Prime First Reads | Her Final Words

Rating ⭐⭐

I have had TERRIBLE luck lately with Prime's First Reads. I think I just have to accept that fact that YA thrillers will always be vastly superior to adult thrillers (mostly).

FBI Special Agent Lucy Thorne catches a case where the guilty party has asked for her by name. Eliza Cook confesses to murdering a twelve year old boy in her hometown. Then she says nothing at all and the readers are taken on a completely convoluted and stupid ride as Thorne tries to figure out WHY. She investigates, though is given limited time by her superiors, seeing as how they have the confession and don't really need the motive. Still, Thorne persists and man, this was a huge snoozefest. Less than halfway through, I did not care why, nor did I connect much to any of the characters. It's unfortunate, because in the beginning I was interested and I felt it was going smoothly. But the actual murder and the motive why - blech.

And don't even get me started on all the shifts in time. We go from now, to a couple weeks ago, then further back, forward again, back to now, blah blah blah. Half of it did not even matter - and there were more than a few characters who were also completely irrelevant, yet were forced into the story that would have likely been better off without them.

I don't mind stories told from multiple points of view, it can actually help when everyone is lying, so that is a positive that the book had going for it. Again, until I stopped caring about any of the characters because the author created a mystery where there was not one. Literally, there is no actual good reason for Eliza to keep her mouth shut about why she killed Noah. None, zilch, zero. Yet here we are.

The tight-knit religious community in the town are hush-hush and there are tons of secrets and everyone is lying, and DEAR GOD ALL THE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS!!!!!!

Last, but certainly not least, WHY IS THE CELL PHONE ALWAYS NEARLY DEAD?!?! I mean, come on. Be a little more creative.