A review by stephanieluxton
The Club by Ellery Lloyd

mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

I didn't like this book for a few reasons and the first one isn't totally the book's fault.
Reason 1 is that I just felt this book was misleading. I was expecting either a murder thriller or a whodunnit mystery and this was neither. This was purely a drama. In the novel description where it says "body count piles up", that is misleading. There is more than 1one death but it's not a slasher movie type situation. 

That being said, people who like slow paced dramas may enjoy this. I think the story had potential.

There were a lot of characters and they were hard to differentiate and keep track of - especially in the first half of the book. Nothing really happens in the first half. There's a ton of backstory about the company that owns the elite clubs and it just felt like a lot. I needed action. I almost gave up multiple times but I persisted.

I think this book suffered from not having a main character. It jumped around between a lot of characters and most of them could have not been in the story and it wouldn't have changed much. I found myself having no idea how old most characters were or being able to picture them. The most interesting character was Nikki and we didn't get to learn much about her til the second half. Jessica was a decent character but I felt like she was missing something.

For a book about social tensions that eventually lead to murder, there wasn't any tense moments in this book. There was a never a time when I was truly afraid for the characters or felt any sense of urgency. It definitely told more than it showed.

This story unravels from multiple perspectives which lessens the amount of mystery. I think it would have been a more compelling story if we got things from one persons perspective or if it was more like a classic mystery in which a detective comes in to unravel it. The author clearly put thought into motives and weaving an intricate web, so that would have been fun. I also think this storyline would probably be better as a movie or short tv series than in this book format.

I will say that I found the last 25% or so of the book to be the best part. 


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