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A review by pagesplotsandpints
Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna
3.0
<b>Read Completed 10/31/24 |</b> 3 stars
This was a read that I picked up on a bookstagram recommendation and I was really excited for it. A lot of it really worked for me but a lot of it really, really didn't.
I appreciated that this was something a little different. I felt like I was getting something new, even when repeating some thriller tropes and concepts that we've seen a bunch of times. I was worried for a while due to one of them (that I don't want to say because it kind of sort of gives stuff away), but I liked the "is it or isn't it" that left me wondering exactly how far things went. I thought I figured out one of the twists and that it was SUPER obvious, but I think the author planted it for us there to follow when it turned out to be a way to trick us, in a good way!
The plot was also interesting. The concept of a missing person (whose POV we also get do get!) being held hostage was suspenseful. A morally questionable psychologist leads us on our journey, and another POV connects to her past. The different POVs really worked for me here and I appreciated how the story came together!
There were a bunch of things that didn't work for me either, though. ALL of the characters were unlikable and sometimes I had a hard time believing a woman wrote this book. Sometimes they were crass and had odd turns of phrase that really just felt like an out-of-touch man wrote it, but maybe that's to show how out of touch some of these characters were. I had a little difficultly with how much I disliked each and every one of them, though.
I also really, really hated the fact that COVID was mentioned so often and used so much. The book was supposed to take place in 2021 but... why? This book was published in 2024. Unless there was a specific reason to incorporate it into the plot by the use of masks or isolation or not seeing people, etc then it would make sense but there was literally no reason for it AT ALL. There were minor parts of the book where it was involved in the plot for something but that could have easily been written another way. This is a personal preference, but I generally prefer my fiction without anything about the pandemic, even thrillers and horror.
This was a weird book to rate. Usually my 3 star-ish books are a little more indifference or boredom and this was a hard clash of things I liked vs disliked.
This was a read that I picked up on a bookstagram recommendation and I was really excited for it. A lot of it really worked for me but a lot of it really, really didn't.
I appreciated that this was something a little different. I felt like I was getting something new, even when repeating some thriller tropes and concepts that we've seen a bunch of times. I was worried for a while due to one of them (that I don't want to say because it kind of sort of gives stuff away), but I liked the "is it or isn't it" that left me wondering exactly how far things went. I thought I figured out one of the twists and that it was SUPER obvious, but I think the author planted it for us there to follow when it turned out to be a way to trick us, in a good way!
The plot was also interesting. The concept of a missing person (whose POV we also get do get!) being held hostage was suspenseful. A morally questionable psychologist leads us on our journey, and another POV connects to her past. The different POVs really worked for me here and I appreciated how the story came together!
There were a bunch of things that didn't work for me either, though. ALL of the characters were unlikable and sometimes I had a hard time believing a woman wrote this book. Sometimes they were crass and had odd turns of phrase that really just felt like an out-of-touch man wrote it, but maybe that's to show how out of touch some of these characters were. I had a little difficultly with how much I disliked each and every one of them, though.
I also really, really hated the fact that COVID was mentioned so often and used so much. The book was supposed to take place in 2021 but... why? This book was published in 2024. Unless there was a specific reason to incorporate it into the plot by the use of masks or isolation or not seeing people, etc then it would make sense but there was literally no reason for it AT ALL. There were minor parts of the book where it was involved in the plot for something but that could have easily been written another way. This is a personal preference, but I generally prefer my fiction without anything about the pandemic, even thrillers and horror.
This was a weird book to rate. Usually my 3 star-ish books are a little more indifference or boredom and this was a hard clash of things I liked vs disliked.