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minna1999 's review for:
I Killed Zoe Spanos
by Kit Frick
How does the saying go? If I had a nickel for every time I read a gripping thriller set on a beach town with a protagonist named Anna, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that happened twice. (I’m referring to Dangerous Girls, by the way).
The thing that stands out most to me in this book is the setting. I love love love the setting. It’s set in a beach town in the Hamptons. The town itself feels like a character. Every place is beautifully described. The different houses dotting it are given unique descriptions and even names. There’s even a little map at the beginning and some explanation of town history!
There are podcast transcripts interspersed between chapters, an unreliable narrator, and continuous flashes in between past and present. In short: the perfect recipe for a good thriller.
This was a wonderful journey, and I couldn’t put the book down. Sadly, though, the ending was a little anticlimactic to me.
——
Spoilers below:
I feel like the twist that she was Zoe’s sister would’ve been more shocking if it weren’t so emphasized that she looked like Zoe. If it was mentioned once or twice in passing, foreshadowing could’ve been maintained while having it still be shocking, but it was mentioned so many times that the only logical conclusion would be that they were sisters.
Also, the real killer being Zoe’s other sister, and having it be unintentional, was so anticlimactic. I wish it was actually Anna and that would be the twist. The sister reveal definitely gave her a good motive. But that’d be dangerously close in plot to Dangerous Girls, so I understand.
I do think Kit Frick did a wonderful job of revealing how exactly Anna’s memories got jumbled, what with her real childhood memories of Zoe mixing up with her memories of her friend Starr’s drowning.
The thing that stands out most to me in this book is the setting. I love love love the setting. It’s set in a beach town in the Hamptons. The town itself feels like a character. Every place is beautifully described. The different houses dotting it are given unique descriptions and even names. There’s even a little map at the beginning and some explanation of town history!
There are podcast transcripts interspersed between chapters, an unreliable narrator, and continuous flashes in between past and present. In short: the perfect recipe for a good thriller.
This was a wonderful journey, and I couldn’t put the book down. Sadly, though, the ending was a little anticlimactic to me.
——
Spoilers below:
I feel like the twist that she was Zoe’s sister would’ve been more shocking if it weren’t so emphasized that she looked like Zoe. If it was mentioned once or twice in passing, foreshadowing could’ve been maintained while having it still be shocking, but it was mentioned so many times that the only logical conclusion would be that they were sisters.
Also, the real killer being Zoe’s other sister, and having it be unintentional, was so anticlimactic. I wish it was actually Anna and that would be the twist. The sister reveal definitely gave her a good motive. But that’d be dangerously close in plot to Dangerous Girls, so I understand.
I do think Kit Frick did a wonderful job of revealing how exactly Anna’s memories got jumbled, what with her real childhood memories of Zoe mixing up with her memories of her friend Starr’s drowning.