Tag: thriller

3 star, adult

Review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

Although I have heard my share of woes over this one, I did have one friend who asked me to read it, so I did it. Unsurprisingly I didn’t enjoy it that much. It wasn’t horrible by any means but if compared to his other book, this one definitely pales in comparison!

The Maidens has an interesting premise whereby there is our main character is who already gung-ho set on a professor being a murderer. It’s fair, since he has a group of young female students whom he calls “The Maidens.” Of course they are all young, rich, and beautiful, and Edward Fosca seems to have them all within his grasp. Our protagonist, Marianna, also faces her own demons from her past as she navigates a new series of murders at her old haunts. Too many coincidences add up…maybe she should get out before it’s too late.

The characters, on their own, were fairly well-crafted and I enjoyed this aspect of the book. Full of clearly flawed characters all trying to get by, while keeping too many secrets, I thought the tensions in the book were excellent. There was even mention of the main character of his other book, and the conversation was so much more chilling having read that book already. But I liked the link between the two books! However, the relationships between the characters might have been a little bit too unbelievable. Without spoiling too much, it just felt like the relationships were more convenient for the plot than out of what was believable. I forgot to mention I just couldn’t really get behind the main character either, she’s just a little bit too paranoid and stubborn for me. You’ll see what I mean about that.

The plot was also okay. I am not a fan of these kinds of stories where you start off having a huge focus on this professor being the murderer and basically never deviating from this story. It felt so forced (because it was), and whether it turns out finally to be the professor or not, either way it wouldn’t be satisfactory. If it was the professor, then we knew it all along; if it wasn’t, it was obvious from the beginning that it wouldn’t be. See how that is kind of lose-lose (at least for me) here? The suspense was fine, but I think as the plot went on it kind of felt like it wasn’t going to go anywhere exciting. I wanted some fireworks kind of ending, and it just kind of fell short of my expectations, unfortunately.

The ending definitely was too unbelievable for me. If anyone has read it, you probably know what I mean. I just didn’t buy it. It wasn’t deus ex machina, but honestly, I felt that it was pretty close. And the punchline that was supposed to be chilling and be that kind of final hit on your psyche didn’t land at all on me. Instead it made me just feel kind of confused. I could see how it could work to be scary and thrilling, but it just totally missed the mark for me. I don’t particularly recommend this one beyond just the face value of it being a thriller suspense novel; in that sense it was good!

Overall Recommendations

The Maidens is a story of a serial killer running loose at Cambridge University. Our protagonist is sure she knows who it is and chases them down. Full of suspense and dark intrigue, the story is certainly full of suspenseful moments as the paranoia within Marianna’s mind builds up more and more up to its finale. For me, there were a few too many moments that were not believable for me to fully enjoy it. Maybe I’m just a little bit too picky, and you may have more luck with it than me!

4.5 star

Review: The IT Girl by Ruth Ware

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide… including a murder.

Another Ruth Ware, so of course I just had to get my hands on it. I heard some mixed reviews on this one, but I personally really enjoyed it! Overall it was quite the thriller, with all the expected literary baubles that I have grown accustomed to from Ruth Ware.

The IT girl revolves around our protagonist, Hannah, who was once friends with Oxford’s IT girl, April. Hannah came from a humble background but unexpectedly gets swept up with Oxford’s elites by virtue of being friends with April. All this comes crashing down when April is found dead and Hannah is never the same. The perpetrator is supposedly now dead, but everything changes when new facts come up suggesting that he may have been innocent. Hannah goes on a quest to discover the truth…which may lead to something she wished she didn’t know.

The characters were all excellent in this book. There were characters of all types among the friend group, and it stays as basically a closed room kind of scenario, so all the suspicious people are in sight (of course, everyone is suspicious). Most of the characters were well developed, and I felt that for the most part any or all of them could have been involved, and the plot was always thickening. I certainly enjoyed the character development and the intrigue surrounding all her friends.

Continue reading “Review: The IT Girl by Ruth Ware” →
2.5 star, YA

ARC Review: The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America’s history and legacy of racism in this suspenseful YA novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom. 

When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it.

An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she’s dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.

After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High’s racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school’s first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it’s possible to have a normal life.

But some of her classmates aren’t done with her just yet. And what they don’t know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.

**The Weight of Blood comes out September 6, 2022**

Thank you Edelweiss and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

While The Weight of Blood was every bit the strong contender about race and the continued challenges the Black community faces in certain small towns with a history of segregation and racism, the execution of the mystery fell flat on so many levels. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I’ll explain why I can’t give it a higher rating no matter how much I want to.

