Rating: ⭐⭐
I chose this book as my Amazon Prime First Reads for Feb.
Usually I love an unreliable narrator, but this one was not done very well. It was really hard to get into the story - Stella is a former child star who has grown up, is out of the spotlight, and life is truthfully just kind of shitty. Her parents are dead, and her one-night-stand-turned-boyfriend is slowly but surely isolating Stella from her friends while simultaneously gas-lighting the shit out of her.
There were tons of clues about who Marco was and it was pretty clear he was the bad guy. The first sign was the insane amount of pills he was giving Stella, so she could 'sleep'. I skimmed a lot in the beginning because none of the characters were particularly interesting or likable and I wanted to get to the meat of the story and see how it would play out. Once Stella is isolated, alone in the cottage with no friends, little contact with the family she has left, and basically only Marco to talk to when he visits from London, things get interesting. Even so, I kept thinking there was going to be some plot twist, something I did not see, because otherwise everything was so painfully obvious there was almost no point. Sadly, there was no twist and everything went down generally how I imagined it would - I really liked the paranormal element and it was greatly appreciated, but like every other aspect of the novel, nothing quite gelled together in the end.
This book had so much potential and the plot was certainly intriguing, but the execution did not cut it. Stella was such an idiot sometimes, always believing everything Marco was telling her and ignoring what her friends were saying. She was so miserable before she met him, and even though he was acting like her 'savior', she was still super miserable anyway. That's a pretty good indicator that the relationship is not a healthy one, and yet...
If you still feel the need to read this one, I recommend checking it out from the library or snagging it as a First Reads.
I hate books where the main protagonist is just completely dumb and fails to make any connection between events that are happening to or around him/her (but of course it is almost always her). I mean, honestly, is anybody really that naive? It sounds lie that's what's happening in this book.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I am not even sure what exactly the author was going for. The unreliable narrator part would have worked, but I feel like maybe there were just too many things that were SO OBVIOUS to the reader. I don't know. And yes, almost always HER *eye roll*. Maybe I will write a book with the absolute dumbest lead male ever and then he is saved from dying of stupidity by the female lead who then upbraids him for being a grade-A moron.
Deletethe cover and title make me curious. sorry it fell flat
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
The cover makes sense once you're into the heart of the story, and that did draw me in when I was looking at the options.
DeleteAw that's a bummer. I'm with Dorothy's comment- I hate it when characters are too naive or dumb like that. I mean, I get people don't always see things right away, but come on. Wake up Stella dangit!
ReplyDeleteBeing too stupid to exist is a characteristic I am finding a lot of these days!!
DeleteWhat is the First Reads thing at Amazon? Is it a new author trying to break out?
ReplyDeleteEach month if you are a Prime member you could to choose from a handful of titles being released that month and read it for free. I am not sure of the criteria for getting your book to be included as part of the program, but I don't think you have to be a new author because one of the Minka Kent books I read was a First Reads and she is not new.
DeleteThanks. I was just wondering what the selection was like, if it included established authors.
DeleteNo problem! It usually seems like a pretty decent selection. I got a non-fiction book this month!
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