Those gals are crazy. 

"You cannot infer a man’s propensity for violence from how he looks. She has set bones broken by soft hands, stitched cuts inflicted by men with easy smiles and white collars; she’s met brutes with angel faces." (Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour)

"“Art is legacy, it is solace. It soothes, consoles, arouses. It’s work. It’s what you do all day. It’s how you work things out, how you understand the world. It’s the opportunity to start over, to shed your skin, to take revenge, to fall in love. To be good. To live long.”" (Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour)

"“Men like him . . . they have a special kind of contempt for women like me—ugly women. I’ve felt it all my life. An ugly woman is barely human to a man like your husband. It’s sickening but not all that shocking. What’s worse, what is utterly abject, is the way that women like you—the pretty, the chosen—the way you collude in that contempt. Simpering like a schoolgirl, because a man has paid you some attention. Laughing cravenly at his cruelties. It’s pathetic.”" (Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour)

I was so invested in this book 95% through. Was thinking it was going to be my first 5 star of the year. Then that ending. Woof. I understand that it was intentional, to give the reader a sense of just how truth can change with perspective, but at the end of the day, I want to know what happened to some of these characters. I don’t feel I have a good sense of what happened to any of them, aside from Vanessa, who we know is dead from the get-go. 

That said? The rest of the book is excellent. Highly atmospheric, gothic, with plenty of art and literature Easter eggs that made it that much more enjoyable for me. There wasn’t a single likeable character in the bunch, which I found to be a bold choice; even the main male character leaves a bad taste in my mouth towards the end, and he is representing the “noble” viewpoint. I loved the island as a character- it is so fully fleshed out you can feel it breathing on the page. Scottish Right to Roam laws add an interesting layer, too. I’ve always been a big proponent when it comes to big estates, but in The Blue Hour, it was very uncomfortable to imagine how that works on someone’s pebble of an island, with their house being removed from basic society. The risks and inherent threat that can pose to a landowner are really felt here. I also really enjoyed the many different ways the blue hour can be interpreted throughout the book.

Beautifully written. It was hard to put it down. I did not see that ending coming but it was so tense and well done! 

    While there were certainly mysteries! One was pretty easy to figure out, but the rest I didn't see coming.

  Wow, did I HATE that ending, however! I mean what happened?! It's like a cliffhanger, but there's no sequel. I dislike it when books have an ambiguous ending. 

   The characters were also highly unlikable, I couldn't even find one of them likable. I understand characters having flaws, but none of them seemed to be decent people.

   Overall, the book was meh and would have been so much better if at least some of the characters were likable.

   The narrator did an excellent job, just not as talented as others I've heard. 

"It stirs her blood, the pull of the tide, it wakes her in the dead of night. All the years on Eris Island - more than twenty of them now - have made Grace tidal. A lunatic. An actual lunatic! Governed by the moon. She no longer sleeps when the tide is out, she only rests when the sea separates her from the land.
When she knows no one can sneak up on her."

The fierce battle over the artworks of a late artist leads to the discovery of human bones in one of her pieces. An art specialist for the collection investigates and becomes ensnared in a web of jealousy, betrayal and violence. The enigmatic, reclusive and selfish female artist felt like a well-worn trope, however well written. There was building tension on a tidal island, but I found the pace slow and the twists predictable. Not my favourite of the author's novels.