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A review by blackenedwhiplash
Hunted by Darcy Coates
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Feels like a very good slasher film meets an engaging whodunnit. Similar to the last Darcy Coates book I read before this one, Dead of Winter. I loved the descriptions of the forest and hearing about the characters surviving in the wilderness looking for their friend. There are a few inconsistencies and plotholes here and there, miniscule ones (like when the police gave Chris's parents the thumb drive with the photos from Eileen's recovered camera and then suddenly Chris and his friends have printed copies of all the photos despite being in a different state and seemingly already started traveling during the time the parents received the thumb drive. And sure, there's plenty of ways that they could have gotten the contents of the thumb drive sent electronically and found a copy place to print, but you'd think the author would have described it in some form or fashion.) There are other examples that give spoilers, but they're similar in that yeah it's an inconsistency but it's not a glaring one. I've only read a couple of other Darcy Coates book so I'm definitely not a Coates expert, but the other two novels I read didn't have any loose ends (at least not off the top of my head right now) or inconsistencies, she seems to normally have tightly wound plots organized thoughtfully. So it was a little odd to see some of that in this book.
The biggest thing that keeps me from rating this higher is that near the end, it skips time from in the middle of some of the characters struggling to survival and Carla trying to piece together the answer she thinks she has figured out but hasn't told us the readers yet, and her about to send a search party into the woods, then it jumps to after everything's been resolved for a few days and the results of everything is told to us the readers through dialogue between Carla and another character. It would've been a lot better if we could see all that play out, not just have a summary of it all. I don't know if that was Coates wanted to get to finishing the book quicker or if she thought that was the best way to keep the mystery alive as long as she could before giving the big reveal. But that was a huge disappointment for me. Still a great book regardless and very entertaining. I loved the "who" and "why," even if I didn't care for how the information was delivered to us. 3.5 stars for me is still really solid, despite that it could've easily been a 4 star.
The biggest thing that keeps me from rating this higher is that near the end, it skips time from in the middle of some of the characters struggling to survival and Carla trying to piece together the answer she thinks she has figured out but hasn't told us the readers yet, and her about to send a search party into the woods, then it jumps to after everything's been resolved for a few days and the results of everything is told to us the readers through dialogue between Carla and another character. It would've been a lot better if we could see all that play out, not just have a summary of it all. I don't know if that was Coates wanted to get to finishing the book quicker or if she thought that was the best way to keep the mystery alive as long as she could before giving the big reveal. But that was a huge disappointment for me. Still a great book regardless and very entertaining. I loved the "who" and "why," even if I didn't care for how the information was delivered to us. 3.5 stars for me is still really solid, despite that it could've easily been a 4 star.