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A review by megansmith
Zero Days by Ruth Ware
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
The tl;dr — as much as I had a few problems with this book, I did find myself rushing to get to the end and figure out who committed this murder.
Let's start with the pros - I found the world of pen testing and cyber security to be a really interesting and relevant angle to this day and age, to dive into. I rarely find myself thinking of instances like these happening under our noses, but I'm sure it's way more common than most people realize. The suspense really built up quickly for me around 50% into the book, and I ended up reading over 50% of the book in one night and finishing it then. I liked Hel as a character and even if the whole, family also being dead thing felt random and unnecessary, it felt good having a character in her corner that was pretty normal but helpful in the end.
Okay, cons with a couple spoilers, unfortunately.
Nonspoiler con - I struggled a bit with the writing style at times. Early on, I kind of felt like I was reading a fanfic and the writing felt a little unelevated. I also felt like to fill gaps in between points of action, there were a couple of repeat lines she would lean on and it got a little old after a while. Like yes, I know you're sad he died and can't seem to cry and you can hear him saying in your head you got this babe but you don't. I get it! I know this is common with grief but in writing, it took me out of the story. This got better as time went on but early on it was a little difficult to get through.
I also personally was struuuuuuugling to get through all the descriptions of her being sick. it felt really accurate to what would happen in real life and I'm glad it was maybe the one thing she didn't know how to do in this survival mode. Like, the go bag felt a little convenient, even if the logic made sense. But woof, I found myself just scanning quickly through the body descriptions, I couldn't do it. I don't know how she wasn't worse off by the end of the book.
My other con, I admittedly figured out who the "killer" was quickly and it didn't feel suspenseful for a while until I was antsy to figure out how it would all end. Cole felt like a VERY obvious suspect and nothing surprised me when I found out he was the one behind this. Even just the first description of Cole vs. Gabe where "Gabe was the bad guy who worked hard and picked a job that fit his morals, even if it wasn't glorious, and Cole got all the good internships", like immediately I knew he was fishy. I think the end picked up enough for me that I wanted to know what happened and it didn't matter, but I admittedly just found it really funny the book went from "Oh, who could've done this", to "welp, here's at least like four very obvious sources of people who could've killed Gabe" and then halfway through the book you most certainly know who the killer is, and the rest gets good finding out how it all ends.
Overall - this isn't my favorite mystery, but it's a quick and fun ride and if the topics interest you, I think you'll enjoy this.
Let's start with the pros - I found the world of pen testing and cyber security to be a really interesting and relevant angle to this day and age, to dive into. I rarely find myself thinking of instances like these happening under our noses, but I'm sure it's way more common than most people realize. The suspense really built up quickly for me around 50% into the book, and I ended up reading over 50% of the book in one night and finishing it then. I liked Hel as a character and even if the whole, family also being dead thing felt random and unnecessary, it felt good having a character in her corner that was pretty normal but helpful in the end.
Okay, cons with a couple spoilers, unfortunately.
Nonspoiler con - I struggled a bit with the writing style at times. Early on, I kind of felt like I was reading a fanfic and the writing felt a little unelevated. I also felt like to fill gaps in between points of action, there were a couple of repeat lines she would lean on and it got a little old after a while. Like yes, I know you're sad he died and can't seem to cry and you can hear him saying in your head you got this babe but you don't. I get it! I know this is common with grief but in writing, it took me out of the story. This got better as time went on but early on it was a little difficult to get through.
My other con, I admittedly figured out who the "killer" was quickly and it didn't feel suspenseful for a while until I was antsy to figure out how it would all end. Cole felt like a VERY obvious suspect and nothing surprised me when I found out he was the one behind this. Even just the first description of Cole vs. Gabe where "Gabe was the bad guy who worked hard and picked a job that fit his morals, even if it wasn't glorious, and Cole got all the good internships", like immediately I knew he was fishy. I think the end picked up enough for me that I wanted to know what happened and it didn't matter, but I admittedly just found it really funny the book went from "Oh, who could've done this", to "welp, here's at least like four very obvious sources of people who could've killed Gabe" and then halfway through the book you most certainly know who the killer is, and the rest gets good finding out how it all ends.
Overall - this isn't my favorite mystery, but it's a quick and fun ride and if the topics interest you, I think you'll enjoy this.