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A review by daniellebranson
Never Tell by Lisa Gardner
4.0
This book is hard to rate. I enjoyed reading it and I was thoroughly engaged through the entire book, which would normally warrant 5 stars from me. But the end did not work for me at all. I was surprised by ‘the twist’ only because it felt so obvious from the onset that I was sure that would not be the answer. But it was.
This book is part of a series, which I didn’t realize because it doesn’t say that on the actual cover anywhere. It didn’t matter in that the plot was a standalone. However, there was a huge difference between how well developed the characters were. The recurring characters got ‘show’ and the new characters got ‘tell’. By which I mean the author told us the characteristics of the new characters and their motivations. I don’t necessarily mind that so much because I don’t expect these books to be great literature or anything. But it stood out because of the contrast to the way that the recurring characters were presented. I actually didn’t even really notice until the main (new) character of the book gave a long winded, boring inner monologue about all the ways the experience has changed them. It was clearly a forced attempt at emotion for a character we really know nothing about.
All this makes it sound like I hated the book but I actually really enjoyed it and I’ve already bought another in the series.
This book is part of a series, which I didn’t realize because it doesn’t say that on the actual cover anywhere. It didn’t matter in that the plot was a standalone. However, there was a huge difference between how well developed the characters were. The recurring characters got ‘show’ and the new characters got ‘tell’. By which I mean the author told us the characteristics of the new characters and their motivations. I don’t necessarily mind that so much because I don’t expect these books to be great literature or anything. But it stood out because of the contrast to the way that the recurring characters were presented. I actually didn’t even really notice until the main (new) character of the book gave a long winded, boring inner monologue about all the ways the experience has changed them. It was clearly a forced attempt at emotion for a character we really know nothing about.
All this makes it sound like I hated the book but I actually really enjoyed it and I’ve already bought another in the series.