Devi Nair
š±š Read on Kindle š 368 pages ā± 5 hours š·ļøPublisher name: Harper Genre: Mystery
This wasā¦ a weird one. Not quirky-weird. Not clever-weird. Just why-is-this-happening weird.
Let me start with this: The premise was solid. I actually liked the core reason why everything was unfolding the way it was. The commentary on the publishing industry, the ego, ambition, and literary power dynamics had bite. Jenna Blum's writing was gorgeous, tense, stylish, and sharp enough to slice through glass. There was potential here for a sharp, deliciously twisty mystery set inside the world of books. Catnip for readers like us.
But then came the sex. So. Much. Sex. And not just in passing. The same scenes retold from Samās perspective. From Williamās perspective. From the stalkerās perspective. Over and over. I kept asking myself: why? It didnāt deepen the mystery. It didnāt meaningfully advance the plot. It justā¦ existed. Loudly. Repeatedly. Uncomfortably.
And the gaslighting. Yes, I understand itās narratively necessary. But it was relentless. For readers with personal experience around emotional manipulation, this could hit hard in a very unpleasant way. I genuinely recommend caution here because it is not subtle.
Somewhere between the clever setup and the spiraling paranoia, the book drowned in oversexed chaos. This was very frustrating because the writing was intense. It pulls you in. I kept reading purely out of curiosity. I needed to know where it was going. There was strong tension and narrative grip. If the excess and triggers weren't layered in, this could have easily been a five-star, razor-sharp literary thriller for me.
But the ending, and especially that epilogue, I literally went WTF! Not in a "wow, bold choice" way, but in a "we took a hard left off a cliff" way.
And that's how we landed here.
Would I recommend it? Not really. And the gaslighting. Yes, I understand itās narratively necessary. But it was relentless. For readers with personal experience around emotional manipulation, this could hit hard in a very unpleasant way. I genuinely recommend caution here because it is not subtle. For me? Curiosity kept me turning pages. Satisfaction did not.
š±š Read on Kindle š 368 pages ā± 5 hours š·ļøPublisher name: Harper Genre: Mystery
This wasā¦ a weird one. Not quirky-weird. Not clever-weird. Just why-is-this-happening weird.
Let me start with this: The premise was solid. I actually liked the core reason why everything was unfolding the way it was. The commentary on the publishing industry, the ego, ambition, and literary power dynamics had bite. Jenna Blum's writing was gorgeous, tense, stylish, and sharp enough to slice through glass. There was potential here for a sharp, deliciously twisty mystery set inside the world of books. Catnip for readers like us.
But then came the sex. So. Much. Sex. And not just in passing. The same scenes retold from Samās perspective. From Williamās perspective. From the stalkerās perspective. Over and over. I kept asking myself: why? It didnāt deepen the mystery. It didnāt meaningfully advance the plot. It justā¦ existed. Loudly. Repeatedly. Uncomfortably.
And the gaslighting. Yes, I understand itās narratively necessary. But it was relentless. For readers with personal experience around emotional manipulation, this could hit hard in a very unpleasant way. I genuinely recommend caution here because it is not subtle.
Somewhere between the clever setup and the spiraling paranoia, the book drowned in oversexed chaos. This was very frustrating because the writing was intense. It pulls you in. I kept reading purely out of curiosity. I needed to know where it was going. There was strong tension and narrative grip. If the excess and triggers weren't layered in, this could have easily been a five-star, razor-sharp literary thriller for me.
But the ending, and especially that epilogue, I literally went WTF! Not in a "wow, bold choice" way, but in a "we took a hard left off a cliff" way.
And that's how we landed here.
Would I recommend it? Not really. And the gaslighting. Yes, I understand itās narratively necessary. But it was relentless. For readers with personal experience around emotional manipulation, this could hit hard in a very unpleasant way. I genuinely recommend caution here because it is not subtle. For me? Curiosity kept me turning pages. Satisfaction did not.