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A review by avreereads
The Murder House by James Patterson
3.0
Perhaps not the best selection for my 1st JP read?
The main positives are:
It’s a quick paced telling and some of the chapters are only 1.5 pages long and often times leave you hanging encouraging you to read on.
It was definitely an exciting and entertaining read that kept me guessing for a good portion—though I did guess the twists and the whodunit part well before they were revealed.
Now for my criticisms:
Aside from the fact that I threatened to not finish the book numerous times—I will elaborate in a second…
I thought more of the story was going to surround the house itself and follow the stories of the people or activities that happened in the house. I feel like the house was always just hovering in the background while all the action happened elsewhere…but perhaps it’s just me. I feel like I didn’t get the tale I thought I was getting and it played out more like an episode of SVU—but I’m not entirely certain I disliked that fact or not…
I found the main character, Jenna Murphy, to be quite unlikeable, especially in the beginning, and downright annoying. I also found her love interest quite unbelievable but I eventually warmed up to both and just rode with it. But boy so many of the characters were just emphatically unlikeable—and even unbelievable to an extent. I also feel like you know most characters only at a very shallow level.
Overall, this book wasn’t for me, specifically, as I tend to not dabble too much in fiction as some author’s (especially male) thinks that the reader needs cheap entertainment to be engaged or interested and I just find those bits uncomfortable and unnecessary…I mean I’d seek out 50 Shades or something if I wanted a story filled with titillation. The “bits” involving suggestive material are page 11/12, 125 final paragraph, and page 134 is descriptive of the killer’s bodily reaction to thrill of impending murder(s). I nearly quit the book by chapter ONE, again in chapter 30, and then again by chapter 32...but having kept going to chapter 37 I officially got hooked and from there I was completely invested!
I suppose I found it good enough to read the one time but the overall disappointment of how excited I was to get my hands on it to then have read it and realized that I would have been just fine having never read it…
I’m not going to let this be the end of my foray into JP per se...BUT I’m very leery of the innuendos and cussing that author’s use and I’m perhaps a lil hesitant to select more of his works.
The main positives are:
It’s a quick paced telling and some of the chapters are only 1.5 pages long and often times leave you hanging encouraging you to read on.
It was definitely an exciting and entertaining read that kept me guessing for a good portion—though I did guess the twists and the whodunit part well before they were revealed.
Now for my criticisms:
Aside from the fact that I threatened to not finish the book numerous times—I will elaborate in a second…
I thought more of the story was going to surround the house itself and follow the stories of the people or activities that happened in the house. I feel like the house was always just hovering in the background while all the action happened elsewhere…but perhaps it’s just me. I feel like I didn’t get the tale I thought I was getting and it played out more like an episode of SVU—but I’m not entirely certain I disliked that fact or not…
I found the main character, Jenna Murphy, to be quite unlikeable, especially in the beginning, and downright annoying. I also found her love interest quite unbelievable but I eventually warmed up to both and just rode with it. But boy so many of the characters were just emphatically unlikeable—and even unbelievable to an extent. I also feel like you know most characters only at a very shallow level.
Overall, this book wasn’t for me, specifically, as I tend to not dabble too much in fiction as some author’s (especially male) thinks that the reader needs cheap entertainment to be engaged or interested and I just find those bits uncomfortable and unnecessary…I mean I’d seek out 50 Shades or something if I wanted a story filled with titillation. The “bits” involving suggestive material are page 11/12, 125 final paragraph, and page 134 is descriptive of the killer’s bodily reaction to thrill of impending murder(s). I nearly quit the book by chapter ONE, again in chapter 30, and then again by chapter 32...but having kept going to chapter 37 I officially got hooked and from there I was completely invested!
I suppose I found it good enough to read the one time but the overall disappointment of how excited I was to get my hands on it to then have read it and realized that I would have been just fine having never read it…
I’m not going to let this be the end of my foray into JP per se...BUT I’m very leery of the innuendos and cussing that author’s use and I’m perhaps a lil hesitant to select more of his works.