Scan barcode
A review by jamballdonut
Negro Como El Mar / All by Myself, Alone by Mary Higgins Clark
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
After reading and enjoying a book from the "Under Suspicion" series, I decided to give a solo MHC book a go, and gosh do I regret that decision. The first too many chapters focused on each main character and explained in too much detail every tiny fact and feature of them.
I guessed the killer almost as soon as they were introduced, even though there were multiple suspects (Really, it was almost as though every character introduced could have been the killer, which felt like too much). There was no real twist, and the ending almost felt like a cop out.
The writing felt clunky and was hard to get absorbed into; there seemed to be no real flow or ease to the writing. I'm also not a fan of how much MHC uses character names in her writing - In a conversation between 2 people, they address each other by name at the beginning almost every time they start a new sentence and it feels so unnatural. I can't remember the last time I said somebodies name to their face when talking to them, unless they were distracted or something, but none of the characters are distracted enough to warrant their name being said. Once I noticed it, I couldn't stop focusing on it and it became a massive distraction.
Also, the sudden relationship between Celia and.. whatever his name was (I'm writing this review 2.5 weeks after finishing the book, so details are hazy) felt very rushed/forced. He came out of seemingly nowhere, they seemed to have no real chemistry (At least that we were told about), and then in the epilogue they were engaged after 3 months??? If it wasn't the last pages of the book, I would've DNF'd it based solely on that.
I guessed the killer almost as soon as they were introduced, even though there were multiple suspects (Really, it was almost as though every character introduced could have been the killer, which felt like too much). There was no real twist, and the ending almost felt like a cop out.
The writing felt clunky and was hard to get absorbed into; there seemed to be no real flow or ease to the writing. I'm also not a fan of how much MHC uses character names in her writing - In a conversation between 2 people, they address each other by name at the beginning almost every time they start a new sentence and it feels so unnatural. I can't remember the last time I said somebodies name to their face when talking to them, unless they were distracted or something, but none of the characters are distracted enough to warrant their name being said. Once I noticed it, I couldn't stop focusing on it and it became a massive distraction.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, and Murder