Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by caszriel
She Was The Quiet One by Michele Campbell
3.0
Initial thoughts: a bit slow getting in but once I did, I was hooked! I'll discuss this more in my review but there were certain aspects of this novel which didn't make sense to me, but there are also many things which are really well crafted and altogether beautifully written. I'm sorry (don't hate me) but I was not a fan of Sarah . I admire the way Michele Campbell rooted us to the side of whichever character's perspective it was at any instance though; I went from being on Bel's side to Rose's back to Bel's in an instant in the first few chapters because of this!
————————————————————
~I received a copy from HarperCollins NZ and willingly reviewed it~
[THINGS I LIKED]
• The final twist; if you’d just been stabbed in the gut with a dagger the ending twisted the blade in even deeper
• The initial figuring out of who the “quiet one” referred to in the title is
• How Michele Campbell made us root for both girls when it was their perspective; especially at first I switched sides with every alternating chapter.
• EMMA KIM!! My fave
• Darcy & Tessa making things more interesting overall
[THINGS I DISLIKED]
• The names? Why were some so great (Darcy, Tessa) and then so bad (Zach Cuddy, c’mon? I mean I guess I eventually visualised him better after this. Brandon Flynn just makes me think the actor)
• Subservient wife always taking her husband’s side despite all the evidence literally about to choke her,,, not a fan
• Was Zach involved in the murder? Was he not? We’ll never know
• I wasn’t aware rich people got expelled from private boarding schools so easily.
• The killer was kind of made obvious by being one of the only main characters without a perspective…
• Rose/Bel’s character personalities just didn’t make sense to me? I get she’s trying to break stereotypes almost but it didn’t work for me.
• If Moreland is so notorious for pranks then why did only the one incident occur all year?
I feel like Heath genuinely didn’t think he was doing wrong, and this is evidenced by Sarah during her chapters describing the publishing incident. And that’s the beauty of this story.
Spoiler
except that one scene where she used a math grid to figure out that Zach couldn't have killed Bel but cmon even then why would you need to do that?!————————————————————
~I received a copy from HarperCollins NZ and willingly reviewed it~
[THINGS I LIKED]
• The final twist; if you’d just been stabbed in the gut with a dagger the ending twisted the blade in even deeper
• The initial figuring out of who the “quiet one” referred to in the title is
• How Michele Campbell made us root for both girls when it was their perspective; especially at first I switched sides with every alternating chapter.
• EMMA KIM!! My fave
• Darcy & Tessa making things more interesting overall
[THINGS I DISLIKED]
• The names? Why were some so great (Darcy, Tessa) and then so bad (Zach Cuddy, c’mon? I mean I guess I eventually visualised him better after this. Brandon Flynn just makes me think the actor)
• Subservient wife always taking her husband’s side despite all the evidence literally about to choke her,,, not a fan
• Was Zach involved in the murder? Was he not? We’ll never know
• I wasn’t aware rich people got expelled from private boarding schools so easily.
• The killer was kind of made obvious by being one of the only main characters without a perspective…
• Rose/Bel’s character personalities just didn’t make sense to me? I get she’s trying to break stereotypes almost but it didn’t work for me.
• If Moreland is so notorious for pranks then why did only the one incident occur all year?
I feel like Heath genuinely didn’t think he was doing wrong, and this is evidenced by Sarah during her chapters describing the publishing incident. And that’s the beauty of this story.