Alice in Waterdeep
I was looking forward to this book since I loved First Lie Wins, but unfortunately I was quite disappointed. I found this one predictable and not very interesting after the first few chapters.
The characters were flat and felt kind of all the same to me, especially the two protagonists even though they should be very different given how different their lives are. Way too many secondary and tertiary characters I struggled to keep track of, at least for a novel of this size with this kind of plot. Silas is one exception, I genuinely liked him even though I'm not a fan of how his character arc resolved. Very disappointed.
I was very annoyed that both women had a Strong Man (who eventually turned into love interest) to look out for them. Nothing bad about that, but the fact that it was for both protagonists didn't sit right with me. Also, I didn't care at all about the relationship between Deacon and Aubrey. I felt zero anything between them. To be honest, Deacon was high up on my suspects list, he kept acting weird! As in, perhaps, too perfect to be real? But it was real, apparently. I don't know. Wasn't a fan.
Margaret being the one who was driving the truck was stupidly obvious since the first flashback of that night. Instead I did not call Sullivan being Ben's murderer, but I didn't really enjoy that "twist". You can't play the "actually the detective is the culprit!" card when said detective has had perhaps three scenes total.
The resolution also felt too clean. Everyone got away with everything, Silas came up with the perfect plan in 0.2 seconds and it worked on the first try, no flaws, no hiccups. Camille's father went from being this unescapable threat to not a problem anymore, and for no real reason. Ben's murderer died five minutes after being revealed as the culprit. Margaret died without facing consequences. What else. There's probably more but I forgot. I admit I was quite disturbed by how Silas dealt with his wife, though.
That said, it wasn't terrible. It was still enjoyable and an easy read, but nothing exciting.
I was looking forward to this book since I loved First Lie Wins, but unfortunately I was quite disappointed. I found this one predictable and not very interesting after the first few chapters.
The characters were flat and felt kind of all the same to me, especially the two protagonists even though they should be very different given how different their lives are. Way too many secondary and tertiary characters I struggled to keep track of, at least for a novel of this size with this kind of plot. Silas is one exception, I genuinely liked him even though I'm not a fan of how his character arc resolved. Very disappointed.
I was very annoyed that both women had a Strong Man (who eventually turned into love interest) to look out for them. Nothing bad about that, but the fact that it was for both protagonists didn't sit right with me. Also, I didn't care at all about the relationship between Deacon and Aubrey. I felt zero anything between them. To be honest, Deacon was high up on my suspects list, he kept acting weird! As in, perhaps, too perfect to be real? But it was real, apparently. I don't know. Wasn't a fan.
Margaret being the one who was driving the truck was stupidly obvious since the first flashback of that night. Instead I did not call Sullivan being Ben's murderer, but I didn't really enjoy that "twist". You can't play the "actually the detective is the culprit!" card when said detective has had perhaps three scenes total.
The resolution also felt too clean. Everyone got away with everything, Silas came up with the perfect plan in 0.2 seconds and it worked on the first try, no flaws, no hiccups. Camille's father went from being this unescapable threat to not a problem anymore, and for no real reason. Ben's murderer died five minutes after being revealed as the culprit. Margaret died without facing consequences. What else. There's probably more but I forgot. I admit I was quite disturbed by how Silas dealt with his wife, though.
That said, it wasn't terrible. It was still enjoyable and an easy read, but nothing exciting.