Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Release Date: November 8th, 2022
Pages: 400
Publisher: Park Row
My Rating: ⭐⭐
This is the least-thrilling thriller I’ve ever read.
Six couples rent a luxury cabin for a weekend getaway… What could go wrong? Everything. Everything about this book went wrong.
I am deviating from my normal type of review here because, y’all, I just really need to rant about some things, ok? I’ll try my best not to reveal anything too spoilery, but some things just need to be said. I really don’t know how this made it past editors or sensitivity readers. Park Row… are y’all good over there?
There are a few themes that the book touches on that I did really appreciate. One is the concept of privilege, how it skews our views on the world and how it can affect the actions and decisions we make. Another is the idea that not every woman idealizes motherhood and that is okay.
“When did a person start to feel like a grown-up, in charge of her life, brave.”
I also resonated with this quote in particular. As I hit my thirtieth birthday this year, it has made me rethink my younger self’s ideas of what it would feel like to be an adult at this age. I have tried hard this year to throw out my previous expectations of what I feel like I “should” have accomplished by now and remember that we all have our own timelines and paths to follow and that’s okay too.
It isn’t all completely terrible. In the spirit of finding a silver lining, I thought the opening line was really great, definitely attention grabbing. And the atmosphere at the beginning is creepy and sinister. I was first struck by how much I loved the author’s voice. Each character’s POV is unique in its style and illustrates their personalities. The cadence and rhythm of the phrasing and prose is truly outstanding writing.
But it all just seems to fade away after several chapters, where we start seeing the overuse of crutch words and phrases. The writing loses its luster. The characters are dull and stereotypical. And the plot is a meandering slog of mud. I was hardly invested. In fact, I actually considered DNFing it several times after many eye rolls at the continuous waxing poetic of the same issues over and over again.
The secluded cabin thriller we were all expecting is altogether overshadowed by the rest of the nonsense. There is nothing suspenseful nor mysterious in the plot. We pretty much know everything that’s happening and why. Honestly, it’s kind of boring.
Sure, if you want an anecdote about the importance of family being about our actions and our choices, rather than biological aspects, this would be great. While I do applaud that message and its profoundness, I didn’t need three hundred pages of adults whining about not knowing who their father is because he was an anonymous sperm donor to get it across to me.
There’s a lot of telling us about what the characters are supposedly like but with little to no evidence to back it up. Like Hannah constantly telling us that Liza is “unfailingly kind,” but I never actually got that impression from anything Liza ever said or did.
And no one is really that likable, to be honest. Maybe that’s the point. I don’t know. But there’s definitely a void of connection and understanding between me and everyone in this story. It’s all a surface-level view of many people and lacking in any depth. I must say, I’m a bit shocked and taken aback by how both the women and men are portrayed in this story. The women are incapable of existing without their male counterparts and the men are work-obsessed and selfish.
While there might be a teeny tiny part of me that does feel slightly empathetic to Hannah wanting to “protect” (which is the term she uses, not what I would call it) her brother, I just cannot under any circumstances justify covering up something that terrible. That’s just not what you do, it’s inexcusable to me personally. I mean victim-blaming and slut-shaming, really? I don’t like that the women in this story so willingly brush sexual assault under the rug, even if they were teenagers, even if it was family, it’s just awful and it made me angry.
I don’t understand why Bracken’s point of view was even included. It is completely pointless and utterly irrelevant to the plot. He had only two interactions with the other characters within the entirety of the story and even those were unimportant and essentially unnecessary. You could take out every single one of his chapters and the story would still read exactly the same. I guess you could make a loose thread of connection by saying that in the end he’s another example of the importance of family. But, I mean, why? When it truly has no bearing on the story in any way.
Henry’s story, while not as inconsequential as Bracken’s, is still barely relevant. It was interesting at times, but he really had zero effect on the sequence of events throughout the book. His story, both past and present, consumes much of the story and is given way too much page time for how little consequence he is to any of the rest of it.
Mako’s point of view is absent and, even though he is one of the more prominent figures of the story, I still barely feel like I know anything about him.
Cricket and Bruce are practically bystanders, whose only importance or relevance is their relationship to Hannah.
And, finally, Trina. Her motivations, I’m not really buying it. Her circumstances don’t feel significant enough to warrant her actions. Maybe with a little more of her backstory it could’ve felt justified, but as it is I’m hesitant to believe it.
Yeah, I know I’m being harsh, but rightly so because this story is seriously problematic.
Did anyone get the ending they deserved? Meh. Are we supposed to feel compassion towards Mako by the end? I’m sorry but, no. He didn’t give us one single shred or inkling of redeemable qualities, regret, or even willingness to admit what he did.
And they are still, even after it all, defending and standing by a man that is in every way abusive – emotionally, mentally, physically, sexually. Even Liza!?!? Y’all, I cannot understand it nor feel good about it. I’m not ok with this. Am I the only one who is pissed off about this??? Surely I can’t be. I do not feel like this part of the story was handled with care nor consideration.
And even if I could somehow overlook and get past my feelings about this part of the story, there was nothing intriguing, immersive, or engaging about any of the rest of it. I can’t recommend this aimless absurdity of a book. Honestly, spare yourself from this mess.
It gets two stars only because I did read it and usually use one star for DNF books. This might be the longest review I’ve ever written. This was my first experience with this author but I know she has two previous books that were largely popular and I am interested in checking them out. Like I said in the beginning, I can see points of the writing that truly do shine. I don’t know what happened with this story that it ended up this way, but I am hoping that maybe it is just a fluke and her other writing will be better and more of that glimpse and spark I first saw in this one.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to Park Row and Netgalley for gifting me an early copy of this amazing story! I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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