Narration: 🙉
Monotone-ish and croaky. The characters sound too similar (unless they’re all supposed to be elderly grandparents)

Atmosphere: 🥱
Came for a thriller, got a children’s book. “The ranch house” “The athletic building” “The neighbour talking to fill the silence”

POVs: 😒
Repetitive. I’ve spent the last hour hearing a thousand different thoughts in Lila’s head going over how she is waiting for something to be discovered, and how she hates her husband.  
Lila could be anything from an abusive psychopath herself to a confused, desperate, abused spouse but she’s written as robotic and flat to achieve that. All her thoughts are her observing her world with no development or personality insights whatsoever. No emotion or depth where we experience her struggling with hating and loving her spouse, fearing yet needing him, or even enjoying the drama and plotting/scheming. 

All the characters read like living point-form! 

Show’n’tell: 👎 All tell (so many times), no show. Like a kindergartener describing their crayon set because they forgot to bring it. 

Growls and Howls: 🐺
When it switches to the past, it’s like the author took the Psych textbook notes for narcissistic personality disorder and had Lila notice them all in her husband then pointing them out to the reader. It already seems that she is FULLY aware of who he is and has been for a long time, they have no kids, she recognizes how horrible he is and seems to experiment a bit (thinking “if i say/do ____ he’ll say/do ____….” [does thing] “Yep, see reader, SEE.”). She has evidence he committed crimes too. 

Reading journey: 👎
Your chain-smoking rideshare driver taking you around the same suburban block, pointing out the same attraction. Over and over. And over. In a nice sedan with climate control and comfy seats, but you have places to go and better things to do. 

Vibe: 🙄🥱😐

Format: Audible