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joaniehow 's review for:
Following You
by Eva Lesko Natiello
Thank you to the author for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. While I can't recommend this novel, I will say that I love supporting rising authors and everyone's opinion is different! So take my review with a grain of salt, and if the premise is at all intriguing, I would still encourage you to check it out.
Following You explores the disappearance of celebrity influencer Shae Wilmont through the perspectives of three strangers – Honey, a struggling, down-on-her-luck waitress; Lawrence, the very creepy Detective assigned to Shae’s case; and of course, Shae herself. While all the pieces of a compelling thriller are there, the novel never comes together and it was overall poorly written. Critical plot points simply didn't make sense Part of my skepticism regarding these plot points may have to do with character development, which was not quite there for me and thus failed to rationalize the poor decision-making that took place. Characterization was especially important given that Natiello wrote a very unlikeable character in Lawrence - unlikeable characters are fine, but they need to be three-dimensional to really work.
As I mentioned, Natiello did some things well. She had good twists and idea, and portions of her writing were also quite promising. But the overall execution I felt was lacking, and the novel - though fast-paced and shocking - just didn't do it for me.
Following You explores the disappearance of celebrity influencer Shae Wilmont through the perspectives of three strangers – Honey, a struggling, down-on-her-luck waitress; Lawrence, the very creepy Detective assigned to Shae’s case; and of course, Shae herself. While all the pieces of a compelling thriller are there, the novel never comes together and it was overall poorly written. Critical plot points simply didn't make sense
Spoiler
In the age of iPhones and Google Maps, I struggle to see how Shae would have been led to Honey's neighborhood, and it's almost inconceivable that she would mistake her dilapidated home for the swanky house party. Similarly, the premise of Honey holding Shae captive because she mistook her for a cop is incredibly far-fetched.As I mentioned, Natiello did some things well. She had good twists and idea, and portions of her writing were also quite promising. But the overall execution I felt was lacking, and the novel - though fast-paced and shocking - just didn't do it for me.