jpaulthunders77's reviews
270 reviews

The twists, especially the last two, were predictable. For me, if that's the case, I would be a bit disappointed. Let me just explain how I somehow stitched the events together. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Spoiler

From the start, I already knew that Will was the dead body. Like hello, he's the only one who had no solo POV till the near end. That seemed fishy to me.

Once Will's secrets started percolating, starting from Johnno's career sabotage, the bullying of this 'Loner' boy, I had this weird feeling—something screaming inside my gut (by the way, the reason why I'm fat is because I have this massive gut to listen to haha)—that Aoife was related to this boy whom they 'accidentally' killed. Why, you might ask?
a. Because first of all, when the revelations occurred, she barely appeared on page. Now this was one of the author's technique to hide the bomb and throw it to us later in the end, but I managed to catch that bomb and detonate it lol.
b. The way Aoife overreacted when people went near the graveyard. I was like, 'oh, this bitch is hiding something'. I don't know how to explain it, it just cropped up inside my head. Surprisingly, I was right. Her brother's name was on one of the graves.

It was also easy to predict that this 'Steven' whom Olivia dated was Will and that she was the one who wrote the note. I've seen this type of techniques on Korean thrillers.

But I might give Lucy Foley some claps for writing distinct voices for her POV characters. I mean, two POVS are hard to nail, what more 5 or 6? Good job! I also like how she wove the secrets and baggage of the characters as the story progressed towards the ending. Speaking of ending, what was that? It felt rushed and unsatisfying. I would have appreciated if there had been additional chapters for introspection and resolution.

Not the worst I've ever read but this one would not go down to my best reads. I would read her other works—see if I could like her as an author.

Ahhh okay. After quite some time of self-distance from this book, I have finally arrived at a state of mind where I can pinpoint the things that I liked and things I didn't like about this book.

Let's get into the review since the synopsis stated above is pretty straight forward. I really like the writing style of Riley Sager. The way he plays with words and sentences to create an eerie atmosphere is truly commendable. When I was reading, I felt a certain claustrophobic sense of being trapped in the middle of fucking nowhere, hearing nothing but the howl the wind, the orchestra of insects, feeling the chills of the air, and seeing nothing but trees and the lake. The atmosphere easily offers great potential in setting up a good thriller. The narration style (present and past) made me intrigued all the way to the end. Sager could really craft a page-turner, that's for sure, leaving sets of red herrings and clues for you to follow.

However, as much as I wanted to like this one, this book also failed to thread over the lines of logic. It was replete with a lot of nonsense.

Spoiler

1. the map that Vivian left in the cabin: why would Emma need that shit if Vivian has already taken her to that secret place 15 years ago? And the way the map was drawn was not even that comprehensive.

2. why shall we go over and over this mental asylum subplot, digging the history of Lake Midnight when in reality, it has nothing to do with Vivian's disappearance? that the real reason why she befriended Allison and Natalie and killed them in the process was revenge.

3. the way Emma said that after the incident fifteen years ago, she NEVER told a single lie—I mean, girl, that's just too hard to believe. it's like me saying, "I'm going on a diet."

4. the Chet twist: like after all, he just wants revenge because Emma said that it was Theo, his brother, who hurt the three girls. It was understandable, but in the sense of the narrative, this lacked red herring and clues. It just popped out of nowhere near the end for the purpose of shock value. I couldn't grasp it, it was not delicious at all because you didn't have the chance to guess this plot point. Instead of building this up properly, the story meandered to a lot of irrelevant things.

Maybe it was a wrong decision reading Riley Sager's bibliography from the latest down to his earliest. I enjoyed Lock Every Door and Home Before Dark despite their issues. This one—the book which I heard had a lot of good twists—turned out to be a disappointment for me.

I am sorry.

At first, I wasn't fan of the writing style. One moment I was reading run on sentences, then next, the proses were a bit purplish. The story moved slow on the first hundred pages. The characters were not even that engaging. They didn't seem real for me. Anna—sure—because we're stuck in her head, but the other characters were bland and the changes in their behavior were there for the sake of shock value.

My main issue with this book lies on the plot twists. Some were properly built up like the following:

Spoiler

I kinda expected it earlier on that Ed and Olivia were dead because it was explained that the car rolled over and they stayed in the cold for like two days? You tell me they survived? hypothermia who? So yes for that. Clues were laid down accordingly. It was also obvious that the Jane she met wasn't the real mother. Just an inkling, but I was right.

NOW for the main reveal. That final twist, as shocking and mind-blowing as it may seemed, lacked developments. Because...

