Reviews

The Girl Before by JP Delaney

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mariaologist's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

jackierobinson's review against another edition

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3.0

I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.
It really did seem like many things were tacked on, there wasn't as much interwoven in it which would have added so much more to the story.
Both female narrators were super unreliable and had their own secrets, but I kind of wish we'd seen hints of that right at the beginning and throughout rather than at ~~the big reveal~~ at the end?
Either way, wasn't bad, but wasn't great.

starrwad's review against another edition

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5.0

Quite enjoyed this. Really original premise.

hmchester's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

atirandomness's review against another edition

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3.0

Sometimes less is more

This book had a ton of potential but that potential was grossly mishandled. Someone who loves Tony Strong (JP Delaney is a pseudonym) should have closed his laptop and stopped him from letting this story spiral out of control.

I think what made Gone Girl such a success was the fact that Gillian Flynn didn't try to blow our minds with some unattainable plot twist. We all knew Amy Dunne was a nut job pretty early in the book and Flynn never tried to take that away from us for shock value at the end. The plot was built around the obvious. That's not what happened here. This book tried too hard for shock value by cramming too many twists and turns into the plot. I still don't know which characters I was supposed to hate. I have no idea who the bad guy is. All of them needed to be institutionalized. And seriously why was Emma calling him Daddy? Where did that even come from.

And the "big twist" was a bit cliché (I saw it coming a mile away) and truthfully the end didn't justify the means.. BUT.. I was willing to let that slide... Literally the first 75% of the book was entertaining.

Once the twist is revealed just tie up a few more loose strings and Bam The End. Right?.. Wrong... It kept going.... I'm still confused about the end. It was just weird and unnecessary

Spoiler

Who tf is Astrid?
Does Jane own the house now?
And The whole conversation with Jane and Edward in the hospital.. WTF? YTF?
She was trying to trap him all along?
She didn't care about Emma?
Did she keep Toby?
"I will take what I can from Edward then let him fade into history." Huh?! Girl Bye!!
And why did she have Simon come to the house If.. you know what... I don't even care

There's an important difference between a mind fuck and just confusing the hell out of everyone. But if you insist on doing so make it worth our while.

Despite my griping I'm giving this 3 stars because It really was an entertaining read for majority of the book. The kind where you keep reading out of curiosity although you're cursing the author along the way. I was set on giving it a solid 4 stars before everything went to batshit crazy town.