I started this as an audio book. My first proper audio book. I have never read a book in this way before. So it was always going to be a bit different, something to get used to. And I knew that when I reviewed this I would need to make sure I reviewed the book and not the format. I struggled, I must admit, to find enough time and patience to listen to the audio book, so ultimately switched at about 50% to the physical copy.
So with that in mind. Here is my review of THE BOOK. A generous 1.5*.
It is a slow burner. I mean there is stuff happening all the time, but nothing really exciting and shocking. Alexandra has gone missing, and her husband can’t quite let go of her and the fact that she is likely never coming home. He digs deeper into her past, into her arty NY past, and doesn’t really like what he sees. He realises he never really knew her. At the same time we are told that Alex is being held captive by a man, in a cell, who is showing her the press clippings and videos of her family, in some sadistic game of torture.
The story is told BY Alexandra, she is imagining what her husband Marc is thinking, feeling, doing, this whole time she is locked away by her captor. It’s an interesting way to write a story. Because we are basically reading her made up version of the events- she doesn’t know what is happening.
Although this is an interesting way to tell the story, you kind of wonder, what is the point? She could say anything. Is it real? Are we to take this at face value? And while we are meant to be asking these questions – it is a psychological thriller after all – it does consume an awful lot of time, being so sceptical of the main protagonist.
I felt that the story dragged on slightly. Through all the back and forth with Alex’a friend in America. Her Yorkshire friends and husband ambling along, trying to get on with life without Alex. It just kind of bored me a little.
I guessed the twist to this story very VERY early on. I don’t think it was well hidden and knowing this, kind of ruined it for me, as it coloured my take on the rest of the book as I was reading.
I would unfortunately not read this again, and probably wouldn’t recommend it to thriller lovers. Or even really fiction lovers.
Becca x
The Beautiful Book Break 