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emilym 's review for:
The Bones of You
by Debbie Howells
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
After reading the reviews of this book, I had high hopes for a psychological thriller, and while the book met the qualifications of a thriller of this type, it fell far short of being a good book. The idea was there, but the only character who had really been fleshed out and developed was the dead daughter, Rosie, who spoke in alternating chapters about her life as it flashers before her like a movie, only stopping when her killer is found. Sound familiar? It should if you have read The Lovely Bones. This similarity was not enough to make the book unlikable; in fact, Rosie was the only character who made the book worth finishing. The main character, semi-neighbor Kate who is not really a close friend but then becomes a somewhat of a confidante of the victim's mother, turns sleuth with two of her friends and they think they have the murder figured out about 5 different times in the book, yet they only consider two possibilities, and every time they think they have it solved, they are so sure of themselves when they have not a lot more than circumstantial evidence to go off of. The three women come off more as gossips than intelligent adults trying to get to the bottom of the case. My biggest problem with the book is Kate's lack of characterization. My biggest question from the very beginning is WHY does Kate care so much about helping Jo, the victim's mother, when she talks about how they aren't very close? Kate becomes consumed with helping this woman who she doesn't know that well, and she descends upon her almost as a caretaker. Then, she would talk behind her back to her "friend", the reporter and feed her inside information about Jo and her family. Highly unbelievable as a reader, in my opinion. Finally, the pacing in the book was very inconsistent. Within a page, months pass, Kate's daughter goes to college, Kate misses her, she comes back home or Kate goes to visit her, and we are just told, in passing, almost, of these events. Issues about marriage, betrayal, empty nesters, and Kate's passion for her horses come and go and really have no bearing on the plot. Only when Rosie's chapters came along did the plot slow down and go into detail. These chapters are the ones that were also the best written with more intricate phrasing. Overall, the plot was fast paced, but it was disappointing in its lack of depth of characterization Characters' motives have to be developed and the reader has to buy them, or the plot pretty much falls apart.....or, like it did for me, made me very skeptical of the characters' actions, reactions and dialogue from the very first page to the last.
After reading the reviews of this book, I had high hopes for a psychological thriller, and while the book met the qualifications of a thriller of this type, it fell far short of being a good book. The idea was there, but the only character who had really been fleshed out and developed was the dead daughter, Rosie, who spoke in alternating chapters about her life as it flashers before her like a movie, only stopping when her killer is found. Sound familiar? It should if you have read The Lovely Bones. This similarity was not enough to make the book unlikable; in fact, Rosie was the only character who made the book worth finishing. The main character, semi-neighbor Kate who is not really a close friend but then becomes a somewhat of a confidante of the victim's mother, turns sleuth with two of her friends and they think they have the murder figured out about 5 different times in the book, yet they only consider two possibilities, and every time they think they have it solved, they are so sure of themselves when they have not a lot more than circumstantial evidence to go off of. The three women come off more as gossips than intelligent adults trying to get to the bottom of the case. My biggest problem with the book is Kate's lack of characterization. My biggest question from the very beginning is WHY does Kate care so much about helping Jo, the victim's mother, when she talks about how they aren't very close? Kate becomes consumed with helping this woman who she doesn't know that well, and she descends upon her almost as a caretaker. Then, she would talk behind her back to her "friend", the reporter and feed her inside information about Jo and her family. Highly unbelievable as a reader, in my opinion. Finally, the pacing in the book was very inconsistent. Within a page, months pass, Kate's daughter goes to college, Kate misses her, she comes back home or Kate goes to visit her, and we are just told, in passing, almost, of these events. Issues about marriage, betrayal, empty nesters, and Kate's passion for her horses come and go and really have no bearing on the plot. Only when Rosie's chapters came along did the plot slow down and go into detail. These chapters are the ones that were also the best written with more intricate phrasing. Overall, the plot was fast paced, but it was disappointing in its lack of depth of characterization Characters' motives have to be developed and the reader has to buy them, or the plot pretty much falls apart.....or, like it did for me, made me very skeptical of the characters' actions, reactions and dialogue from the very first page to the last.