This is a Goodreads giveaway...
I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept you wondering what was going on and I liked the ending. It was well-written and definitely entertaining! Some of the images that I thought about while reading it - they made me cringe it bit (which I'm sure was the writer's intention). After reading it, I looked for other books by this writer - which is a good sign... ( )

This book was written well and the story really hooks you in. I guessed what would be consider the plot twist only a few pages before it was revealed, so that's a win in my book!

minor TW: rape, sexual assault, abortion ( )

Beautifully done! Possibly the most engaging and cohesive thriller I've ever read. A masterpiece of an onion that will have you salivating for the next layer. ( )

I got this through Amazon Prime First Reads, I am very happy I chose this book. She is a first-time author for me, and this won't be the last book I read by Ms. White.

The plot took unexpected twist and turns and moved along really fast. I enjoy that it is built on multiple points of view; typically, I have trouble keeping up with that, but in this book, it worked pretty well. I really enjoyed this book. ( )

In modern mysteries, there seems to be a tendency to switch perspectives, to have two timelines and sometimes there are jumps in time. Now imagine an author who tries to be so modern that they make their book feature several a) timelines, sometimes colliding with each other, b) chapters from alternating points of view (some unexplained for a long time), c) jumps in time, d) features a non-linear narrative, and, what annoys me the most, e) an unreliable narrator.

In the beginning, I was determined to immerse myself in all of it and thought about how fascinating it is that Loreth Anne White commands a broad spectrum of narrative styles. With more time spent “in” the novel, it became too much, though: The constant switching between both narrated time and perspectives became annoying. The jumps in time became increasingly confusing and don’t get me started on the colliding timelines that occur near the end.

There were also a lot of red herrings and wilful obfuscation by the narrator who we have good reason to suspect is actually reliable for most of the book - until the whole perspective shifts. Even those twists, though, weren’t very well executed and, in many cases, not very surprising. I guessed the most important twist long before it occurred and, thus, read what happened with great detachment.

The entire mystery is also very complicated and the lengths to which a certain character goes to achieve their goals is both implausible and highly unrealistic. It’s a slightly more subtle and less violent revenge fantasy than a Charles Bronson film.

It didn’t help either that I didn’t like any single character at all. I rooted for none, despised most and was able to tolerate three characters.

Three stars out of five.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam ( )