
It counts on the writer’s brilliant passing of time skills as one of their merits - to successfully tell the tale of a life and to make you invested as it was a real one - the “plot-twist” tool, unfortunately, made the story to lose some of its charm, and wasn’t needed (not even for character-growth purposes, fight with me on that). Too bad Monique’s background story, her own dilemmas and conclusions, feel a bit dull and over simplified in comparison to the overall tone of the bigger story.
My idea for this one was to read something very light and effortless; why not a teenage “who-done-it”? The answer: it’s poorly written and repetitive; to call the ending anticlimactic is to flatter it. I felt like I was reading a script from a cancelled TV show from The CW. There was a moment in which I realized I truly didn’t care about who was the villain.
I commend the book on its merits—now that’s how you build suspense and anticipation to make the reader care for it and still, despite what more purists may say, make a compelling novel. The writing is sensationalistic and designed to earn a shock value from it—what they don’t tell you is these mundane resources—here—they work.