This novel sounded like it was going to be spot on. You have a person going around vandalizing things in the neighborhood… there’s Jen who thinks she may just be raising a sociopath, her son Abe, who may just be terrorizing the neighborhood, and you have Lena and Annie… two women drawn together by a strange and tortured past, a dead husband in the mix … oh my goodness… I’m ready for the popcorn and the snuggly blankets, and all my attention has been deftly tuned to the plight of this crazy neighborhood and the women in this book club …
So this is a S-L-O-O-O-O-O-W-W-W burn 🔥 story. I mean slow as in if each letter of the word slow were separated 1000 pages apart and you had to turn and “read” each page between the letters, before finally finding out 4000 pages later that EVERYTHING you read previously could have been summed up so much cleaner and faster… you wouldn’t have turned old and your drink dried up, causing dehydration and your poor eyeballs are blinking dust going what the heck?? I devoted all this time and energy and brain power and have been waiting on the tension and thriller and … this is it??? What the heck???
For me, I never really found myself drawn to any of the characters, I thought they were all equally sneaky, dishonest, trouble causing, rumor starting … okay reigning that back in … 😂 which the humdrum pace and interactions caused me to find myself skimming the paragraphs and having to go back thinking – wait!? Did I miss something? Did something happen as I was drifting off thinking about laundry and house cleaning … and and …
It’s only in the last few pages are the questions answered (as in most thrillers) but this one just felt fluffed. Over fluffed. Suffocating fluffed. Great story premise. I found myself stubborn enough to not want to not finish and see what the twist or hook was. It was a good answer … as I refuse to give spoilers… but I just found myself let down… this was just not the ”thriller” for me.
Who knows? Maybe I missed something. This is one that I could have just skipped … but let me know what you think!
I would rate this a 2 out of 5 stars – great premise – just dragged out overkill in my humble opinion.
I do hope you’ll join along with all my book blog and book art adventures, as what better way to connect with people… the sharing of thoughts, ideas, gifts and by the book recommendations we give, and even better … we receive. Happy reading my friends! May your next read be phenomenal!
Oceans of Books 