I'm so grateful to Celadon Books for sending me a copy of this book to review - all opinions are my own.
The story is being told as a murder mystery. When on family vacation, the 17 year old Alison disappears and later is found dead. What happened to her noone knows. Years later, her younger sister is still pondering this mystery, it has affected her life, and as she discovers later other people's lives as well.
The mystery isn't really in the forefront of this story. It's a backbone for everyone that is surrounding it. This book is more of a character study. It explores a lot of different topics. Privilege, race, maybe even some mental health issues. But it explores through lives of a the characters (main ones and not) that were around the incident. We spend most of the book looking these lives, and it's a slow burn for the mystery aspect of it.
This author can write. Is all I can say. Now, it might not be for everyone, and I found it hard to concentrate on all the wordy sentences. That was probably the biggest hurdle for me - it was such a dense way to tell a story, that after reading for an hour I didn't feel like I got anywhere, or found out anything. It's a very very slow burn of a book, and after reading it I don't feel like it was truly for me. It wasn't entertaining, it was more of a life lesson that I wasn't prepared for.
I saw someone else say, that characters aren't very relatable, and I can totally agree. At the end I wasn't invested in any one story. It showed how each person isn't that special or interesting, in the end we are just way more self absorbed and don't really understand others or their motives for their actions.
I'd give this 3.5 rounded up. Try it for the detailed writing, and a broad character study.
The story is being told as a murder mystery. When on family vacation, the 17 year old Alison disappears and later is found dead. What happened to her noone knows. Years later, her younger sister is still pondering this mystery, it has affected her life, and as she discovers later other people's lives as well.
The mystery isn't really in the forefront of this story. It's a backbone for everyone that is surrounding it. This book is more of a character study. It explores a lot of different topics. Privilege, race, maybe even some mental health issues. But it explores through lives of a the characters (main ones and not) that were around the incident. We spend most of the book looking these lives, and it's a slow burn for the mystery aspect of it.
This author can write. Is all I can say. Now, it might not be for everyone, and I found it hard to concentrate on all the wordy sentences. That was probably the biggest hurdle for me - it was such a dense way to tell a story, that after reading for an hour I didn't feel like I got anywhere, or found out anything. It's a very very slow burn of a book, and after reading it I don't feel like it was truly for me. It wasn't entertaining, it was more of a life lesson that I wasn't prepared for.
I saw someone else say, that characters aren't very relatable, and I can totally agree. At the end I wasn't invested in any one story. It showed how each person isn't that special or interesting, in the end we are just way more self absorbed and don't really understand others or their motives for their actions.
I'd give this 3.5 rounded up. Try it for the detailed writing, and a broad character study.