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A review by the_clavicule_of_ac
Antioch by Jessica Leonard
2.0
2.5 ⭐️
After letting this book digest for a few days, and having a book club discussion, I bumped my rating up to a 2.5. I'm still struggling with this review.
I felt this book started off so compelling. The MC, Bess, lives in a small town, where a serial killer is murdering women. Bess works in a book shop by day, and by night is obsessed with the disappearance of Emelia Earhart, and spends her time listening broadcasts on her shortwave radio, like those that may have broadcast Emelia's last message. Only one night she receives a message that sounds like it's from the serials killer's most recent victim. Bess decides to take it upon her self to do some detective work, and starts losing moments of time, receives threatening phone calls, phantom door bell rings, and this is where the story begins to lose me.
Bess is a super unreliable narrator. Is she an alcoholic? is she mentally unstable? Is she possessed? Who knows. Maybe a little of everything. But leaving so many questions and room for interpretation hindered my reading experience. I was left with too many questions and not enough answers. The massive editing errors (one man's name changes part of the way in to the book and then changes back) and inconsistent flow of the writing also lowered my rating.
I like the idea of not everything being what it seems, but overall the unclarity of the book just didn't do it for me.
After letting this book digest for a few days, and having a book club discussion, I bumped my rating up to a 2.5. I'm still struggling with this review.
I felt this book started off so compelling. The MC, Bess, lives in a small town, where a serial killer is murdering women. Bess works in a book shop by day, and by night is obsessed with the disappearance of Emelia Earhart, and spends her time listening broadcasts on her shortwave radio, like those that may have broadcast Emelia's last message. Only one night she receives a message that sounds like it's from the serials killer's most recent victim. Bess decides to take it upon her self to do some detective work, and starts losing moments of time, receives threatening phone calls, phantom door bell rings, and this is where the story begins to lose me.
Bess is a super unreliable narrator. Is she an alcoholic? is she mentally unstable? Is she possessed? Who knows. Maybe a little of everything. But leaving so many questions and room for interpretation hindered my reading experience. I was left with too many questions and not enough answers. The massive editing errors (one man's name changes part of the way in to the book and then changes back) and inconsistent flow of the writing also lowered my rating.
I like the idea of not everything being what it seems, but overall the unclarity of the book just didn't do it for me.