A review by kleonard
The Hidden by Melanie Golding

1.0

This book brings together folklore, the urban paranormal genre, and the hard-boiled copy story. It's just too much, and the method of telling it, moving back and forth through time, doesn't quite work here. There's selkies, captured selkie skins, a child, a serial killer, identity theft, women who were raised as sisters despite the older one actually being the younger's mother, oh, and the older one is the cop, who is the very stereotype of the policewoman who ruins her personal life because of her desire for work. The younger sister is a violinist and composer, but some of the music-related writing is rather dumbed down for readers, unnecessarily. The elements are all fine, mostly, but they way they're combined here is just a big mess. the book doesn't know what it wants to say or be.