Tag: thriller book

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

One by One by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller

*Rolls eyes very hard.* I have never so quickly whipped through a book that I was not enjoying. I will never understand how McFadden’s books draw me in so deeply and quickly or what about her writing keeps me glued to it. For some reason, that was still the case even as I was consciously aware that this book felt extremely cliched.

Claire is headed to a weekend getaway with her husband and two other couples. When their car breaks down in the woods, they decide they’ll walk the rest of the way to their accommodations, it should only be a couple of miles. Instead of an easy walk though, the group finds themselves hopelessly lost and slowly people begin to die or disappear.

I felt like I was right there with the group walking in circles in the woods because this book took so long to get anywhere. I didn’t feel like there were any hints about the context of why this was happening to them, it was just the group increasingly getting scared and walking around more and Claire thinking she can reconcile with her husband as he does borderline nice things for her.

Usually, McFadden’s books have a crazy twist that I love and that gets me fired up rethinking the entire book. This one just felt flat. There are excerpts throughout the book from ‘anonymous’ that I knew were going to tie in, but when their identity was ultimately revealed it didn’t really make sense to me.

This was somehow still a thriller I read in just a couple days and wanted to find out the ending to, but would recommend any of McFadden’s other books above this one.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy One by One at an indie bookstore near you
One by One on Goodreads

Book Review, thriller

The Teacher by Frieda McFadden ~ Book Revie

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

This book is nottt going to be for everyone. It’s one of the more twisted McFadden books, focusing on the relationship between Addie, a high school student, and her English teacher, Nate. Nate makes Addie feel special at a time in her life when she’s at her lowest of lows and no other students want to spend time with her. As their relationship escalates, she quickly becomes obsessively jealous of Nate’s wife Eve, who herself feels trapped in a loveless marriage.

McFadden’s short, snappy chapters always make her books breeze by and this was no exception. Told from alternating perspectives, I loved getting to know the secrets each of the main characters was harboring. We know from the prologue that someone ends up digging a grave and although I guessed pretty early on who it was for, I couldn’t wait to see how we would get there.

In typical McFadden fashion, there was a big old twist at the end. At first I was shocked in the way only a truly twisty twist can do, but if I think about it too much it just…doesn’t make sense. It didn’t put me off the whole book, but it definitely could have been better thought out.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Teacher at an indie bookstore near you
The Teacher on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Heiress By Rachel Hawkins ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Read if you liked: Daisy Darker

When Ruby McTavish died, she left her entire fortune and her estate, Ashby House, to her adopted son Camden, who turned down his inheritance and chose to lay low with his wife, Jules. Upon his uncle’s death though, the couple is summoned to Ashby house where the whole family is waiting to discuss the fortune and next steps.

The narration is split into three perspectives, that of Camden, Jules, and the late Ruby. Each voice is so distinct and their points of view and motivations completely different. Weaving them together made for such a layered story. Camden questions his adoption and Ruby’s motivation while Jules feels cautiously optimistic that her luck could change given Camden’s family wealth. Ruby’s voice was probably my favorite. She was sarcastic and witty and her story was startling and surprising at every turn.

There were so many twists in this book but each one made sense and added an exciting element to the story. I loved never knowing who the characters truly were and what was driving their motivations. The story goes as far back as Ruby’s childhood, when she was briefly kidnapped as a girl, and builds from their creating a rich backstory to the present action.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Heiress at an indie bookstore near you
The Heiress on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller

Ooh this was a twisty one! Evie Porter is living an idyllic American life with her handsome successful boyfriend Ryan, or is she? We quickly come to learn that ‘Evie’ is a fake identity assumed for her job working for the mysterious Mr. Smith. Evie has completed a number of questionable jobs for her employer, but is starting to question how much she can trust him. She’s also starting to quite like her life with Ryan.

This story splits the narrative between past and present, introducing many of the different identities Evie has adopted over the years and the jobs they have been associated with. Not gonna lie, I could not keep track of them all. I think including so many was supposed to paint a clear picture of how her relationship with Mr. Smith evolved over time, but it each vignette seemed so separate that it was hard for me to tie everything together chronologically and cohesively in my mind.

I did enjoy getting to see the true relationships that Evie made throughout the years and how she was able to either get help from them in the future as her cover is threatened, or to manipulate them based on past knowledge and experience. She was smart and crafty and made for a fun protagonist.

Evie is primarily trying to figure out what Mr. Smith’s intent is throughout the book, particularly when she finds herself being set up for a crime that happened in her vicinity during a past job. While she digs into these issues, she also has to figure out what to tell Ryan and how to keep their relationship in tact. There was a lot going on, which made this book go fast.

I definitely didn’t see the ending coming, and it made me rethink much of what I’d been told throughout the book, which I love from a thriller. It was a really satisfying wrap-up to Evie’s character and made her like her even more.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy First Lie Wins at an indie bookstore near you
First Lie Wins on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The New Couple in 5B By Lisa Unger ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Read if you liked: Lock Every Door

Rosie and Chad’s lives are forever changed when they inherit a luxury apartment in the esteemed Windermere in New York City from Chad’s late uncle. Initially, Rosie couldn’t be more thrilled at their change of circumstances, but as she learns more and more about the building’s dark past, she begins to suspect there’s something deeply disturbing still happening there.