Spoiler

Ethan had this dissociative personality disorder that she got interested in banging Anna Fox. Like I have no problem with this trope, if done well. However, in this book, it just smacked you in the face without clues or red herrings on the previous parts of the book. So when I read it, I was like, 'what??? you slapped me just like that??' Also, Anna is a child psychologist. She should have observed his behavior. How come she hadn't seen that?

But I must say that the climax scene, the raining on the rooftop, was gripping in all fairness.

I am disappointed. I didn't buy the twist. I was expecting something else. If you're a thriller virgin and want to join the bloody fandom, go start with this one. But if you're a tenured mystery/thriller/whodunnit reader, I don't think you'll enjoy this.

Not disappointed, just underwhelmed???? Maybe because I've read a couple of books before that used the same type of twist. Nonetheless, this book kept me intrigued.

Tagalog novel (novella??) so my review is gonna be in Tagalog-English format.

Not a fan of the epistolary writing style. Stream of consciousness lang talaga siya na may halong cursing sometimes. I do like the atmosphere though pero di talaga ako natakot.

I read the Latin passages, but I felt nothing. A little bit of a meh. Maybe I'm the devil's son??

I love King's character work—the way he withholds and reveals information per chapter (or per paragraph)—is a work of art. As usual, King describes things a lot, more than he should, even life's most minute details. What really stood out for me was the exploration of childhood trauma and abuse which played a vital role in Jessie's way of thinking and the way she adapted to the horror brought about by her husband's kinks.

Some parts are creepy, some parts are boring.

BDSM can really be scary, yo!

A quick, fun, and entertaining read, but this volume missed some marks that I cannot specifically point out.

I've always wished I was a twin. I always long for someone, who is non-existent, to share the same face and genome as mine. My other half, whose beat of heart and stream of thoughts, feels completely like home. Maybe in another life, if I would be given the chance to be reincarnated, I would beg to have an identical twin brother.

That's the main reason why I decided to read this novel. Boy was I amazed!

In case you're not in the mood to read the synopsis, let me tell you that it's about this light-skinned black, identical twins, Desiree and Stella Vignes, who left their small town at the age of 16 and their stories of love, heartache, race, and identity. Desiree, the older twin, decides to embrace her blackness and marry the darkest man she could find. She bears one child named Jude who is black as a tarmac, but as gentle and loving as the sun. Meanwhile Stella, the more quiet twin, decides to pass over and live as a white woman. She marries a white man and bears, in a fortunate combination of genes, a white girl named Kennedy. It then shows the story of these four women as they live their lives. How the twins left their town and separated, how their daughters grew up differently and met eventually, and how the twins reunited, alongside the lessons they learned.

There are lots of things that I loved about this novel. First, the writing—it's very honest, intricate, and caring. It doesn't pretend to be too poetic and sappy, just right to convey the right imagery and emotions for me to care about the characters. Now for the characters, I really admire Bennett's character work. I ached deeply for her characters. Her narration and backstory creation was immersive and mesmerizing, that even though the most mundane part of their lives seemed so interesting to me. All her characters, even the minor ones, were real to me.

I also like the inclusion of a trans character in here. Although I can never speak for the accuracy of the portrayal, I felt the honesty of the character work, the realness of his journey toward his freedom, and I guess that's a plus point for me.

I know a lot of people have complaints about the pacing of the story because the first third was really slow and some of the character arcs, the ones that actually drove the plot, seemed to lack proper resolution. But you know what? I could care less. For me, I was deeply moved by the poignancy and the melancholic atmosphere of the story. The subjects of race, identity, belongingness, and love was explored in a way that left me satisfied. Also, like I've said, I am a sucker for twin stories so it's a five.

PS: I just to share that I was re-watching one of my favorite Filipino TV series when I started reading this. Maybe that was a contributing factor to the emotions I felt. Just in case you're curious, here's the trailer lol. It's called Doble Kara (Two Faces), and it tells the story of identical twin sisters who were separated when they were young because one had a leukemia and must be treated abroad. Years later, they reunited but could the years spend together growing up apart be filled with their love for each other? It's in Filipino but there's English close caption. Just try it :) Here's the link of the YouTube video:

Doble Kara

Short and enjoyable. I really like how Taylor Jenkins Reid managed to create these vividly-enough characters in just a span of 80 pages. David and Carrie's voices are different and distinct from each other, yet they somehow meet halfway and share the same vulnerabilities—love and the willingness to turn blind for the sake of their respective families. Love the character development as well.

That 'plot twist' in the end was something I expected after reading the middle part. I knew that's where the story was headed. Maybe because I watch too much telenovelas.

Anyways, if you want something short and intriguing, try this. :)