People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

There is a bit of a trend towards social media thrillers and it's a trend I am all for. Something about these books draws me in and, for the moment at least, I find them generally new and interesting. Sadly People Like Her was a bit of a mixed bag.

The plot is focused around three characters: our influencer Emmy, her husband Dan and a mysterious third presence who is both stalking Emmy and hates her for some past transgression. This is a decent enough set up but somewhere, the plot just loses its momentum. It felt like it took me a long time to get through this book even though I was reading it relatively quickly. There just wasn't much happening for the thriller aspect, and I found Emmy and Dan's day-to-day problems not compelling enough to carry the story.

I will say, I did like how Emmy being an influencer was explored in this story. I felt she was both extremely mercenary and also still sympathetic to an extent, and it made for an interesting dissection of the darker side of being an influencer. She was an interesting character if not always a likeable one, and while there wasn't enough to carry the whole plot, I do think she was a good character to center a story around. It would have been nice to see how she dealt with more direct pressure if she had encountered her stalker or the idea of them earlier on.

Overall, People Like Her is a decent thriller but one that just falls a bit short for me. Ultimately the elements didn't quite come together and therefore the climax felt unearned and disjointed from the rest of the story. However, there was still a lot to like here and it does have some interesting points to make. If you like social media thrillers, it's worth giving a go.

Overall Rating:

Dying for Christmas by Tammy Cohen

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

'Misery meets Gone Girl'. Now how could I resist that?

Now to be fair, that's not an entirely inaccurate description of the book. You just have to add the words 'without good writing or any original thought' onto the end of it.

Dying for Christmas is a book I came across by chance and I was instantly intrigued by the blurb. Sadly I can't say this book was worth the read. It's split into two parts, with the first part being the whole Misery kidnap thing and the second half bringing the Gone Girl 'twist'. By which I mean it literally copies exactly what Gone Girl did-a vengeful blonde who dyes her hair red and fakes her own death to spite her husband. Only this time there's another girl as well.

This book is baffling in the way it doesn't make sense. If you're not paying much attention, nothing will really seem wrong with it. But important details just get skirted over. At one point, Dominic tortures Jessica by giving her a tattoo except we're never told what the tattoo is of. At all. She just refers to it as a generic tattoo at all times. The other torture methods are also really weird. Jessica is horrified by being made to eat 5 croissants...is that really so bad? 5? Sure, it's not something you'd do by choice but it's hardly the worst thing ever to happen.

Dominic is freaking hilarious as a villain. He fails in all the ways Annie Wilkes succeeded. Dominic's thing is he is a massive narcissist which unfortunately means he spells out every single detail of what he's doing and his motivations as though everyone reading the book is a moron. I was so bored and uninterested in everything he said. Annie Wilkes was scary because she didn't tell Paul anything about herself really-he stumbled across it. The first part is just pages upon pages of Dominic screaming things at Jessica, proclaiming how evil and scary he is. Can this be excused by the fact Jessica made it all up? Not in my eyes.

That's another thing-the book doesn't really explain exactly what really did happen. Like the tattoo, details are strangely sparse. The second part of the book infuriated me massively because it was a) ripped straight from Gone Girl and b) not much actually happened in it. There were so many huge coincidences that I couldn't buy the plot anymore, not that it was all that easy to swallow in the first place.

Finally, the ending...what was that? What does it mean? I guess it means that Kim let Jess go (because apparently going back to her family meant she couldn't reveal the truth for some reason) and Dominic has now become one of the voices in Jess's head but still. It's such a rushed and clichéd ending (again, ripped straight from Misery) that it sealed the deal for me. The only reason this gets two stars instead of one is that I found myself strangely compelled to keep reading it. It's not badly written in terms of style, just in terms of plot and missed details. But yeah, don't read this book. Just read Misery and Gone Girl instead (and I'm not even that fond of Gone Girl)

Overall Score:

Misery by Stephen King

SPOILERS

I am going to start this review by saying I am 100% biased towards this book and I am not ashamed of it.

Okay so, Misery. This is the first Stephen King book I ever read and the one which made me love him so it's no wonder I'm biased. However, I tried to read it this time round as critically as possible (I was reading it as part of a book club) and even then, I found myself still loving it. This is pure King at his best-no supernatural elements, no weird things with aliens or monsters, just pure psychological horror and two really good characters. Let's start with those.

Paul is of course the main character. It was pointed out to me that he's a little flat by my book club and I really have to disagree. True, Paul is a typical King self-insert and perhaps the most blatant example there is. But Paul has such a strong voice as the narrator that he comes alive. I don't think anyone could read this and not root for Paul, not feel every ounce of his pain. Speaking of which...

Annie Wilkes. My god. As awful as she is, I LOVE her character. By which I mean, I love how detailed and fleshed out she is. Maybe now we're spoiled by murderers with tragic backstories but she was one of the first and one of the best. Not that she isn't causing all the tragedies herself. One thing that did surprise me upon rereading is just how quickly she turns on the crazy but hey, I like that the plot gets kickstarted instantly. I especially like when she gives up all pretence of letting Paul live and how easily she talks about killing him out of sheer weariness. Annie is horrifying in the best way and every second she's on the page, you can't help but tense up.

I promise I will get onto the negatives in a second but first, more gushing! One thing I thought was particularly done well was Paul's descent into Stockholm syndrome. It was blended so perfectly with his med addiction and his growing love of the book he was writing. It felt completely realistic to me and I loved how Annie also seemed to be aware of it, and how needy it made her despite her cynicism.

Okay, so actual criticisms. I have very few to make (big surprise there). A few of the rambly chapters probably could have been cut without too much being lost. I'm not sure what purpose the loss of Paul's thumb served, especially since it happens off-screen right after the on-screen loss of his foot. I guess it's supposed to highlight how awful she is but really, the foot scene worked better and the thumb felt like an add on that wasn't needed. And that's literally all I can think of right now. I really love this book.

Do I even need to sum up? King's fantastic writing style combined with a tense, sardine can thriller that stars two incredibly in-depth characters. A lot of horror, a lot of food for thought and a lot worth reading.

Overall Score:

.5

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

Dear god man, get to the point!

That's basically what I was thinking the whole time I was reading this. Well, that and various, barely funny variations of the title which fully expressed my rage. Enduring Yawn? Boring Love? Who dies in a hot-air balloon-related accident anyway?

There's no question about it, this is a bad book. Unfortunately it's based around a good premise which only makes it all the worse. The main problem of this book is that it takes forever to go anywhere. Just as the plot is about to kick off and things are starting to get interesting, the author will interrupt the story for a five-page lecture on science. Don't get me wrong, I love science. But this isn't supposed to be a book about science, it's supposed to be a book about a crazed stalker. You can analyse until the cows come home about what the science lectures are supposed to represent but screw that, I want story damn it.

Okay, so let's put my issues with pacing aside for now...and move onto my issues with characters! Firstly, the narrator. As mentioned, he's pretty boring due to said lectures. But hey, he doesn't have to be interesting. The main star is surely the stalker right? Except...well, Jed is sort of flat. He has a motive I guess (yay for more negative portrayals of religious people being fanatics -_-) but no real depth to him. My most-hated character however was, without a doubt, Joe's 'loving' wife. Seriously, what kind of woman would respond in the way she did when she found out her husband had a stalker? Worst still, she never gets called out on it, leaving me with the uneasy impression that we're supposed to agree with her actions.

I'm not saying I hated this book completely. Like I said at the start, it is based around a good premise. The whole hot-air balloon thing is ridiculous but everything else has promise. Sadly anything good just gets drowned in a sea of endless rambling and never-ending tangents.

Overall Score: