I just finished this book a few days ago and I honestly feel pretty underwhelmed by it. I usually enjoy books like this and it got great reviews, but I honestly feel like it was lacking in a lot of ways and wanted to see what others thought of it.
I was disappointed in how two dimensional a lot of the characters were. There was no one who really felt even partially fleshed out. Everyone was very obviously meant to serve the plot, and it was hard to root for anyone. The main character in particular felt like a generic unreliable narrator. Her use of drugs and wine felt like it was plucked from The Woman in the Window or The Girl on the Train and used as a low effort way to discount the main character’s POV.
The plot itself was incredibly predictable, and the “twist” at the end wasn’t really surprising at all. It was easy to tell from very early in the book that Cooper was likely the actual killer, as he had more contact with the missing girls than the dad did. His interactions with Lena are creepy from the get go, and the dad’s ominous “be good” line was incredibly on the nose.
I wasn’t a fan of who the killer of the “new girls” turned out to be, because it just didn’t feel like it was connected well enough into the story. Why would this person do this for Cooper? “He made me do it” is never really explained, and it just didn’t feel convincing to me. I didn’t buy that an individual would commit multiple murders for… what? Friendship? Because Cooper is magnetic? It felt very flimsy to me, and in some ways was also a cop out. Having the murdered be someone who the reader can’t possibly guess always feels like lazy writing to me.
There was also the repeated mention of the “flicker in the dark.” I liked this idea at the beginning, the author is pretty inconsistent with referring back to it in any meaningful way. She comes back to it at the very end, but I felt like there were a lot of wasted opportunities for the author to explore the main character’s fear of the dark and the unknown.
I’d love to hear what other people thought of this book. I didn’t think it was terrible, but I definitely wasn’t super impressed with it. I definitely enjoyed books like Dark Places, Sharp Objects, and The Guest List a lot more than this.
by YearOneTeach