Thank you to Celadon for this free copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a book that took me about 3/4 of the way before I decided on 3 stars. Up until then it was pretty good. For some people this book will be perfect. This one was just not the thriller or suspense novel that I expected.
I love the premise of Alison going missing on a family vacation and then they find her body. Most of the story is told through the younger sister, Claire, about 18 years after the incident. I loved how the story alternated between present day and the past. The other cool part was definitely the intermittent case studies from people that were part of Alison’s life or from the vacation. There were tape recordings, letters.
I found it very hard to connect with Claire and I didn’t find her character very appealing and I definitely found myself fully disliking her by the end of the story. The plot line with her and Clive felt more like a budding romance than a suspenseful killer vibe. It just felt uncomfortable. The whole goat woman on the island thing seemed stretched and there wasn’t a lot of information on it for the amount it was mentioned. It seemed as if it should have been a bigger part of the story.
The ending, to me, felt too open ended. Not in a sequel type of way, but just unresolved. I think that was the purpose though, but it didn’t really work for me. The book was lengthy and some parts were super intense and fast paced while others seemed to drag on.
Overall it was a good book. It just wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, which is okay. It just didn’t fit well for me.
I love the premise of Alison going missing on a family vacation and then they find her body. Most of the story is told through the younger sister, Claire, about 18 years after the incident. I loved how the story alternated between present day and the past. The other cool part was definitely the intermittent case studies from people that were part of Alison’s life or from the vacation. There were tape recordings, letters.
I found it very hard to connect with Claire and I didn’t find her character very appealing and I definitely found myself fully disliking her by the end of the story. The plot line with her and Clive felt more like a budding romance than a suspenseful killer vibe. It just felt uncomfortable. The whole goat woman on the island thing seemed stretched and there wasn’t a lot of information on it for the amount it was mentioned. It seemed as if it should have been a bigger part of the story.
The ending, to me, felt too open ended. Not in a sequel type of way, but just unresolved. I think that was the purpose though, but it didn’t really work for me. The book was lengthy and some parts were super intense and fast paced while others seemed to drag on.
Overall it was a good book. It just wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, which is okay. It just didn’t fit well for me.