John
This was a breezy, quick-reading story with twists and turns galore--some good, some bad. Overall, I liked it. This was my first Freida McFadden novel, and I would honestly recommend it. It's the perfect take-along book; grab it and go, read it throughout the day.
That being said, Millie is one of the dumbest people on the planet. She simply lacks the street smarts that a person who has spent the last decade in prison would have. She's truly an idiot, in that regard. She allows Nina to manipulate her into killing Andrew, and she goes from telling the reader that she's basically swearing off romance for the time being, to trying to sleep with Enzo and also actually sleeping with Andrew--which only makes her fall more in love with a man who is obviously more sinister than he lets on.
She should have seen it. Matter of fact, she DID see it. She saw the scratch marks on the door. She openly questioned all sorts of things. She knew something was going on. Supposedly tough chick immediately goes gaga over who can only be described as the most handsome man who ever lived, only to show her true self (which is sort of the opposite of who she's been throughout) at the climax. Maybe the author was trying to paint her as more of an observant, talk-less-smile-more type. That did not come through for me at all.
And again, Nina did manipulate her into killing Andrew. Quite easily.
I was excited for a lot of the twists in this book. I'd heard McFadden writes great twists. And when the book shifts to Nina, that is a great turn. But it wasn't necessarily the most surprising. It was fairly obvious that she had orchestrated the NYC trip on purpose, even after establishing that she often does not remember what she tells Millie. And it was obvious that Millie should have been more concerned about the phone Nina gave her--especially when Nina starts to treat her like shit. Which is almost immediately.
Twice in this story, Millie puts an unnamed object into her pocket. It is made clear that she is putting an unnamed object into her pocket. And she later brings out this object at the appropriate time. To me, this always feels cheap. It feels like the story unfolded in the writing process, and the character needs a thing now, so let's just edit them putting it into their pocket early on.
And the second time, she uses the thing almost immediately. There was no need to go back into that well. Just have her pick up the pliers that the reader knows are pliers, so we can think about the thing that we know she's about to ask him to do with them. It's a torture scene, after all. She's been actively torturing him--or, forcing him to torture himself?--for eight pages. It just felt very unnecessary.
The reveal from Andrew's mother at the funeral didn't really hit so hard, either, because I thought that it was pretty well-established that he was a mama's boy, from almost the beginning of the novel.
This feels weird to say, as a man, but this book feels like it was written by a man: two separate women fall into the web of a sadistic madman who is also extremely handsome. One of the women acts contrary to how you would expect someone in her position to act, and ignores all red flags and falls in love with said sadistic madman. While the other woman sacrifices the first woman to the madman, knowing that he will make her life a living hell.
Lastly, if Cece knew that acting out could get Nina punished, why was she such an asshole to Millie? She would have been on her best behavior at all times.
Feels weird to have this many gripes about a book I'm rating 4/5 and would recommend, but I had a blast.
This was a breezy, quick-reading story with twists and turns galore--some good, some bad. Overall, I liked it. This was my first Freida McFadden novel, and I would honestly recommend it. It's the perfect take-along book; grab it and go, read it throughout the day.
That being said, Millie is one of the dumbest people on the planet. She simply lacks the street smarts that a person who has spent the last decade in prison would have. She's truly an idiot, in that regard. She allows Nina to manipulate her into killing Andrew, and she goes from telling the reader that she's basically swearing off romance for the time being, to trying to sleep with Enzo and also actually sleeping with Andrew--which only makes her fall more in love with a man who is obviously more sinister than he lets on.
She should have seen it. Matter of fact, she DID see it. She saw the scratch marks on the door. She openly questioned all sorts of things. She knew something was going on. Supposedly tough chick immediately goes gaga over who can only be described as the most handsome man who ever lived, only to show her true self (which is sort of the opposite of who she's been throughout) at the climax. Maybe the author was trying to paint her as more of an observant, talk-less-smile-more type. That did not come through for me at all.
And again, Nina did manipulate her into killing Andrew. Quite easily.
I was excited for a lot of the twists in this book. I'd heard McFadden writes great twists. And when the book shifts to Nina, that is a great turn. But it wasn't necessarily the most surprising. It was fairly obvious that she had orchestrated the NYC trip on purpose, even after establishing that she often does not remember what she tells Millie. And it was obvious that Millie should have been more concerned about the phone Nina gave her--especially when Nina starts to treat her like shit. Which is almost immediately.
Twice in this story, Millie puts an unnamed object into her pocket. It is made clear that she is putting an unnamed object into her pocket. And she later brings out this object at the appropriate time. To me, this always feels cheap. It feels like the story unfolded in the writing process, and the character needs a thing now, so let's just edit them putting it into their pocket early on.
And the second time, she uses the thing almost immediately. There was no need to go back into that well. Just have her pick up the pliers that the reader knows are pliers, so we can think about the thing that we know she's about to ask him to do with them. It's a torture scene, after all. She's been actively torturing him--or, forcing him to torture himself?--for eight pages. It just felt very unnecessary.
The reveal from Andrew's mother at the funeral didn't really hit so hard, either, because I thought that it was pretty well-established that he was a mama's boy, from almost the beginning of the novel.
This feels weird to say, as a man, but this book feels like it was written by a man: two separate women fall into the web of a sadistic madman who is also extremely handsome. One of the women acts contrary to how you would expect someone in her position to act, and ignores all red flags and falls in love with said sadistic madman. While the other woman sacrifices the first woman to the madman, knowing that he will make her life a living hell.
Lastly, if Cece knew that acting out could get Nina punished, why was she such an asshole to Millie? She would have been on her best behavior at all times.
Feels weird to have this many gripes about a book I'm rating 4/5 and would recommend, but I had a blast.
Being so familiar with the 1989 film, I wanted to see why this was repeatedly ranked as one of King's best novels. I can see it. This is old-school King, working through a bunch of personal shit and writing a story fully inspired by actual events from King's own life--he took a teaching job and found out that there was a pet cemetery behind the house that he'd moved into, which also happened to be situated on a way-too-busy road where his daughter was almost killed by a passing truck.
Through that, King gives us this slow-burn meditation on the power of grief, and the unthinkable things that we will do to cope with that grief.
Without giving too much away, we spend a lot of time with Louis and really get to live with him, and watch him work his way through some of the biggest moral dilemmas ever put to paper (and there is some truly disturbing stuff along the way). I found this to be quite enjoyable, but also found myself to be done with the story about 50 pages out. One of his shortest, but still felt like it could have been cut down a bit.
Being so familiar with the 1989 film, I wanted to see why this was repeatedly ranked as one of King's best novels. I can see it. This is old-school King, working through a bunch of personal shit and writing a story fully inspired by actual events from King's own life--he took a teaching job and found out that there was a pet cemetery behind the house that he'd moved into, which also happened to be situated on a way-too-busy road where his daughter was almost killed by a passing truck.
Through that, King gives us this slow-burn meditation on the power of grief, and the unthinkable things that we will do to cope with that grief.
Without giving too much away, we spend a lot of time with Louis and really get to live with him, and watch him work his way through some of the biggest moral dilemmas ever put to paper (and there is some truly disturbing stuff along the way). I found this to be quite enjoyable, but also found myself to be done with the story about 50 pages out. One of his shortest, but still felt like it could have been cut down a bit.
