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A review by geoffdgeorge
The Herd by Andrea Bartz
Read chapters of this at night before bed and listened to other chapters on audiobook on walks up into Evanston after work. The book fills up a Millenial bingo card quickly: dating apps, emojis, Skrillex, fashion and lifestyle blogging, talk of microaggressions, even fucking avocado toast.
The plot revolves around a murder at a women-only coworking space, which could be a cool, topical setup for a beach-read thriller! The writing kept taking me out of it, though, especially the endless parade of wordy, clunky similes:
"Hana enters any room like Lily Tomlin in an '80s office comedy."
"Their questions floated over my head like speech bubbles in a cartoon."
"I watched her cry, feeling my impression of her shifting like tectonic plates inside my skull."
"I futzed and fumbled, jabbing at the keyhole like an awkward teen during his first sexual encounter."
Got pretty impatient with the whole thing about halfway through and just plowed on to the end, past a number of half-baked plot threads, including a completely tacked-on romance. Sometimes it's best for a thriller to just be a thriller.
The plot revolves around a murder at a women-only coworking space, which could be a cool, topical setup for a beach-read thriller! The writing kept taking me out of it, though, especially the endless parade of wordy, clunky similes:
"Hana enters any room like Lily Tomlin in an '80s office comedy."
"Their questions floated over my head like speech bubbles in a cartoon."
"I watched her cry, feeling my impression of her shifting like tectonic plates inside my skull."
"I futzed and fumbled, jabbing at the keyhole like an awkward teen during his first sexual encounter."
Got pretty impatient with the whole thing about halfway through and just plowed on to the end, past a number of half-baked plot threads, including a completely tacked-on romance. Sometimes it's best for a thriller to just be a thriller.