Srivatsa

I felt like I read two different stories once the twist was revealed. The transition was rather jarring, but overall a fairly good thriller.

First half: 5/5
Second half: 3/5. It went the psychological route with a rather flat ending. Would still recommend and read again from this author.

3.5

2.5 rounded up

Honestly quite predictable. A lot of plot points borrowed from Agatha Christie novels but executed badly. Hated the “convenient” element that lead to the twist

3.75 rounded up

Favorites: the other one by Violet Allen, pressure by Ezra Daniels, Dark home by nnedi okorafor, flicker by L.D.Lewis, hide & seek by p.djeli clark

DNF @ 45% what was even going on?

Merged review:

DNF @ 45% what was even going on?

Merged review:

DNF @ 45% what was even going on?

I am on the fence with the last 5% but overall this book was excellent. Just be prepared for the difficult subject matter. Wish there were more chapters on Sally.

This one was emotional and had the usual funny moments, but where's the mystery? Got completely lost with the character arcs.

This series

The yers, yas, dindjas and fers were too much

3.75 I guessed it from chapter 2 or 3. It felt a bit dragged out and the psychological part took a while to set in, probably past the 50% mark which is suprising. I did like the last few chapters, however, to those who have read this book, what are those beetles meant to signify?

3.5

Oof, this was not her best. Unlikeable characters and honestly a pointless plot. I've usually enjoyed, if not been suprised, with her twists. This one was pretty weak. On the positive side, it was a very quick read. Her writing is just very easy to pick up, so if the plot sounds interesting to you, go for it I guess

4.75 Was hoping for a better ending, but this was good!!

2.5 extremely slow with not much happening and barely any horror.

2.5 rounded up

4.5 (rounded up)

Was it the best written book ever? No
Was it over the top towards the end (2 books released in 2023 come to mind)? Yes
Did I have fun? Absolutely

The last RS book I genuinely liked was Lock every door and after the misses with his last 2 books, I was hesistant with this one. I think the premise and setting was good with a suprisingly unannoying MC. He did a good job of maintaining the suspense with the backstory. I do think it got a bit repetitive and slow at times. I honestly didn't mind the twists. As I said, I've read two popular books this year with crazy twists, so coming into this, I was sort of prepared

Oof a 2.5! On the plus side it was better than the The It Girl, sort of. I think The It Girl had a better plot, but was way too long which I think is a running theme for her books. She's not as dense as Stephen King but her writing can get pretty repetitive. In this book, atleast 70% of the book was spent in Jack's head with no clear action or plan. The real villain in this book is the paper thin plot. Nothing really happens. For a rather interesting premise, you would think there would be a lot of action and mystery. Well we get none of that. I believe Ruth Ware's strengths lie in her prose and themes - every book has very interesting themes. She's also pretty good in creating an ambiance a la Turn of the Key. I'm just not sure what she wants her readers to take away at the end. With this book and even with One by One, you can see she has done some research on the technical side. But on a grand scale, it's barely used in the plot. I am still unsure on what to categorise this book - is it a techno-thriller? A mystery? An action thriller (they did mention the fugitive)? It didn't commit to any of these in full. That's my biggest issue with this book, it felt average overall. I will look forward to her next book, cautiously.

Far better than the first. But Joyce stole the show!

Authors need to retire these “motives”

Wish it was a novella. Felt like there were too many characters with whom I could not connect with. The writing and the horror aspect was great though. Would recommend and try another book from this author.

Terribly boring

Ooh this is a hard one. It started out really well. The ambience, the slasher-like chase scenes, especially up until the halfway point. After that, it just got repetitive and it felt like the author wanted to throw in over the top twists and surprises which really impacted the camp for me. Honestly this could have worked really well as a novella, but I did enjoy my time reading it.

While I loved the premise and the concept of the murder mystery tied in with time, the book had too many characters. I could not keep track of who was who. I had to refer to the character list at least 15 times. This convoluted plot of repeated events, slew of characters and a rather lengthy page count (this should not have been a 400+ page read!), made it hard to enjoy the whodunnit aspect of the book. Towards the end, despite the reveal of the murderer, I was truly exhausted. I think I must have switched places with Aiden by the end of this read