I don’t read very many thrillers, so I don’t consider myself well-versed in the genre. In fact, I didn’t even intend to read this one, but Book of the Month Club sent it to me by mistake, so I thought I’d give it a shot as a break from the other types of books I’ve been reading.
I also find it terribly difficult to talk about thrillers because anything other than a cursory review of the storyline simply gives too much away. And let’s face it; the point of reading a thriller is working out what happened and how. Once that’s done, there’s generally not much else to talk about. So I’ll try to be careful here.
Abby Williams is a young environmental attorney living in Chicago. She returns to her hometown of Barrens, Indiana ten years after she left upon high school graduation because the large plastics corporation that now dominates the town may be poisoning the reservoir. Abby’s there as part of a legal team to determine whether there’s a coverup going on.
But Abby’s friend from high school, Kaycee, disappeared shortly before Abby left Barrens, and Abby also wants to solve that mystery. And, of course, the two stories are related.
It’s a reasonably quick and easy read, and while there are definitely some cringe-worthy dialogue sections, themes, and figures of speech, the writing overall is passable.
My problem with the book is that Ritter seems to have half a dozen themes she wants to write about, and instead of developing any one or two of them fully, she just dumps them all in. In the long run, I found a lot of it to be cliché ridden and way too convenient. And several things never really get explained.
I found reading the Goodreads reviews of this one hilarious. The slew of five-star reviews were mostly the same: “I love Krysten Ritter. She’s the most amazing actress ever.” Well, I like her as an actress, too, but as a novelist, I’m less of a fan.
I also find it terribly difficult to talk about thrillers because anything other than a cursory review of the storyline simply gives too much away. And let’s face it; the point of reading a thriller is working out what happened and how. Once that’s done, there’s generally not much else to talk about. So I’ll try to be careful here.
Abby Williams is a young environmental attorney living in Chicago. She returns to her hometown of Barrens, Indiana ten years after she left upon high school graduation because the large plastics corporation that now dominates the town may be poisoning the reservoir. Abby’s there as part of a legal team to determine whether there’s a coverup going on.
But Abby’s friend from high school, Kaycee, disappeared shortly before Abby left Barrens, and Abby also wants to solve that mystery. And, of course, the two stories are related.
It’s a reasonably quick and easy read, and while there are definitely some cringe-worthy dialogue sections, themes, and figures of speech, the writing overall is passable.
My problem with the book is that Ritter seems to have half a dozen themes she wants to write about, and instead of developing any one or two of them fully, she just dumps them all in. In the long run, I found a lot of it to be cliché ridden and way too convenient. And several things never really get explained.
I found reading the Goodreads reviews of this one hilarious. The slew of five-star reviews were mostly the same: “I love Krysten Ritter. She’s the most amazing actress ever.” Well, I like her as an actress, too, but as a novelist, I’m less of a fan.
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