Thank you to BookishFirst and Park Raw Books for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Beautiful Bad starts with a frantic call to 911, and blood all over a kitchen. Slowly, through a series of flashbacks, we learn about exactly what happened the night of that phone call. This is a complex thriller with a lot of timelines, with a not-so-unexpected reveal that may be chilling, but is still a letdown to the buildup.
Let me begin by saying, this is a perfectly find mass-produced domestic thriller/mystery with all the elements of a good homespun whodunit. It neither hurts its genre, nor offers anything extra for it.
One of the weak points for this mystery were the several timelines that ran asynchronously with one another. The pressure is put on the reader to keep track of who and where, with only brief chapter headings to provide a grounding space. I had a hard time organizing my thoughts, and every change in time period felt like a leap that took too much energy. Because of this, I never felt “sucked in,” so to speak, to the world of the book.
I also feel like the twist at the end of this book is super obvious. So, the ultimate climax felt like a, “Yeah, so?” moment for me. If you don’t mind knowing exactly where you’re domestic thriller is headed (and you enjoy the characters and learning their background), this book may fit you better than me. Ultimately, the shock and awe of the opening action sequence gave too much away for me to appreciate the conclusion.
At the same time that the end to the plot felt obvious, I also feel like there were elements of the story leading up to that moment that were left unexplained. While the intention may have been to have some “open-ended” stories, what resulted was an unclear motive and confusion on my part as to how the bits and pieces connected.
Redemption for a weak plot line may be found in characters, as long as you’re okay with a list of despicable folks. It’s hard to like anyone here, which makes any empathy or remorse at the conclusion of the book kind of vanish. I don’t mind when characters are dark and twisted, and at times I did appreciate the darkness in these characters, but the weak plot deterred from my fully understanding their complexity.
With a classic mystery plot and a cast of despicable characters, the writing of this book is on par with the rest. It’s nothing special, although that’s to be expected (usually) in mysteries like this. We’re more concerned with action than language, and for this I applaud Ward--she doesn’t drag us down with insignificant descriptions.
Overall, I would call this a pretty typical thriller with nothing super special to offer. It’s a good option for the “chronic mystery reader,” but not one I’d recommend as anything exceptional.
Beautiful Bad starts with a frantic call to 911, and blood all over a kitchen. Slowly, through a series of flashbacks, we learn about exactly what happened the night of that phone call. This is a complex thriller with a lot of timelines, with a not-so-unexpected reveal that may be chilling, but is still a letdown to the buildup.
Let me begin by saying, this is a perfectly find mass-produced domestic thriller/mystery with all the elements of a good homespun whodunit. It neither hurts its genre, nor offers anything extra for it.
One of the weak points for this mystery were the several timelines that ran asynchronously with one another. The pressure is put on the reader to keep track of who and where, with only brief chapter headings to provide a grounding space. I had a hard time organizing my thoughts, and every change in time period felt like a leap that took too much energy. Because of this, I never felt “sucked in,” so to speak, to the world of the book.
I also feel like the twist at the end of this book is super obvious. So, the ultimate climax felt like a, “Yeah, so?” moment for me. If you don’t mind knowing exactly where you’re domestic thriller is headed (and you enjoy the characters and learning their background), this book may fit you better than me. Ultimately, the shock and awe of the opening action sequence gave too much away for me to appreciate the conclusion.
At the same time that the end to the plot felt obvious, I also feel like there were elements of the story leading up to that moment that were left unexplained. While the intention may have been to have some “open-ended” stories, what resulted was an unclear motive and confusion on my part as to how the bits and pieces connected.
Redemption for a weak plot line may be found in characters, as long as you’re okay with a list of despicable folks. It’s hard to like anyone here, which makes any empathy or remorse at the conclusion of the book kind of vanish. I don’t mind when characters are dark and twisted, and at times I did appreciate the darkness in these characters, but the weak plot deterred from my fully understanding their complexity.
With a classic mystery plot and a cast of despicable characters, the writing of this book is on par with the rest. It’s nothing special, although that’s to be expected (usually) in mysteries like this. We’re more concerned with action than language, and for this I applaud Ward--she doesn’t drag us down with insignificant descriptions.
Overall, I would call this a pretty typical thriller with nothing super special to offer. It’s a good option for the “chronic mystery reader,” but not one I’d recommend as anything exceptional.