lessthelonely
Written on Jun 20, 2023
This might be like an incredibly weird comparison but I ask you to please let me cook: this reminded me of Verity by Colleen Hoover. Hated that book. Felt like an insult to people who actually read thrillers, but this one had substance. One thing I immediately noticed is that this book has tension, Verity and a lot of other so-called "psychological thrillers" don't. The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins comes to mind. Books like the ones mentioned seem to be around for meandering throughout most of the book, one sole plot thread being tugged at throughout the whole of it - these are books written and entirely conceived around their plot twists.
I can't say that about this book, and that's a good thing.
Lemme do a more flattering comparison: if anyone here has played a Visual Novel by Kotaro Uchikoshi (writer for the Zero Escape and AI: The Somnium Files series), his stories always have some sort of mindblowing plot twist, in the sense that when it happens, you realize just how much was pointing towards the reveal. Once the reveals started coming - and I must also point out, I did predict one at least (not that I think it was that secretive) -, the narration launched into this pretty satisfying explanation of things that had happened, a lot of them you'd even think were just there for a quick cliffhanger.
I like when books respect you: each and every happening in the book is given new meaning by the end. I've also read some other reviews pointing that the big plot twist in this book is farfetched. In few words: I don't think so at all. If anything, it made tremendous amounts of sense, and it perfectly aligned with these little tidbits that keep appearing throughout the book related to its motifs and themes.
All and all, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book so much, and after reading another book, I've already grabbed another Riley Sager book - let's hope I find it as intriguing as this one.