My Rating: 4 stars
Technically, this one falls somewhere between 4 and 4.5
stars for me. To start off, I will say
that yes, this is yet another excellent, well-written suspense thriller, one
that hooked me from the start and had me turning pages breathlessly as the plot
unfolded from one chapter to the next. However
one of the things that set this one apart from other thrillers for me was that
this one went quite a bit deeper into several
very important societal and moral issues that actually left me some “food for
thought” when all was said and done (sorry if I’m being vague, as I don’t want
to spoil things for those who haven’t read this one). For this reason, I feel that this book would
make a good group or buddy read, as there are definitely a few things worthy of
discussion here.
This review will be shorter than most of the ones I
write, as I’m trying to refrain from saying too much because this is definitely
one of those books where you should go into it knowing as little as
possible. Unlike a few of the other
thrillers I’ve read the past few months, this one didn’t have a lot of twists
and turns -- there was basically only one major reveal at the end (which I
definitely hadn’t seen coming). From the
first page, the author Jennifer Hillier took her time revealing parts of the
plot, with things getting more complicated as the story built up chapter by
chapter, yet at no point did I feel that the story was slow – in fact, this one
was so fast-paced and engaging that I found it difficult to pry myself away
even for a few minutes. I actually had
pockets of time throughout the day to read this one and when I was forced to
put the book down briefly to tend to other things, I couldn’t help thinking
about it still and wanting to get back to it as quickly as possible – goes to
show how much I truly enjoyed this one!
One thing I do have to mention is that this thriller was actually
a lot darker and grittier than what I usually read and it was also more graphic
than I expected, though the scenes were brief enough and didn’t dwell on too
much detail so it was still within acceptable level for me. This one was definitely more intense than
other thrillers though and I would go so far as to say that it’s not for the
faint of heart, so just be aware before picking this one up. The one complaint that I had was that the
ending felt a bit rushed, which was a little disappointing given that the
author had done such a great job seamlessly laying out the plot and making me
invested in the characters. While I
would consider the ending satisfying in terms of closure, I still felt like I
had missed a significant chunk of the story when it jumped from the “ending” to
the epilogue that obviously took place way later. In the grand scheme of things however, I would
say that this is a minor complaint and didn’t affect too much my overall
enjoyment of the book. This one is
definitely recommended, especially for thriller fans who are looking for a read
that is a step above in terms of others in the same genre.
Received ARC from
Minotaur Books / St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.
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