A review by jcpreads
After Everything You Did by Stephanie Sowden

mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 
I really really enjoyed this! Far more than I anticipated!! This book packed so much between the covers and still blew me away. The fast pace made this incredible difficult to put this book down and the twists and turns only added to that factor. Overall, an incredible debut novel from Stephanie Sowden.

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πŸ€•This book contained alternating timelines between present time Reeta and Reeta before her memory loss. I really enjoyed the structure of this and learning about what led up to Reeta’s actions and seeing her life before everything crashed & burned.

πŸ€•THE CULT ASPECT! I was not expecting this part of the book but it truly is what sucked me in!!

πŸ€•The characters were great. There were major and minor characters aplenty but you never found yourself confused or scrambling to remember who was who. Sowden did a great job of portraying a good amount of characters while remaining clear and not taking away from the main plot points.

πŸ€•I enjoyed seeing the human side of Agent Willow in certain parts throughout. While he knew Reeta was guilty of her crimes, part of him couldn’t help but empathize with her and her struggle with her memory loss.

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πŸ€•I didn’t love the way the chapters were set up to indicate the alternating timelines. Instead of titling chapters as β€œthen” and β€œnow”, the author opted to have chapters title with β€œiii” and β€œthree” or β€œii” and β€œtwo” to differentiate between the timelines. This wasn’t abundantly clear as a reader and created a little bit of confusion. But once I realized what the author was doing, it was easy to get the hang of it and keep moving forward.