I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Bonnier Books UK in exchange for an honest review.
I liked this book a lot better when it was called Knives Out.
Perhaps that is a bit unfair but I can't help but feel the movie's influence throughout the whole of this book, and not in a good way. Young female protagonist who seems undoubtedly guilty early on? Check. Determined sleuth who teams up with said young protagonist to add stress to their situation? Check. Heck, the other detective in the audiobook even has the same accent as Daniel Craig! It was very distracting.
Despite all this, the main reason I have an issue with this book has nothing to do with Knives Out and everything to do with the fact it doesn't play fair. From the very start of the murder, we are told the main character goes into the room of the victim with a knife. We are not told what she does in that room. She then talks mysteriously about her 'secret' for the rest of the book. The clear implication is that she has killed him, and yet (despite being the POV character) she never actually says those words so it is painfully obvious that we are being misled. I don't like this and it left a sour taste in my mouth, particularly because without this subterfuge I think it becomes incredibly obvious who is the real killer.
There are some strengths of this book. I liked the characters well-enough. They were a bit more fleshed out than your typical YA thriller/mystery, and while I found the love interest to be the blandest, I liked reading about everyone else. The detective is pretty good and I feel like the book would have been stronger written from her POV, not the least bit because it would solve the POV issue from above. There is one genuine twist which was clever and surprised me, although admittedly that's because I was actually expecting the book to go for a darker option.
Overall, I would say I love the writing style of this book but the elements themselves didn't work for me. If this author releases another book, I would definitely give it a try for the aforementioned strengths mentioned. I just wish this book was a little more original and a little less unfair with its mystery
Overall Rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment