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A review by lifeinthebooklane
He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly
3.0
"Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive" (W. Scott)
And oh what a tangled thread of misconceptions, lies and deceit this proved to be. On Goodreads I consider 3 stars to be a positive review (I liked it). Thrillers are not my 'natural' genre, although I recently read Wasp by Fiona Quinn and that held me enthralled. As I received an arc through Netgalley I felt obliged to finish this book, and only did so after reading reviews that said the book picked up pace and interest in the second half (which it did).
I'm sorry but there was just way to much waffle and unnecessary scene setting. This book could have a good 1/3 cut out from it without affecting the story. And this extra third made it a very, very long book. However when you get to the faster paced chapters where you can feel the action starting to happen, the book is good, not amazing, but good. There were some amazing twists and turns in the book, and when I got to the end of the book scenes much earlier in the book (thinking upper deck scene here) had new meaning. Whilst I can accept some type of prosecution on the second case (towards the end of the book) I found the actual charge very unlikely - real life has shown a lesser charge or very often no charge in these situations. However this links to the last line of the book, so perhaps the author did this to have a greater impact.
And I HATED that last sentence, I had been a little ambivalent towards the character, whose 'line' it was, for a chunk of the book but that compounded the dislike that had been building for several chapters. I could not understand their reaction to one lie when they too had been feeling guilty about lying for so long. This wasn't a book where I particularly warmed to ANY of the characters (at one point Mac seemed to be the most likeable of the lot!). The last 8 - 10 chapters drastically changed my view of MOST of the main characters and by the end the only character I had any time for was the only genuine victim in the whole book.
If your a fan of the author, or psychological thrillers, you may enjoy this. The writing style is good, easy to read and flows naturally, as does the dialogue. It was just the slow pace and not terribly likeable characters that made this an 'ok' read for me.
And oh what a tangled thread of misconceptions, lies and deceit this proved to be. On Goodreads I consider 3 stars to be a positive review (I liked it). Thrillers are not my 'natural' genre, although I recently read Wasp by Fiona Quinn and that held me enthralled. As I received an arc through Netgalley I felt obliged to finish this book, and only did so after reading reviews that said the book picked up pace and interest in the second half (which it did).
I'm sorry but there was just way to much waffle and unnecessary scene setting. This book could have a good 1/3 cut out from it without affecting the story. And this extra third made it a very, very long book. However when you get to the faster paced chapters where you can feel the action starting to happen, the book is good, not amazing, but good. There were some amazing twists and turns in the book, and when I got to the end of the book scenes much earlier in the book (thinking upper deck scene here) had new meaning. Whilst I can accept some type of prosecution on the second case (towards the end of the book) I found the actual charge very unlikely - real life has shown a lesser charge or very often no charge in these situations. However this links to the last line of the book, so perhaps the author did this to have a greater impact.
And I HATED that last sentence, I had been a little ambivalent towards the character, whose 'line' it was, for a chunk of the book but that compounded the dislike that had been building for several chapters. I could not understand their reaction to one lie when they too had been feeling guilty about lying for so long. This wasn't a book where I particularly warmed to ANY of the characters (at one point Mac seemed to be the most likeable of the lot!). The last 8 - 10 chapters drastically changed my view of MOST of the main characters and by the end the only character I had any time for was the only genuine victim in the whole book.
If your a fan of the author, or psychological thrillers, you may enjoy this. The writing style is good, easy to read and flows naturally, as does the dialogue. It was just the slow pace and not terribly likeable characters that made this an 'ok' read for me.