venanana's reviews
24 reviews

This book is good. HOWEVER the main character is genuinely stupid.

I normally try to be spoiler free in my reviews but I need to explain what happened to better understand my frustration with this book.

FIRST, the smut is bad nasty. It's like, actually gross. Even like cringey sex scenes I'll grimace through and keep going. This is the one time I've actually had to skip over the sex in a book at all. I read BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood and I had to skip over these two morons having sex. It's like someone gave Danielle L. Jensen a playbook of how to make me so icked out and told her to write two dry humping scenes, a fingering, then sex right before the end betrayal. I genuinely wish there was no smut in this book and It'd get a higher star for sure. Because instead of Using Her Brain, Freya sends too much time being horny. Like Björn is applying burn cream to her hand and she's wishing he was inside her, it's nuts.

So... Freya is stupid. For a moment I considered it might be on purpose, but came to the quick realization of... No, it's not on purpose because she's supposed to be this clever and smart, all powerful protagonist. She's not. She is not clever /once/ in the whole book, any good ideas came from Bjorn, and most of the time she ignored him. Even when he flat out tells her the answers, she doesn't get it.

I knew Bjorn's mom was alive the whole time, I knew Freya had two tattoos bc she had two godly parents, I knew her other parents would be Hel, I knew Bjorn was the traitor the whole time because it is INCREDILY and PAINFULLY obvious. The way the step mom is villainized and one dimensional made it clear she was not the traitor.

Freya never ever thinks about the things she's learned and she never ever tries to piece things together. "Oh it's weird that I have two tattoos," and "Oh yeah. The Gods themselves said I had two bloodlines so MAYBE..." normally, in any other book, I'd forgive this bc no one else made that connection. But the problem is SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE! Technically someone did, but that was the last 10 pages reveal so I just went "I KNOW!!!!". But someone other than the Big Bad(TM) who shows up twice should have been able to say to Freya. "Hey. Maybe you have two Godlines?" But no one does and it's a choice the author made for that last ten pages reveal holding to shock and interest a reader into reading the squeal.

I don't need to read the squeal, I already know what's going to happen for the most part, and I know it's going to be incredibly annoying because Bjorn is the only person with a brain in this story. I /might/ read the squeal because Danielle is a good writer, and the world is atmospheric, I just don't know if I can handle Freya being the worst for another full book.

I think there's a very good discussion of fate in the book, one that should have been leaned into a little harder. I think Bjorn's real dad should've had more influence behind the scenes, trying to make Freya believe in the cause; which he sorta does but it's just wishywashy enough that it is kinda a shock when Freya starts to buy into the cause... just sorta, on her own. Like, I know all the times he said "it's a test from the gods!" was a load of crap, but again, Freya is almost to stupid to live, and no one ever points that out to her so it never clicks for her. but that's WHY I think it should've been leaned into more.

The characters are weak. They all have strong personalities but they are cardboard cutouts of roles with very little depth to them. I was able to figure out the entire plot by chapter 12 or whatever because Danielle relied on tropes we all know and love. Freya is the general strong FMC, Bjorn is her teasing/bickering love interest who is dark and mysterious. There's the sister-wife who is just so jealous of Freya bc she's so special and wonderful and pretty (barfs up a lung). There's Bjorn's dad who is the generic war lord dad who wants all the power. Bjorn's other dad who is the exact same character... It's bad, Bjorn is actually the only compelling character bc despite knowing he was the traitor the whole time I was interest in seeing what he is character was doing at all given time.
The scene where Freya is in a killing frenzy, and Bjorn is following behind her absolutely wiping the floor with dudes was incredibly bad ass and a moment that really stuck out to me.

And can we all agree that Bjorn is James Fraser from outlander? It's absolutely uncanny.

Also there's never any talk about Freya is Bjorn's Step Mom...

Dark and unpredictable are not exactly the words I'd use to describe this book.

