, it really makes me wish that this whole adventure was a hundred pages shorter. Things technically progress but that's only because the names of random involved dickhead are different. One particular flashback and a revelation about Allison later officially killed off any likability of the character for me. It's ok if you make characters to be unconventional in attractiveness but when you're in the head of her idiotic husband, well it doesn't make for a fun ride. The flashback I'm harping on is a cringe-worthy sex scene that involves light bondage and reads like it was made by someone who thinks 50 Shades of Grey is good reference material. I am not joking. The only thing I gathered from this book is that Aaron must be such a loser, that he finds socially inept idiots with vigilante complexes to be his kink.
There's some decent world building but it starts to detract from the story when the local legends sound like supernatural set dressing and the ending feels simultaneously twee and mean spirited at the same time. I didn't feel satisfied by the resolution of the mystery and the actions of the protagonist in the later half borders on the irrational - mirroring his late wife with the thinking patterns of a moody teenager, tragic backstory be damned.