It's new years eve and there are two parties happening. One attended by two best friends and one hosted by their daughters. When Jennifer doesn't return home and is reported missing, the search begins. Friendships and relationships are tested as it becomes obvious that everyone has things to hide.

I quite enjoyed the reading experience but overall this was just... okay? And yeah, mysteries and thrillers don't have to be anything spectacular but even by those standards this was pretty average. It was an enjoyable read, but I didn't like the ending. I don't know how much this was influenced by the constantly switching perspectives or even the translation, but what happened and the way it was written was a bit of a let down. I also felt like certain aspects of dysfunctional relationships were maybe brought up a bit too often. There was a lot of inner monologue stuff going on and given how plain yet unlikable all the characters were (not an inherently bad thing of course!) it just didn't do as much as I hoped. This could be the translation to some extent, but the same content (which I think could have been trimmed down with regards to some aspects of what was happening and very much fleshed out for others) would have been present in the original so it probably goes beyond that. While what was happening was interesting enough to keep my interest, I do think it could have been stronger.

I’ll tell you one thing: this was not the book to start the New Year with.

The author has written books for children, and this is her first book for adults. The book is an extremely slow-burn thriller where a 17-year-old Jennifer goes missing on New Year’s Eve 2018. The book is set in Skåne, Sweden. We follow three POV characters: Lollo (Jennifer’s mother), Nina (Lollo’s friend and mother of 17-year-old Smilla, who was Jennifer’s friend) and Fredrik (Nina’s husband).

It’s clear from the start that Fredrik has something to hide. Nina knows there’s something wrong with her husband but can’t quite figure out what it is. Lollo blames herself for Jennifer’s disappearance. Each of the characters has a very similar voice, and it would be hard to tell them apart unless the chapters were named after them. On top of that, none of the characters in this book is very likeable. And I found their names absolutely terrible. Lollo? Vilgot?

Slowly, we start to find out what has happened to Jennifer. Mostly, we just follow the three POV characters trying to navigate the complex emotions the situation has caused. This book is translated from Swedish, so it’s hard to tell whether this is an intentional part of the author’s original style, but the translated version has so many idioms that it’s almost painful to read at times, and some of the words choices seemed odd. The other thing that felt excessive was the amount of questions in the characters’ inner monologue. Why is this happening? Does he have something to do with this? Did I remember to feed the dog? When will the police do something? Do I look fat in this dress? How many drinks did I have at the party? It just goes on and on… 

On top of that, there were a few things that didn’t seem quite right to me. Nina has a six-year-old son, but he feels younger in the text. This seems odd, considering that the author has children of her own and writes for children. At one point, one of the characters loses their jacket, and the explanation is that perhaps the wind blew it away. A winter jacket? 

The characters felt shallow, and I didn’t care much for any of them. This book is so slow, and I felt frustrated because not much happened in the first half. At that point, I thought I had figured out what had happened, but I was mistaken. 

We spent most of the book thinking that maybe Fredrik had done it. He was certainly guild-ridden enough and tried to hide his involvement. But as it turns out, he didn’t do it, so why did he try to distract the police? The events that are implied in the text are guaranteed to reduce his sympathy points from the reader quite a bit. Eventually, it is revealed that Jennifer is his daughter, the result of an affair. I don’t think the reveal is done very well. There are so many options for what the author could have done with this information.

But the biggest let-down is the actual killer. We spend the entire book following three pointless people while the real culprit slides under the radar. If there are hints pointing to them, they were so subtle that I missed them completely. The ending felt very disappointing, especially when all the evidence pointed to Fredrik. 

 

Dit was niet per se een goed boek. Het was ook niet erg origineel. De personages waren erg unlikeable, stuk voor stuk. 
Maar.
Ik kon gewoonweg niet ophouden met lezen, wat is dit verslavend geschreven. Perfect voor liefhebbers van de boeken van Liane Moriarty.