Dark is very far off from words to say about this, I feel it read more like a campy too-high-budget and senseless horror movie. Without any of the actual horror. There are some things early on I thought would be very integral to the story, like how Hannah's bedroom had a view into the Father's office. And Virginia's reluctance to accuse Alexander of anything made me believe in something else happening. There's also a continued reference to what Jo "saw" not what she "remembers" in the first half, so it does intend to mislead you to start with.

There's also a quote about characters who you "Love to Hate" which I also disagree with. The only character I don't like is Jo and it's because the blurb makes it sound like she's an active participant looking for answers; when in actuality she is the only least willing to accept anything is wrong. She doesn't attempt to "fill the holes in her memory" or anything like the blurb suggests.

The book is mutli-POV between Jo, Virginia, A series of flashbacks, and A cop named Andy. Andy's chapters are very-very short and don't provide any additional knowledge. Andy isn't a character in this book he just goes 'I don't like rich people, I'm suspicious of rich people, blahblahblah' his side character partner does more than he does and she's barely on page. His chapters are just a vague insight to the investigation; that doesn't really matter because we already get that information from conversations Andy has with Virginia and Jo. Also, he weirdly never acknowledges Ruby's existence, that was really weird to me.

However, the most interesting character is Hannah, and the flashback chapters. I actually really liked these bits; they're catty and rude and a perfect insight into this woman's character for where we end up.

I do like this book, I listened to it over two days so I really only gave myself a few hours to speculate... not that it did me any good. I normally complain about it being predictable, and it is if you're not mislead by wording and the confusing narrative about who exactly Hannah is.

I'd recommend this, only if you're down for the ride and not for the actual mystery and trying to solve it along side the characters. Because no one is really trying to solve anything, and the only person who is gets 5 mintues where he complains about rich people

Then She Vanishes is a very good mystery, I think on par with 'The Return of Ellie Black' and leagues ahead of 'The Nanny' other Thriller/Mysteries I've read in the last few months.
Trigger warnings: Murder, Gun Violence, Drugging, Drug Addiction, Kidnapping, Prolonged Captivity(Mentioned), Stroke, Grooming, Stalking, Physical Abuse(off page), Emotional and Verbal Abuse, Neglect of a child(Mentioned), Rape/Sexual Assault(Mentioned/Theorized), Pedophilia

This was not has heavy as Ellie Black because we don't spend as much time with a victim as we do with Ellie, but deals with some of the same subject matter that Ellie Black does. Such as the kidnapping and prolonged captivity of underage girls (Ellie was 14 and Flora 16). As it's not as heavy, it's easier to consume, especially for people who are sensitive to the abuse that takes place in these stories.

The mystery itself is well crafted, and had me waffling between a few ideas, with one serious red herring in there. I was confident the whole time Heather did kill those people, but it was a brilliant choice to have two of the POVs read by the same actress to keep the beginning obscure. I was also absolutely certain we were going a different way, and there was going to be a serious discussion to be had about older men/teenagers grooming younger teens into things like drugs. Because we did start slowly with weed, then moved to coke and other harder drugs by the end. But the grooming sorta stopped and isn't the through line of the whole mystery.

Jack is my absolutely favorite character, he's got a sort of charisma that jumps off the page and you feel very endeared to him right away. I enjoyed deeply he's gay and that's really not a big deal ever, but he sorta drops off the page and is got a pretty good chunk with Jess worried about what he might be doing to sabotage her career instead of wondering if he's okay, if something happened after he got mugged. Also, google 40% of cops :) just for fun. Trust me, you'll have a great time learning about what 40% of cops are :)

Margo is my favorite of the POV characters, how dedicated she is to her daughters and Jess is lovely. I was worried about this being a story about everyone hating Jess and then they switch suddenly at the end, but it wasn't. Margo warms to Jess pretty quickly and finds comfort in these trying times with Jess. Her grief and her emotions are palpable as Flora haunts her and the narrative.

