Book Review | The Favorite Daughter

Rating: ⭐...and that's being generous

I don't often read fiction, but one thing I really enjoy is an unreliable narrator. There is something about that point of view that is so much fun and truly keeps the reader on their toes, trying to discern what is actually true and what isn't.

Unfortunately, this narrator was not only unreliable, she was boring and every single thought she had was so forced, like we had to be convinced just how unreliable she was, in order to understand she was unreliable.

The only reason I finished the book in one day was simply to get it done and over with. I have been really good about DNF-ing books that are awful, but I thought surely with something like this there would be some kind of plot twist that I didn't see coming that would at least make it a decent read.

Turns out I was wrong. It's not that there was a predictable plot twist, it is that there was no plot twist at all.

Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

It's clear from the start that the main character is a sociopath. It's also obvious she was the responsible party and there was absolutely nothing unexpected or thrilling about this book at all. Jane was completely unlikable, as she was supposed to be, being that she was a psycho and all. But her family and all the other characters were  just as unlikable, because there was nothing to make them stand out, or be worthy of attention. We don't care about them because they too are boring, but because we are seeing them through Jane's eyes, OF COURSE they are boring because that's how she views them. We hardly know any of them because Jane hardly knows them either. She is so wrapped up in herself and her schemes that she thinks she is pulling of this grand charade; we don't get to know them because it is impossible for her to truly know anyone else.

So, basically, everyone in this book is lame, the ending is completely anticlimactic because nothing happens, and don't bother reading it.