A book club book that is not something I'd have read otherwise. A contemporary horror/thriller/mystery story where a victim of kidnapping shares what happened to her (and many other girls) in the format of a police interview.

This is definitely not my thing (police procedural, crime thriller), making it hard to judge, but I just generally didn't see the appeal. It was incredibly dark, but there didn't seem to be any point to it - no message or warning - just that people can be hideous predators and our luck can be shitty. It also seemed an unrealistically horrific set up (the sheer cost, number of women and years, and how elaborate it all was), which I'm sure fiction is full of, but I'm just not sure of the appeal to imagine sexual predators with enough patience, money and luck to pull something like this off. So, it wasn't off to a good start for me. I didn't find it particularly thrilling either, as much of the story just covers day-to-day details of living in the garden. There is a mystery element that helped propel the first third, when I admit I was intrigued to find out what was going on, but much of this reduced as we get to understand the situation. The writing was nothing special, and a little cliche at times - probably at the level for me where if I'd liked the story it would have been good enough to not get in the way. 

The storytelling conceit of the police interview was unrealistic, which did bother me (although if I'd have liked the book overall it's the sort of thing I can forgive) - there is an obscene amount of detail shared in this format, way beyond what feels normal for an interview. It is also never really explained why the cops go so hard on her, treating this victim like a suspect, making her open her water bottle with burned hands etc. It is frequently implied that she is being uncooperative when really she is sharing very openly tonnes of detail and answering questions I don't think they should have been asking (such as how she lost her virginity - unrelated to the event she is being interviewed about!).

The whole set up of the garden also seemed more unrealistic than needed - I struggled to believe it could have been going on so long and with so many girls - the building itself would have required so much maintenance/engineering support that is never mentioned and I do not believe that the rich men in charge have those skills

On a slightly more positive note, I did like the main character and enjoyed seeing her character develop from the earlier flashbacks. While I didn't appreciate the 'twist' at the end, I did like to see how her relationship to family (the ones she chose over the ones she was born with) changed over the story and

I felt a little emotional about Sophia turning up at the end and having kept all her stuff

. There was some potential interest in the depiction of the social dynamics within the garden, but there were too many characters portrayed too shallowly for this to really carry the story. The situation with Desmond was interesting, but maybe too drawn out.

Overall, while I can clearly say I didn't like it, this was an easy enough read with enough positives that I chose to finish for book club, but I'd have DNF'd otherwise.