Rating: ⭐
Ugh. This book was TERRIBLE. I am not going to give much time to it, so I can soon be done with it forever.
The story begins when the insufferable and crazy main character named Beth decides to drive by her former best friend's home. They've not seen each other in twelve years. Crazy Beth observes her former best friend helping her children from her car. The children are the same age now as they were twelve years ago.
I won't spoil how this happened, but I will say that for me, this book was dreadfully slow and extremely painful to read. The only reason I stuck with it is because I wanted to see how this not-aging this was possible (mini spoiler - it's not. There's an totally fucked up and ridiculous explanation).
I said this already, but Beth was insufferable. She was crazy, an absolute lunatic. She travels from the UK to the US on a whim to try to solve this mystery that everyone tells her to leave alone. I wanted to punch her. I kind of wish everyone would have died.
wouldn't it be great if one could tell a bad book from a good one before reading it! sometimes i think you can pretty well tell by the first or second page; i understand the reluctance, tho, to not finish a book once you've started, but over the years (i'm 77 today) i've acquired the requisite technique... and satisfying it is! hahaha
ReplyDeleteIt would be a great skill to have! I used to hate to DNF a book because I am super competitive and want to finish everything. But a couple years ago I realized that is just not feasible, especially with all the books that remain on my TBR. This one took a little bit to see how crazy that main character actually was, but by then I had to know how the kids fit into the story. It was only marginally worth it lol.
DeleteWow.... HARSH review! [lol] Glad I don't already own it [muses]
ReplyDeleteI am glad you don't also. It is so bad. Not even the writing or anything, but the main character. She is one of the most annoying protagonists I have ever come across.
DeleteGot it!
ReplyDeleteGood, stay away! And I can give you the spoilers if you want them, but this was bad. So bad.
DeleteOh no hahahah. Another of my recommendations that just didn't work for you!
ReplyDeleteLOL! The writing was good, and everything else was fine, I just could not stand Beth and by the time I got to the end I was so fed up with her. She's crazy. Okay, so she did save Flora and the kids, but literally everything she did up to that point was nuts and so over the top. The flying to Florida thing really sent me over the edge.
DeleteI can agree with you on that. No person in their right mind would have pursued this for as long as she did!
DeleteI think that is what truly made it so terrible for me. I enjoyed a lot of other aspects, especially the bits with her children and the little snippets of their lives - but she completely ignored her family for this crazy mystery that she had to solve. I think if her actions had been less over the top, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Though, I am not sure how else she could have solved the mystery without doing what she did. I don't know.
DeleteOh ouch! Time to cleanse the palette. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, this one was no good. No good at all. Luckily I have managed to read a couple books since then that I am super excited to review because they were fantastic and believable and not at all garbage!
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