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joannemae 's review for:

Friends with Secrets by Christine Gunderson
3.0
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book is initially a friendship-focused, coming-of-age (the age coming to is your 30s/40s) story that transforms into a mysterious thriller. This would be very interesting, except the first part drags ON AND ON AND ON AND ON only to wrap up neatly in the blink of an eye. It gave me whiplash, fr.

The thriller portion was interesting, but I never really grasped what's at stake for any of the characters.
Which is crazy considering it's about a murderer-pedophile duo.
I think I mentally checked out when literal moms (you know, the people who are morally and legally obligated to take care of children?) simply
refused to care that their daughters just might be in the presence of a pedophile.