3 stars
Listening to this audiobook was… a journey.
Started off to kind of a rocky start, but after things picked up a bit I was interested in the premise. For a good chunk of the story, I was convinced I was going to like it, which surprised me given my usual dislike of Flynn’s repetitive elements and style in her other stories I’ve read. Then the ending came and the whole thing unraveled.
Based on the other books I’ve read from Flynn, this doesn’t really feel like anything new. It felt very formulaic as though she just keeps retelling the same story with different themes (missing person, serial killer, haunted house).
Also, the reveal was a terrible letdown. Not because of what it did or did not reveal but just that it was completely told though dialogue. It was just one character explaining what supposedly happened to another character. What a boring way to reveal the twist. On top of that, Flynn layers on another twist, done in the same fashion. By the third section in which a character tells us what’s going on, I was completely disengaged from the characters and events. It didn’t even matter what the truth was because I could no longer connect with them anymore. It felt like Flynn was trying too hard to throw off the reader that she sacrificed the storytelling along the way.
I’m settling on 3 stars for this because despite an overly sensationalized start, the first part of the book was very engaging. I really thought that I had found something by Flynn that I really liked. Then she tries so desperately to throw in one twist after another that the magic is lost, the scene shattered, and the reader left underwhelmed.
Probably a decent fit for fans who enjoyed Flynn’s other stories, but it doesn’t really have must new material to offer. The haunted house element was interesting at first, but the lackluster twists took away some of what made this story shine.
By the end, the reader is meant to wonder at the truth, who is lying, and what it all means but instead I was left with complete apathy for characters I was just starting to be interested in and disengaged from the story I felt so sure I would like.