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A review by kuppy
The Girl Before You by Nicola Rayner
3.0
The girl before you review
Does a good job of building the story, just enough of a peek at the mystery, introducing the red haired girls who’s hair was fanned out as if underwater....creepy!
In the first few chapters, I found the alternating narrators a bit confusing, possibly too choppy or providing too many details or too deep into the background to be able to keep the info straight (and I have plenty of experience with alternating narrators). But the story kept me enraptured, and I got into the rhythm of past and present, wanting me to push forward and unravel the relationship between the named characters. On occasion I got lost in the timeline (location 1378) between past and present, as if the author didn’t give the right guidance or placemarkers to keep it clear. And all the smoking references made me laugh! I’m not sure if the author did it on purpose, or it seems to stick out like sore thumbs since smoking went underground. Add that to the excessive alcohol consumption and it’s amazing any of these characters survived college. I can’t quite work out what all this excess was meant to amount to — blame? Did all these people suffer because of their excess? Their privilege? Overall, I liked the pacing of the story and I felt an urgency to discover what really happened. I felt disappointed when it was all worked out, somewhat anti-climactic, though there was enlightenment and resolution for most of the characters. 3 star.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Merged review:
The girl before you review
Does a good job of building the story, just enough of a peek at the mystery, introducing the red haired girls who’s hair was fanned out as if underwater....creepy!
In the first few chapters, I found the alternating narrators a bit confusing, possibly too choppy or providing too many details or too deep into the background to be able to keep the info straight (and I have plenty of experience with alternating narrators). But the story kept me enraptured, and I got into the rhythm of past and present, wanting me to push forward and unravel the relationship between the named characters. On occasion I got lost in the timeline (location 1378) between past and present, as if the author didn’t give the right guidance or placemarkers to keep it clear. And all the smoking references made me laugh! I’m not sure if the author did it on purpose, or it seems to stick out like sore thumbs since smoking went underground. Add that to the excessive alcohol consumption and it’s amazing any of these characters survived college. I can’t quite work out what all this excess was meant to amount to — blame? Did all these people suffer because of their excess? Their privilege? Overall, I liked the pacing of the story and I felt an urgency to discover what really happened. I felt disappointed when it was all worked out, somewhat anti-climactic, though there was enlightenment and resolution for most of the characters. 3 star.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Does a good job of building the story, just enough of a peek at the mystery, introducing the red haired girls who’s hair was fanned out as if underwater....creepy!
In the first few chapters, I found the alternating narrators a bit confusing, possibly too choppy or providing too many details or too deep into the background to be able to keep the info straight (and I have plenty of experience with alternating narrators). But the story kept me enraptured, and I got into the rhythm of past and present, wanting me to push forward and unravel the relationship between the named characters. On occasion I got lost in the timeline (location 1378) between past and present, as if the author didn’t give the right guidance or placemarkers to keep it clear. And all the smoking references made me laugh! I’m not sure if the author did it on purpose, or it seems to stick out like sore thumbs since smoking went underground. Add that to the excessive alcohol consumption and it’s amazing any of these characters survived college. I can’t quite work out what all this excess was meant to amount to — blame? Did all these people suffer because of their excess? Their privilege? Overall, I liked the pacing of the story and I felt an urgency to discover what really happened. I felt disappointed when it was all worked out, somewhat anti-climactic, though there was enlightenment and resolution for most of the characters. 3 star.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Merged review:
The girl before you review
Does a good job of building the story, just enough of a peek at the mystery, introducing the red haired girls who’s hair was fanned out as if underwater....creepy!
In the first few chapters, I found the alternating narrators a bit confusing, possibly too choppy or providing too many details or too deep into the background to be able to keep the info straight (and I have plenty of experience with alternating narrators). But the story kept me enraptured, and I got into the rhythm of past and present, wanting me to push forward and unravel the relationship between the named characters. On occasion I got lost in the timeline (location 1378) between past and present, as if the author didn’t give the right guidance or placemarkers to keep it clear. And all the smoking references made me laugh! I’m not sure if the author did it on purpose, or it seems to stick out like sore thumbs since smoking went underground. Add that to the excessive alcohol consumption and it’s amazing any of these characters survived college. I can’t quite work out what all this excess was meant to amount to — blame? Did all these people suffer because of their excess? Their privilege? Overall, I liked the pacing of the story and I felt an urgency to discover what really happened. I felt disappointed when it was all worked out, somewhat anti-climactic, though there was enlightenment and resolution for most of the characters. 3 star.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.