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A review by obsidian_blue
The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene
2.0
Please note that I received this via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
Saw that ending coming from a mile away. And honestly there was very little development of Lindsey or Jess. I got bored halfway through and thought the plot “the little we get” just is a whole mess with too many unresolved answers. I also am begging authors to stop introducing podcasts into these type of thrillers. It just wrecked the flow of the chapters I was reading. It didn’t help that there were also photos and other things that just made it hard to even read/see.
This book follows the mystery of the disappearance of Jessica Fadley. She disappeared in 1998 along with three other girls at her college. Fast forward 24 years later and the police have found a body in the so-called Doll’s Eye Lake which was a special location to Jessica. With Jessica’s younger sister Lindsey still living in their hometown and with their parents, she starts trying to figure out who her sister was and who could have harmed her and the other missing girls. The book jumps from Lindsey in the present day, to Jessica back in 1998, and two podcast hosts in the UK musing (poorly) on the cold case and current investigation.
Lindsey was barely developed. I can get having a character wanting to figure out what happened to their sister. But all of the reveals we get shows that Lindsey has to be the most unaware person on Earth. Her “relationship” with Ryan, a reporter has also been done to death in similar thrillers so I was just bored by it at this point. Speaking of Ryan, I got nothing people. It wasn’t necessary and if Greene had cut him and just had Lindsey amateur sleuthing alone that would have worked better.
The character of Jessica. Look, I can’t say much about out it without spoilers, but there are some as a lot happening there that wasn’t subtle.
The podcasts hosts came across as insipid and uncaring and I assume Greene was using this book to take on that whole media of true crime podcasts, but it just had me annoyed every time they popped up because it was wrecking the flow. Also again, super similar to a book I just read a few weeks ago.
The other characters are not very well developed. The women just seem to be these beings that have no common sense in the men just can’t help themselves with their rage and emotions.
The writing wasn’t very great. I thought a lot of the dialogue just didn’t even sound right and I thought at times Jessica being back in 1998 just had a whole tone and back-and-forth and sounded like she was from the 80s or something. I don’t know it just felt wrong the whole time. I already told you that the flow was really messed up and it was I think going back-and-forth between Jessica and Lindsey and the podcast just made the entire book drag. I was getting really really tired of things by the 50% mark. It also didn’t help that I had already had that point figured out who did what to who so I was just bored and waiting for everybody else to catch up.
The setting of the book was confusing. It’s supposed to take place in North Carolina and I for some bizarre reason kept thinking this was taking place in upstate New York. I don’t know so that’s just let you know that the setting of a small town was not really well done.
The ending was just kind of a mess and a half, and I honestly don’t believe that some of the characters would have went along with things. I do have to say this, I really just need thriller/mystery authors to just write a good book. Please quit trying to turn things into the next Gone Girl or the Girl on the Train, and just write a good book. That’s all we need as readers. Please write something that’s good that does not have plot holes and makes you want to go into a corner and scream for several hours.
Saw that ending coming from a mile away. And honestly there was very little development of Lindsey or Jess. I got bored halfway through and thought the plot “the little we get” just is a whole mess with too many unresolved answers. I also am begging authors to stop introducing podcasts into these type of thrillers. It just wrecked the flow of the chapters I was reading. It didn’t help that there were also photos and other things that just made it hard to even read/see.
This book follows the mystery of the disappearance of Jessica Fadley. She disappeared in 1998 along with three other girls at her college. Fast forward 24 years later and the police have found a body in the so-called Doll’s Eye Lake which was a special location to Jessica. With Jessica’s younger sister Lindsey still living in their hometown and with their parents, she starts trying to figure out who her sister was and who could have harmed her and the other missing girls. The book jumps from Lindsey in the present day, to Jessica back in 1998, and two podcast hosts in the UK musing (poorly) on the cold case and current investigation.
Lindsey was barely developed. I can get having a character wanting to figure out what happened to their sister. But all of the reveals we get shows that Lindsey has to be the most unaware person on Earth. Her “relationship” with Ryan, a reporter has also been done to death in similar thrillers so I was just bored by it at this point. Speaking of Ryan, I got nothing people. It wasn’t necessary and if Greene had cut him and just had Lindsey amateur sleuthing alone that would have worked better.
The character of Jessica. Look, I can’t say much about out it without spoilers, but there are some as a lot happening there that wasn’t subtle.
The podcasts hosts came across as insipid and uncaring and I assume Greene was using this book to take on that whole media of true crime podcasts, but it just had me annoyed every time they popped up because it was wrecking the flow. Also again, super similar to a book I just read a few weeks ago.
The other characters are not very well developed. The women just seem to be these beings that have no common sense in the men just can’t help themselves with their rage and emotions.
The writing wasn’t very great. I thought a lot of the dialogue just didn’t even sound right and I thought at times Jessica being back in 1998 just had a whole tone and back-and-forth and sounded like she was from the 80s or something. I don’t know it just felt wrong the whole time. I already told you that the flow was really messed up and it was I think going back-and-forth between Jessica and Lindsey and the podcast just made the entire book drag. I was getting really really tired of things by the 50% mark. It also didn’t help that I had already had that point figured out who did what to who so I was just bored and waiting for everybody else to catch up.
The setting of the book was confusing. It’s supposed to take place in North Carolina and I for some bizarre reason kept thinking this was taking place in upstate New York. I don’t know so that’s just let you know that the setting of a small town was not really well done.
The ending was just kind of a mess and a half, and I honestly don’t believe that some of the characters would have went along with things. I do have to say this, I really just need thriller/mystery authors to just write a good book. Please quit trying to turn things into the next Gone Girl or the Girl on the Train, and just write a good book. That’s all we need as readers. Please write something that’s good that does not have plot holes and makes you want to go into a corner and scream for several hours.