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emandink 's review for:
Pig Island
by Mo Hayder
I got this book as a Kindle freebie ages ago and finally decided to read it. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't quite this. Normally I would put that down to me and not ding an author a couple of stars because of it, but reading this book, I'm not convinced that Mo Hayder actually know what she was writing either.
The writing is uneven and it is often difficult to follow conversations. The back and forth POV was interesting at first, but seemed a little lazy toward the end, with a lot of plot hinted at, but not really developed.
I stuck with the book largely because I wanted to know how it ended - the story itself had a lot of potential and I was genuinely curious from both a plot and a craft standpoint. Truth be told, I HATED the ending for reasons I will get to under the spoiler text.
The ending itself felt terribly rushed. We get pages of detail of the main character pissing himself in the bathtub and then the ending is half of that culminating in "hey, she set you up mate" and she drives off with what may or may not be an evil spirit rising out of the car.
This is what I mean about Hayder not knowing what she was writing - is this a semi-procedural from a witness perspective that is rooted in realism and rational explanations for the seemingly supernatural? Or is this a mix - a study of how the most rational non-believers may be faced with the unexplainable? Either is fine, but if it's the first, the ending is even more lazy. If it's the second, then I want more of the actual possibilities opened up, not the "ooh, I don't know what happened" rush to end.
I should note that this sort of a cliffhanger refusal to tie things up is a pet peeve of mine, so there's also that.
At any rate, I'll give 3 stars on the basis of the fact that I did read the whole thing and it had definite potential and I don't feel inclined to disinvite the writer to any future reading I may, er, read.
The writing is uneven and it is often difficult to follow conversations. The back and forth POV was interesting at first, but seemed a little lazy toward the end, with a lot of plot hinted at, but not really developed.
I stuck with the book largely because I wanted to know how it ended - the story itself had a lot of potential and I was genuinely curious from both a plot and a craft standpoint. Truth be told, I HATED the ending for reasons I will get to under the spoiler text.
Spoiler
Killing off Lexie was lazy at best. There was all this build up about her and the side-plot with Christophe and those crazy pants totally unrealistic letters to her psychologist, all of which felt completely unnecessary at the end- like the author had built all of this up and then didn't know what to do with her, so she killed her.The ending itself felt terribly rushed. We get pages of detail of the main character pissing himself in the bathtub and then the ending is half of that culminating in "hey, she set you up mate" and she drives off with what may or may not be an evil spirit rising out of the car.
This is what I mean about Hayder not knowing what she was writing - is this a semi-procedural from a witness perspective that is rooted in realism and rational explanations for the seemingly supernatural? Or is this a mix - a study of how the most rational non-believers may be faced with the unexplainable? Either is fine, but if it's the first, the ending is even more lazy. If it's the second, then I want more of the actual possibilities opened up, not the "ooh, I don't know what happened" rush to end.
I should note that this sort of a cliffhanger refusal to tie things up is a pet peeve of mine, so there's also that.
At any rate, I'll give 3 stars on the basis of the fact that I did read the whole thing and it had definite potential and I don't feel inclined to disinvite the writer to any future reading I may, er, read.