macandpaperbacks 's review for:

If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay

5.0

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Mr first Alex Finlay book was a smash success; I couldn’t stop listening. This plot was so intricate, the characters were so complex and flushed out, and none of the turns were expected (for me at least). 

The audio production was great - this story had every opportunity to be too hard to follow while listening. But the cast of characters and the constant reminders of which city we were in was immensely helpful in keeping all the details and storylines straight. 

I will say, I was not a huge fan of how the friends/high schoolers were written. They were supposed to be older but acted very childish, this wasn’t a huge factor to the negative but it did briefly take me out of the story. Just as the nickname for one of the characters (Pinky Man) also really started to grate on me after a while. This seemed a little childish to me as well, and almost funny, which didn’t match the tone of the rest of the book. But these are small things I got over quickly. 

My jaw *dropped* at the end of part one. And I absolutely loved who flawlessly pieces slowly (and sometimes abruptly) fell into place. It was brilliant. I REALLY enjoyed the ending, it tumbled downhill quickly and tied most everything together, but I did feel myself asking a few more questions and being left wanting a bit more of the “after” of some of the characters.