This was very much a mixed bag for me.
It was a good story – I just don’t think it was told as well as it should have been considering the powerful topics involved. Having said that, I do think that the issue of grooming and it’s affect upon young people was dealt with very well.
There are, basically, two clashing perspective narrations interspersed with ‘insight’ perspectives from other characters. The format just didn’t work well enough for me and the flow of the story felt disjointed.
I have to say that I closed the book at page 307 with no real intention of returning to it. Actually, I very nearly gave up on it at page 7 where the word “alexithymia” is thrown nonchalantly at the reader out of the blue. It’s not a common word. Should the reader have to go and look it up ? Or should they ignore it and hope that the author will explain it later?
I read on after page 307 but I wasn’t overly impressed with the rest of the story. I felt that Jenni was still, somehow, incomplete. The ending was too ‘contrived' for me.
Yes, it is a dark thriller and some of it is very good but I wasn’t gripped by it.
Thank you to Readers First, Zaffre and Kate Bradley for the ARC in return for my honest review.
It was a good story – I just don’t think it was told as well as it should have been considering the powerful topics involved. Having said that, I do think that the issue of grooming and it’s affect upon young people was dealt with very well.
There are, basically, two clashing perspective narrations interspersed with ‘insight’ perspectives from other characters. The format just didn’t work well enough for me and the flow of the story felt disjointed.
I have to say that I closed the book at page 307 with no real intention of returning to it. Actually, I very nearly gave up on it at page 7 where the word “alexithymia” is thrown nonchalantly at the reader out of the blue. It’s not a common word. Should the reader have to go and look it up ? Or should they ignore it and hope that the author will explain it later?
I read on after page 307 but I wasn’t overly impressed with the rest of the story. I felt that Jenni was still, somehow, incomplete. The ending was too ‘contrived' for me.
Yes, it is a dark thriller and some of it is very good but I wasn’t gripped by it.
Thank you to Readers First, Zaffre and Kate Bradley for the ARC in return for my honest review.