the_fmc 's review for:

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

2.0

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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It started out interesting. Read 100 pages in a day. And then it went downhill. So many characters and no development. Just reveal after reveal. The horror element lost its intrigue. All the interesting parts were dealt with later in an aftermath perspective which loss the thrill part. What was this book? It wasn’t that suspenseful as it went on. Cutting away to try and keep suspense but just got annoying. The townspeople turned into cartoon villains. Yes it was fear of the other but the “were all stranglers now” made me want to roll my eyes. Maybe 100 more pages to flush things out so I wasn’t sitting there. Like everything felt rushed and unearned at the end. Ugh.

And fuck Joab. I feel like I was supposed to care or get some message but, even though his mom introduced him to a life of crime, I didn’t care for some redemption arc. Not saying I wanted him killed off but I would have not like to read chapters from his POV.

 This book really focused on a lot of messages and would have worked much better for me if it had focused on the Adelaide and Elizabeth and the fear of the other. Instead it was an everything salad.