The premise of the story from the synopsis makes it sound like we follow Maddy, a girl who is half-Black but has been “lying” to the whole town and passing off as white her whole life. Unfortunately, her POV is only one of many that we follow and it dilutes the focus between too many people to thoroughly invest and enjoy any one of them. We follow Kenny, the love interest, who also happens be dating a popular white girl who is part of the group that bullied Maddy. But not only his POV, we get his girlfriend’s POV which was a rather interesting take as it made it harder to yearn for the main romance when I empathized with her situation the more I got to know her.

For the parts where we do get to see the situations Maddy lives through which we know somehow leads up to a Bloody Prom Night that left over a hundred dead in their small town, I was utterly enthralled in half amazement and disgust. Amazement at how she was raised and her fanatical father who put this narrative in her mind that being Black was wrong, but definite disgust at the treatment of her peers and the town overall towards her. I mean, they still had separate proms, like other ethnicities weren’t seen as equals to dance and celebrate together? Just disgusting behaviour, and I really hope not reflective of small towns in America.

I did think the social commentary on racism was a great place to launch much-needed discussions on this topic. In particular, I also liked the focus on her peers who didn’t throw any insults or directly did anything but nevertheless just stood by and allowed the ones who did get a free pass. Aren’t they as much at fault for what led up to the tragic Night?

Another interesting take was how the small Black community at school didn’t necessarily welcome her into their arms either. Was it because they thought she was ashamed of her Blackness and thus extends to those in the community? Was she not Black enough for them to at least acknowledge her as one of them? It was something that Kenny had to reflect on too as he had integrated well into the popular groups at school by, in a sense, pretending he was colour blind to the little “jokes” by his friends that really were microaggressions or harmful stereotypes.

I would’ve liked to have seen more focus on this topic but I suppose the point of the main premise is a thriller – the big Why everyone (or rather, the survivors) is trying to answer.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good thriller, but the pacing was super off here. First, reminiscent to the popular book Sadie, there’s a present day podcast in interview style narrating what had happened a decade ago that is Maddy’s story. So the timeline is actually split with the present day parts looking to explain what led to the tragedy. While I like having the podcast style and making us feel just as confused and intrigued by Maddy’s story as the podcaster, it slows things down by cutting into any buildup. The multiple POVs with changing tensions (or different kinds of tension) doesn’t allow for extended buildup either. It’s just getting good – and then it cuts to present day or another person.

The romance was also marketed for this book in some ways, but I never felt any real chemistry between Kenny and Maddy. Yes, they both had to come to terms with their Blackness and what that means in who they want to be and how others may see them. But a connection on that struggle that doesn’t equate to instant attraction and undying love. Kenny did a complete 180 as he was still technically in a relationship with his girlfriend Wendy (whom we also get to really know) for most of the book. I honestly felt bad for Wendy at times even though she missed some cues that the relationship was not going where she hoped it would.

But, the one thing I think everyone loved given the strong Carrie vibes (is this considered a retelling?) but didn’t quite settle with me is the supernatural element to the story. I never read Carrie so I didn’t immediately make that connection with the synopsis so I most definitely wasn’t anticipating this supernatural narrative. In a way, it makes the premise less mysterious and therefore exciting for me. Now there’s a very plausible way that Bloody Prom Night ends up happening and there’s definitely plenty of motive for why on Maddy’s part. The only unknown is the exact sequence of events that led up to it. And the execution of that, as mentioned above, was at times convoluted and all over the place.

I wanted to love this book so badly. I haven’t been reading the reviews for it so I had no high expectations either beyond the premise. Unfortunately, however unpopular this is, The Weight of Blood was less thriller and more of a paranormal story with commentary on race and segregation in small town America.

Overall Recommendation:

The Weight of Blood doesn’t quite hit the nail as a thriller but it at least provides thoughtful reflection on Black identity in predominantly white small towns with a legacy of racism. I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect although it sickened me in places at the abuse our protagonist, Maddy, faced. However, the romance felt forced and the supernatural elements came as a surprise. If you enjoy social commentary on race with a huge sprinkling of paranormal activity, then this is for you! But otherwise, this isn’t what I’d say is a typical thriller and unfortunately not what I anticipated for my first Tiffany D. Jackson novel. It’s probably a case of “it’s me, not the book” so take what you will from this review.