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dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is my first thriller book and I've been influenced by tiktok to read this because most people have this on their recommendation as a thriller reader. Unfortunately, I'm one of the few who doesn't think that the hype lives up to it.
From the beginning I'm not already a big fan of the writing style, I thought it was juvenile and maybe it comes from place of personal bias against first person perspective, but I've read some first person POV's before and it's not as bad and poorly written as this book. The style reminds me of amateur Wattpad writers, to put it bluntly.
Another thing, I struggled to find the characters personable. I think they lacked any form of depth that I can't even move past how they seem to be stereotypical caricatures. I can only overlook so much before most of them just turn into divisive characters convenient for the plot written in the same way. Like, you can't really tell Tricia, Ethan and Dr. Hale's characters apart. They are all self-serving people willing to go through lengths like kill others to get what they want. There are not enough personalities to tell them apart, it's as if you could replace them with one another.
For example, Dr. Adrienne Hale is regarded as an intelligent Harvard psychiatrist. Therefore, she has to be written as a cold, stoic and incapable of love kind of woman who only cares about work and psychoanalyzes in her POV. I found some of the psychological little facts and her application of it to be unnecessary, like yes, I get it. She's supposed to be depicted as an intelligent and independent woman who is passionate of her work. But it feels like it's doing too much, almost like a daily reminder that she's an intelligent psychiatrist. There's also Tricia, I'm not particularly fond of her either. I think the daily reminders of her secretly being pregnant, the constant mentions of Ethan being a red flag according to her friends and family that she disregards, mentioning how "familiar" EJ's voice is in the tapes, are all such poor ways to make you focus on Ethan as the possible killer, so you could focus on his initials being the same with EJ.
I wouldn't have had any problem with it, but I think there could have been better and less obnoxious red herrings.
The plot twist is the only reason I'm giving it a two star instead of a one. While I didn't see such things coming, I think the execution was done very poorly. Again, the red herrings as I mentioned was just obnoxious. I just wish the book was written better because it wastes how good the twist could've been executed.
I'm not sure yet that maybe I'm not much of a thriller reader but this is just my first that I read. I'm giving the genre at least a couple more chances before concluding that maybe I just appreciate the genre in film. But this was not a good impression for me so far.
From the beginning I'm not already a big fan of the writing style, I thought it was juvenile and maybe it comes from place of personal bias against first person perspective, but I've read some first person POV's before and it's not as bad and poorly written as this book. The style reminds me of amateur Wattpad writers, to put it bluntly.
Another thing, I struggled to find the characters personable. I think they lacked any form of depth that I can't even move past how they seem to be stereotypical caricatures. I can only overlook so much before most of them just turn into divisive characters convenient for the plot written in the same way. Like, you can't really tell Tricia, Ethan and Dr. Hale's characters apart. They are all self-serving people willing to go through lengths like kill others to get what they want. There are not enough personalities to tell them apart, it's as if you could replace them with one another.
For example, Dr. Adrienne Hale is regarded as an intelligent Harvard psychiatrist. Therefore, she has to be written as a cold, stoic and incapable of love kind of woman who only cares about work and psychoanalyzes in her POV. I found some of the psychological little facts and her application of it to be unnecessary, like yes, I get it. She's supposed to be depicted as an intelligent and independent woman who is passionate of her work. But it feels like it's doing too much, almost like a daily reminder that she's an intelligent psychiatrist. There's also Tricia, I'm not particularly fond of her either. I think the daily reminders of her secretly being pregnant, the constant mentions of Ethan being a red flag according to her friends and family that she disregards, mentioning how "familiar" EJ's voice is in the tapes, are all such poor ways to make you focus on Ethan as the possible killer, so you could focus on his initials being the same with EJ.
I wouldn't have had any problem with it, but I think there could have been better and less obnoxious red herrings.
The plot twist is the only reason I'm giving it a two star instead of a one. While I didn't see such things coming, I think the execution was done very poorly. Again, the red herrings as I mentioned was just obnoxious. I just wish the book was written better because it wastes how good the twist could've been executed.
I'm not sure yet that maybe I'm not much of a thriller reader but this is just my first that I read. I'm giving the genre at least a couple more chances before concluding that maybe I just appreciate the genre in film. But this was not a good impression for me so far.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment
Minor: Drug use