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Sep 17, 2017RebelBelle13 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I don't think I've ever read a mystery/thriller this fast- so that was certainly a factor when I thought about how I was going to rate this book. I haven't read one in awhile either, so I suppose it has that going for it as well. It was more mystery than thriller, and I certainly wasn't scared or on the edge of my seat as the blurbs on the cover promised. It's not scary. Frustrating? At times, certainly. I got a bit of the "And Then There Were None" vibe, in the sense that it was a remote location, with wide ranging cast of characters, and each had a few skeletons in their closet. The amnesia thing is way overdone, so that brought the rating down here, as well. Nothing new. I understand that the author doesn't want us to have all of the information at once, or we'd figure it out too quickly (I figured it out before the reveal myself). The character of Nora is insipid, frustrating, and weak. She isn't a protagonist you can count on, or see yourself being best friends with- which might be a plus in this case- since there's no perfect character or manic pixie dream girl to roll your eyes at. The one thing that really frustrated me about the whole thing, is her breakup with James could have been cleared up with a single conversation- so I have no sympathy for either of them. I suppose that's supposed to make it more real- but Nora and James' characters were so alien to me that I couldn't get inside their heads. The other thing that surprised me is that Ruth Ware is a British author, so it took me awhile to grasp some of the language, and I had to decipher words through context clues- but it didn't slow me down much. Either way, it gave me something to read over the holiday break, and it entertained me. For that, I have to give it 3 stars.