I expected to like this one a lot. Locust Lane is described in the book blurb as “a taut and utterly propulsive story about the search for justice and the fault lines of power and influence in a seemingly idyllic town.”
The story is set in motion when a young woman, Eden, is found dead in her home in an upscale greater-Boston suburb. This is the seemingly-idyllic town in the blurb, with wealthy tech bros and trophy wives and high school kids full of promising futures. Eden, though, wasn’t really part of that world. This is an especially tragic murder, because it sounds like Eden was dealing with a lot of personal struggles before her death, but we don’t really meet her as a character. Three kids from the rich part of town were partying with her… well, first they all insist they weren’t, then that they were but there wasn’t any drinking, then that they were drinking but a stranger must have come in after they left, etc. I wasn’t really a fan of the pacing, it didn’t feel suspenseful. I felt like I read 10,000 pages in which each of the three teenagers insisted it wasn’t them and then gave one more detail about that night. There were endless scenes of characters refusing to tell other characters anything, and it just took ages. I probably should have stopped here when I noticed I was picking up my phone to check Insta and my games while I was reading this book.
I felt like there weren’t enough surprises to make this feel like a thriller or a mystery. From the beginning, readers know that Jack is rich and cruel, his girlfriend Hannah will do anything he wants, and his best friend, Christopher, is bullied and teased by him. And then, the story unfolds kind of as you expect. There aren’t any big shocks with the evidence, either.
The story is set in motion when a young woman, Eden, is found dead in her home in an upscale greater-Boston suburb. This is the seemingly-idyllic town in the blurb, with wealthy tech bros and trophy wives and high school kids full of promising futures. Eden, though, wasn’t really part of that world. This is an especially tragic murder, because it sounds like Eden was dealing with a lot of personal struggles before her death, but we don’t really meet her as a character. Three kids from the rich part of town were partying with her… well, first they all insist they weren’t, then that they were but there wasn’t any drinking, then that they were drinking but a stranger must have come in after they left, etc. I wasn’t really a fan of the pacing, it didn’t feel suspenseful. I felt like I read 10,000 pages in which each of the three teenagers insisted it wasn’t them and then gave one more detail about that night. There were endless scenes of characters refusing to tell other characters anything, and it just took ages. I probably should have stopped here when I noticed I was picking up my phone to check Insta and my games while I was reading this book.
I felt like there weren’t enough surprises to make this feel like a thriller or a mystery. From the beginning, readers know that Jack is rich and cruel, his girlfriend Hannah will do anything he wants, and his best friend, Christopher, is bullied and teased by him. And then, the story unfolds kind of as you expect. There aren’t any big shocks with the evidence, either.