There have been a lot of thrillers in recent years that focus on a creepy old building that seems to take on a life of its own. In my opinion, those other thrillers approach the premise a lot better than this one. The supernatural elements seemed very plot device-y and thrown in to try to do all the heavy lifting of making the Windermere seem spooky.

I had trouble connecting with the main characters, which made it difficult for me to get invested in their story. That said, the mystery surrounding their neighbors and the constant surveillance in the building intrigued me.

The story is told with alternating timelines and I was holding my breath to see how they tied together. The plotline set in the past is what kept me invested in unraveling the connections between past and present occurrences.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The New Couple in 5B at an indie bookstore near you
The New Couple in 5B on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Thriller
Read if you liked: Final Girls

What a chilling read. Bright Young Women is a fictionalized retelling of Ted Bundy’s crimes told in alternating perspectives from two women, Pamela and Tina, who were close with his victims, as well as one of the victims herself, Ruth. It highlights the incompetence of law enforcement of catching and sentencing a serial killer and the vibrance and promise of the women whose lives he cut short.

Although this is largely a story following The Defendant’s crimes and sentencing, it delves deeply into Pamela, Tina, and Ruth’s lives, interests, desires and past trauma. Each one is richly detailed and it was so heartbreaking to see how their lives were altered forever by the actions of The Defendant.

Much of this book aims at highlighting the fact that The Defendant was not smart and attractive as media made out in the real case, he was actually quite dim and it was the lack of accountability in law enforcement that allowed him to continue murdering so many women.

I really appreciated that this was a true-crime style book that centered the victims and didn’t even name the perpetrator. It was a unique way to tell this story and one that I found powerful, although a bit slow for the first half.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Bright Young Women at an indie bookstore near you
Bright Young Women on Goodreads

Book Review, thriller

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

Daisy Darker’s Nana was told by a psychic that she won’t live past the age of 80. For her 80th birthday, she summons her whole family to her island home where they are soon cut off from the mainland for eight hours as the tide comes in. As the night wears on, family members are found dead one by one.

I love Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, so I was excited about the similarities in this thriller. There were a lot of characters and it was a bit hard to keep track of them. I could have used a little more time distinctly introducing each one before the action set in.

Feeney did an excellent job of building tension as she marked how many hours were left of isolation before the tide went back out. I felt largely in the dark about who to suspect. There may have been hints I didn’t pick up on, but I wish there had been a little more of that.

As a ‘thriller,’ this felt somewhat repetitive. It didn’t seem like there was anything particularly distinct about each murder.

The ending was completely unexpected and changed my view of the entire story. It was really unique and nothing I could have seen coming. Understanding the actions of the murderer based on the information we gain at the end was really fascinating and redeemed the story somewhat for me.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Daisy Darker at an indie bookstore near you
Daisy Darker on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Similar to: The Housemaid

The Housemaid’s Secret revisits Millie the maid as she takes on a new job working for Douglas Garrick. If you’ve read The Housemaid (which you should before picking this up), the premise will be familiar, with Millie quickly suspecting some sort of abuse is occurring in the luxurious penthouse she cleans.

McFadden’s books are sooo easily digestible. I flew through this one as Millie drew nearer and nearer to doing something drastic, all while knowing she was somehow being misled. I loved the flip in perspective halfway through the book that illustrated just what was at play.

If you know McFadden’s style, you know that there’s not necessarily a ton of interesting choices being made with the writing, but I could not read this book fast enough (Although, I will say, Millie’s relationship with her boyfriend was harped on one too many times for my liking).

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Housemaid’s Secret at an indie bookstore near you
The Housemaid’s Secret on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, mystery, thriller

The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix ~ Book review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

Lynnette is a final girl: the only survivor of a horrible massacre. She, along with five other final girls, have met with a therapist for years to support each other as they struggle to move forward from this unique trauma. When one woman fails to show up to a meeting, Lynnette fears that there is more horror in store for each of them.

This book was interspersed with articles about the sensationalization of final girls and reviews of the movies and games created based off of real women’s situations. These incorporations did a lot to help me understand the layer’s to Lynnette’s experiences and her paranoia.

I really liked the premise of this book and the style of writing was enjoyable. That being said, there were a lot of characters with a lot of backstory and I couldn’t keep them straight. Their stories were too similar for them to be distinct in my mind, making it challenging to follow the narrative and to keep track of Lynnette’s many guesses about who was after them.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Final Girl Support Group at an indie bookstore near you
The Final Girl Support Group on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

When Bodie Kane is invited back to her high school boarding school to teach a course, it inevitably brings up memories of the murder of Thalia Keith, which took place her senior year there. As she encourages her students to create podcasts about the school as a major course assignment, Bodie finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the past.

The format of this mystery was really intriguing, with Bodie intermittently addressing the various possible killers and outlining how and why they might have killed Thalia. Although sometimes this made it hard for me to keep track of what was actually happening, it was an unusual setup and I appreciated it.

There was enough drama and layers that I didn’t know who the killer was. That being said, the storyline felt repetitive for me and it was interspersed with narrative about Bodie’s personal life that felt ultimately unnecessary and just sort of slowed things down.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy I Have Some Questions for You at an indie bookstore near you
I Have Some Questions for You on Goodreads