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A review by spaces_and_solaces
The Collective by Alison Gaylin
4.0
This book is the ultimate antidote to a reading slump. After a few not so great contemporary romance novels, I'm glad I took a chance on this one.
The collective is an amorphous amalgamation of thrill, horror, grief, justice & revenge. The story flows freely with a single person narrative & with every chapter just building up the suspense and ending with a climactic high.
The storyline is unique and if you were to ask me to describe the core of this book in 1 word, I wouldn’t be able to. Though the underlying theme of this book is grief, - but it’s so intertwined with violence, horror, pity, revenge, and justice it’s hard to tell which came first.
Camille Gardner is grappling with the loss of her daughter, who was taken from her five years ago at the age of fifteen. Her grief is so overpowering that she's spent the past few years consumed by the desire to punish the person responsible. Even though he was cleared in court, Camille knows deep down that he not only raped her daughter but also left her for dead.
Her grief has destroyed nearly every relationship in her life, and now as a divorced freelancer working from her old home, Camille drifts through life feeling numb and alone. That is until she’s invited to “The Collective” - a bunch of badass women going through their loss of loved ones & dishing up justice in the name of retribution.
It’s precisely at this point I expected the story to pick up pace & flow with sharp edges but instead it dropped down in speed. And then as the ongoing chapters lacked substance, the only thing that kept me going was wanting to find out what happens at the end..
But overall, a good thriller that you can probably finish in one sitting!
The collective is an amorphous amalgamation of thrill, horror, grief, justice & revenge. The story flows freely with a single person narrative & with every chapter just building up the suspense and ending with a climactic high.
The storyline is unique and if you were to ask me to describe the core of this book in 1 word, I wouldn’t be able to. Though the underlying theme of this book is grief, - but it’s so intertwined with violence, horror, pity, revenge, and justice it’s hard to tell which came first.
Camille Gardner is grappling with the loss of her daughter, who was taken from her five years ago at the age of fifteen. Her grief is so overpowering that she's spent the past few years consumed by the desire to punish the person responsible. Even though he was cleared in court, Camille knows deep down that he not only raped her daughter but also left her for dead.
Her grief has destroyed nearly every relationship in her life, and now as a divorced freelancer working from her old home, Camille drifts through life feeling numb and alone. That is until she’s invited to “The Collective” - a bunch of badass women going through their loss of loved ones & dishing up justice in the name of retribution.
It’s precisely at this point I expected the story to pick up pace & flow with sharp edges but instead it dropped down in speed. And then as the ongoing chapters lacked substance, the only thing that kept me going was wanting to find out what happens at the end..
But overall, a good thriller that you can probably finish in one sitting!