With a well thought out mystery, you really want to keep the reader guessing, and guess I did! A lot! and was wrong... A lot! But in the end, I was right all along :)

also her uncle is a nonce, send his ass to jail too!!!

I found myself incredibly anger with this book at several points. (yes, I did give it 4 stars)
Trigger Warnings: Pedophilia, Implied Sexual Assault/Rape of underage girls, Victim Blaming, Murder, Physical Abuse of a Romantic Partner, Abusive Mother, Heavy Religious Themes

The Summer She Vanished is less of a whodunit but rather piecing together a 40 year old mystery and prove the known subject is guilty. Piecing together a family mystery with little to no help from her actual family, Maggie returns to America for her grandmother's funeral and learns about her secret aunt everyone tried to forget because she vanished just a few days after the murder of a Sister at her Catholic all girls High School.

We learn about the tragic events of Minna, and the abuse she and other teenaged girls at her school faced at the hands of Father Tom Brennon. It's treated as an open secret, and even the high reaches of their town tossed away evidence to protect this man. While we're led to believe these high reaches are to blame for everyone insisting nothing happened to Minna and that's why no one talks about her; people seem to want to talk the moment Maggie askes any questions. And pretty much everyone she meets tells her she looks just like her aunt... Which is super weird because why didn't she hear that a lot growing up? These same people seem to be willing to talk well enough they would have made these comments about Maggie when she was still living in town.

The twist ending is that Sister Fran is actually alive, and it's actually her twin sister Flora that was murdered by Father Brennon because he thought Flora was Fran. After Fran confronted him, told him to turn himself in or she would- he tried to meet up with her to 'talk' and by talk I mean kill. Fran adopted Flora's identity out of fear for her life, only hearing about Minna's disappearance weeks later as she went on the run. Which is so incredibly cheap, I hated it. I don't mean to not have the twin plot line, I think that was a pretty clever way to have there be this secret 3rd person involved- but I think it'd be a lot more palpable of a loss if Flora was indeed the surviving twin and hid all of these connections to protect her sister, and has been desperately trying to reach out to someone who will finally listen and solve the case.

So, my little tag line was about how this book made me angry. I think I see a lot of myself in Minna, and that just hard to listen to. There is so much victim blaming when it comes to Minna, even down to her killer's confession. Mike, her boyfriend, killed her in a fit of anger because she was going to send proof to someone that Father Brennon killed Sister Fran. Something that was morally right to do, and would have been incredibly cathartic to Minna as a victim to get justice. Mike gets angry and kills Minna because Father Brennon is his uncle, and he insists on protecting his family. In the letter he writes to Maggie, he blames it all on Minna. Minna "pushed his buttons", Minna "Liked getting reactions out of him", Minna showed him the tape, Minna stepped away- Minna was the one to show fear- Minna is the one who said he was just like his uncle, the man who raped and abused her, locked in a closet- Mike knew all of this and it was just Minna's fault.

I was furious listening to him blame Minna for her own murder. I was even more furious listening to the rest of the book with no real acknowledgment this was not her fault. It's meant to be obvious, of course it's not Minna's fault. But the first half of the book front loads you with all this blame pushed onto Minna. About how she's a liar, how she tells stories, she's a troubled teen, etc. Because it's so top heavy with people blaming Minna for her disappearance, not even bothering to look for her, there should have been some catharsis to it. Some conversation or inner monologue about how this town came down hard on a teenager that many people knew was being sexually abused instead of the pedophilia rapist in their church.

Some acknowledgment that no matter what lies Minna told, no matter how hard she pushed her boyfriend, no matter if she fought with her parents, or her siblings, even if she did try to escape and make things right; This was not her fault.

The letter at the end, Minna's letter to her sister, is heart wrenching to me as an older sister. Spending my life fearing my sisters will suffer like I did, and Minna's fear was not unfounded.

Maggie should have kicked that old bastard in his dentures.