I know it’s not a new release by far, but had never heard of it until a tiktoker recommended it on my FYP a few weeks ago. I binge-read it over the past couple days…and for the first third to half of the book, I was OBSESSED. Taking notes, referencing the grounds map, backtracking to the invitation and cross referencing the names, etc. Maybe a little over halfway through, I lost steam. There seemed to be no way to really play “whodunit” or make some creative guesses that turned out to be even somewhat near the mark, lol. (“Maybe I’m just bad at murder mysteries,” I thought.)
I kept going though, looking forward to re-reading the book and picking up on the little clues that I was missing the first time around. That’s one of my favorite parts of mysteries like these – sure, I enjoy the first read, but the second read is where I get to really piece it together and appreciate the talent and imagination of the author weaving the things together. The anticipation of the re-read was my motivation, the carrot at the end of the stick, my chocolate cake reward after a fibrous salad dinner.
I continued to slog along, still mentally stacking times and places and characters as best I could, finally hitting the last few pages….and then the final twist happened and it was over.
So, um – am I really just that bad at murder mysteries? Or is there honestly no point in re-reading since there are no discernible clues that lead to the major plot twists whatsoever? There is no way I would have ever seen >!the whole prison simulation thing, the 2nd Plague Doctor thing, the Not Evelyn thing.!< Also, there are times when parts of the mystery are fully explained in detail – after the fact – during a conversation with another character: >!The meaning of the “all of them” note, and how it came about, for example!< I mean, we are reading the book through his perspective – why is it just suddenly wrapped up with a full explanation a few chapters later, as if the author remembered that particular loose end during final edits and was like “whoops, I need to explain that and pretend the reader would be unaware of the main character’s actions for a period of time”
Again, there’s a very real possibility that I am not perceptive enough to pick up on clues that may have been there. But I feel confident that at least the main final twist just came out of nowhere…right?
Thanks for reading if you got this far – this started out as a “call me crazy, but” post, and turned a bit ranty.
by xkisses