NetGalley ARCs Double-Shot

      

I received both books as digital ARCs from their publishers via NetGalley in exchange for honest reviews.

Rating ⭐ all around. Oi.

This will be brief because both of these were so nonsensical that I can not spend more than a moment thinking about either one. I finished The Mystery Writer because it was just so absurd I had to make sure I wasn't dreaming the absurdity. As for One Big Happy Family, I honestly can't tell you why I stuck with it. Maybe the same reason?

The Mystery Writer

The crappy part about this one is that it started out strong and I was really engaged with the story. But it went completely off the rails after the main character's brother was shot (this is not a spoiler) - and not a good off the rails kind of thing. The big reveals were absolutely ridiculous and required massive amounts of suspension of belief. It was bad. So, so bad. After only sort of liking The Woman in the Library, I will not be reading any more of this author's books.

I really enjoyed the first half-ish. Theo is an aspiring writer, who has quit law school and moves in with her brother to work on her novel. She writes at a cafe/bar every day and becomes close with an older author who is doing the same. He shares some of his work with Theo, but not much and after he is murdered, she realizes how little she really knew about him.

Chaos ensues, in a really bad way once the reveals start coming. Theo is so stupid, she is lucky she was not killed at several points throughout the book. She consistently made the worst choice possible in any given situation, and bumbled through it, somehow. I don't understand how this is possible, because as I noted above, she was in law school. You would assume one has to be intelligent enough to gain admission to law school. But that is the least concern of all the dumb things that happen in this book.

The murder ends up being the least of Theo's problems as the story does a complete about-face and becomes this weird conspiracy theory thriller in real time, completely devoid of sense or any basis in reality.

In the author's note, she talked about not writing from an outline or planning and boy, did everything make sense after that. At least, it made sense why it was so absurd. The author said she just let the story take her wherever it wanted, so off the cliff we all went.

100% NOT recommended to anyone ever.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One Big Happy Family

So the wealthy owner of a fancy hotel called the Precipice on the coast of Maine has died and his three daughters are coming for the reading of the will. One sister brings her disgusting husband and handsome son, one sister brings her crazy wife and their weirdo son who is 14 and speaks only in rhyme for most of the book, and the third sister is single.

Charley is the absolutely stupid as hell main character who is worried about losing her job, depending on what the sisters choose to do with the hotel. Rodrigo is her only friend and works at the hotel with her. Her elderly grandmother is at a care home that is super expensive, and has dementia, so Charley steals from guests to help pay the bills.

Bree shows up, claiming to be on the run from an abusive boyfriend, so of course Charley will just hide her at the hotel. She just happens to arrive right ahead of the sisters.

Also, a hurricane is coming.

As if there were not enough things to annoy me, they all kept referring to the attorney there to read the will as 'Attorney Black'. Sometimes just by her last name, which made a lot more sense, but usually 'Attorney Black'. I have never once called my attorney 'Attorney Booth'. Are we supposed to refer to our attorneys by their profession and name? DOUBTFUL.

Basically, this is a gigantic mess. Everyone is stupid or crazy or weird or a murderer. Too many convoluted story lines entwined to try and make the obvious twist a little less obvious. Lots of side drama that had zero relevance. Everyone is awful or stupid and I wish they had all died, except Charley's grandma.

Also 100% not recommended to anyone ever.