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A review by fictionmajorette
Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Full thoughts: https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2021/02/every-last-fear-alex-finlay.html
The first thing I want to address is the language used in this book when describing Mexico/Mexican people. I did read an ARC so there's a chance that some things may change in the finished copy but in the copy I read, I found the language negative, condescending, and judgemental. The town is Tulum, Mexico and is first described as a destination for celebrities because it isn't as crowded as the usual tourist spots. That description lead me to expect that when our protagonist, Matt, goes to Tulum that the beauty of the area would be in direct contrast with his grief. However, the descriptions that Matt gives to the reader are very negative to the point where I didn't understand how celebrities would be going to this place and the different images the book was giving the reader about Tulum didn't really make sense to me. Again, I was expecting Matt to not like it there because of the reason for his visit, but I didn't expect so many descriptions about how run down and corrupt everything was. As a white reader, these descriptions made me take pause so I looked at other reviews and there were a number of readers of color who explicitly called out the language in these scenes as problematic and offensive.
This book had a lot of potential to be a new favorite but there were a few pieces that fell flat for me and overall this ended up just being an okay read. My main issue is that this book is being marketed as a psychological thriller but I found it to be a pretty even 50% detective 50% domestic thriller. I kept hoping the narrative would take a twist to being more psychological but it never did. I think it did a good job at being a detective/domestic thriller but I was overall disappointed that this wasn't the type of story I was expecting.
This story was told in multi-POVs and dual timelines which I usually am a sucker for. In this case, however, I didn't absolutely love it. There were a number of chapters that just felt like filler. It wasn't as if a whole POV was unnecessary, but just the occasional chapter here and there that I didn't think was necessary. I can stand back and look at the chapters from a structural or plot standpoint and say "that chapter established X relationship" or "that chapter showed how Y changed" so I think all the chapters were technically needed for the plot, but I sure didn't care when I was reading some of them.
I thought the dual timeline was very well done and it was really interesting for the reader to know one thing from timeline A but then see the characters find out about it in timeline B a few chapters down the line. I also think showing the lead up of the family before they died made their on-page deaths really emotional because we've gotten to know them over the past 300 pages and we're hoping for a different outcome even though we know exactly how this is going to end.
Detective thrillers are one of my favorite types and I think the FBI investigation portions of this book were really well done. Looking back, I would have preferred if this same plot was handled as a pure detective story since I didn't really enjoy the domestic side of the story as much with Matt grieving and going back to his hometown. My favorite character was FBI Agent Keller and I would read more books following her specifically. I found her to have the most well-rounded characterization in the book. Everyone else I felt like we know one or two main aspects of their personality and that's it. For example, we know Matt likes movies. He's going to NYU to study film and he is constantly making movie references and his friends make comments about how he is constantly making movie references.
This story did finish really strongly which I think is one of the most important parts of any thriller. The last 20% or so was really great and when the puzzle pieces started falling into place, I couldn't read fast enough to figure out all the different connections. From a plot perspective, the big reveals were pretty standard for a domestic thriller but it was still a satisfying conclusion. The ending was a little bittersweet for reasons I can't go into because of spoilers but the chapters in this last section were very short and we were jumping in between POVs very quickly which really ramped up the tension as well.
I really liked how the docu-series was integrated into the story. There would be some chapters where we would read the script from a scene from the documentary. We also got different character's perspectives on the documentary and it was interesting to see the after effects especially since true-crime documentaries/podcasts/etc are very popular. The documentary scenes served as nice little breaks in the narrative so I could get a moment before jumping back into the investigation.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.
Expected publication date: March 2, 2021.
The first thing I want to address is the language used in this book when describing Mexico/Mexican people. I did read an ARC so there's a chance that some things may change in the finished copy but in the copy I read, I found the language negative, condescending, and judgemental. The town is Tulum, Mexico and is first described as a destination for celebrities because it isn't as crowded as the usual tourist spots. That description lead me to expect that when our protagonist, Matt, goes to Tulum that the beauty of the area would be in direct contrast with his grief. However, the descriptions that Matt gives to the reader are very negative to the point where I didn't understand how celebrities would be going to this place and the different images the book was giving the reader about Tulum didn't really make sense to me. Again, I was expecting Matt to not like it there because of the reason for his visit, but I didn't expect so many descriptions about how run down and corrupt everything was. As a white reader, these descriptions made me take pause so I looked at other reviews and there were a number of readers of color who explicitly called out the language in these scenes as problematic and offensive.
This book had a lot of potential to be a new favorite but there were a few pieces that fell flat for me and overall this ended up just being an okay read. My main issue is that this book is being marketed as a psychological thriller but I found it to be a pretty even 50% detective 50% domestic thriller. I kept hoping the narrative would take a twist to being more psychological but it never did. I think it did a good job at being a detective/domestic thriller but I was overall disappointed that this wasn't the type of story I was expecting.
This story was told in multi-POVs and dual timelines which I usually am a sucker for. In this case, however, I didn't absolutely love it. There were a number of chapters that just felt like filler. It wasn't as if a whole POV was unnecessary, but just the occasional chapter here and there that I didn't think was necessary. I can stand back and look at the chapters from a structural or plot standpoint and say "that chapter established X relationship" or "that chapter showed how Y changed" so I think all the chapters were technically needed for the plot, but I sure didn't care when I was reading some of them.
I thought the dual timeline was very well done and it was really interesting for the reader to know one thing from timeline A but then see the characters find out about it in timeline B a few chapters down the line. I also think showing the lead up of the family before they died made their on-page deaths really emotional because we've gotten to know them over the past 300 pages and we're hoping for a different outcome even though we know exactly how this is going to end.
Detective thrillers are one of my favorite types and I think the FBI investigation portions of this book were really well done. Looking back, I would have preferred if this same plot was handled as a pure detective story since I didn't really enjoy the domestic side of the story as much with Matt grieving and going back to his hometown. My favorite character was FBI Agent Keller and I would read more books following her specifically. I found her to have the most well-rounded characterization in the book. Everyone else I felt like we know one or two main aspects of their personality and that's it. For example, we know Matt likes movies. He's going to NYU to study film and he is constantly making movie references and his friends make comments about how he is constantly making movie references.
This story did finish really strongly which I think is one of the most important parts of any thriller. The last 20% or so was really great and when the puzzle pieces started falling into place, I couldn't read fast enough to figure out all the different connections. From a plot perspective, the big reveals were pretty standard for a domestic thriller but it was still a satisfying conclusion. The ending was a little bittersweet for reasons I can't go into because of spoilers but the chapters in this last section were very short and we were jumping in between POVs very quickly which really ramped up the tension as well.
I really liked how the docu-series was integrated into the story. There would be some chapters where we would read the script from a scene from the documentary. We also got different character's perspectives on the documentary and it was interesting to see the after effects especially since true-crime documentaries/podcasts/etc are very popular. The documentary scenes served as nice little breaks in the narrative so I could get a moment before jumping back into the investigation.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.
Expected publication date: March 2, 2021.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Sexual assault