lea_who_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
600bars's review
2.0
lol this was so stupid not even in a fun way
my audiobook mystery. We have a lot of copies at work and I can see why people wanted to get rid of it. Spoilers will abound but it's also really predictable and i don't reccommend it anyway. I can't muster up enough emotion about it to give it one star. The best thing about it was recounting every dumb thing that happened to Kai while rolling my eyes and then we would both laugh.
so we have a former TB sanitorium that has been converted into a sleek minimalist hotel. The cover designer fucked up becuase they put an old timey building, which is what i would have pictured, but the hotel is described as very modern and full of glass and having no resemblance ot the original building other than the creepy artifacts strewn about. I thought this would be a great premise for a thriller, we all love whodunnits that are in a contained location. They can't leave because of the remote terrain and there is a big blizzard. Sadly, as with "leave the world behind", the author chose a tension-creating setting while forgetting to actually create tension.
There was too many plot elements going on. Our main character is Elin , a detective on leave due to a traumatic case involving a man named Hayler. This would've been enough of a backstory for me, but in addition to this we have her trauma from her little brother's drowning when she was 12. She is going to this hotel with her fiance to attend her brother Isaac's engagement party to a woman named Laure, who is a manager at the hotel. Oh and Laure and Elin also share a past--they were childhood firends. This has basically no bearing on the plot and she hides this from her fiance for no reason but I can't even remember if it was ever revealed bc it's not like it's a major secret?? That was silly. Anyway Elin and her brother are estranged, she only wants to go to this engagement because she wants to confront him becuase she is convinced he was the cause of the baby brother's death all those years ago. Because it makes perfect sense that, after stewing about this for 20 years, that would be the moment you choose to bring this up. I mean none of that subplot made sense or added anything at all but i digress. Oh and Elin's mom recently died and she was the caretaker and isaac did not attend the funeral. This is way too many backstory elements! And for what!! So Elin has these 4 "dark past" plots going on with her. Spoiler alert, she obviously remembered wrong and turns out SHE was the one who accidentally caused the baby brother's death! Oh man!! Didn't see that one coming!!! The reveal on that was also so ridiculous. Laure is eventually killed, and you have to imagine Isaac is pretty upset that his fiance is dead. Elin's fiance also gets stabbed but is not dead, and she chooses the bedside of the fiance as the perfect moment to confront her brother. The weirdest thing about this character is that she's presented as so anxious and deeply traumatized in the beginning, but then when all this fucked up things keep happening in the moment she barely even reacts.
As an investigator Elin was totally inept incompetent foolish etc. She was literally always wrong so that the author could make another forced plot twist moment. Oh she thinks its this character... well actually THIS one is behind the whole thing.... wait now that she is sure its this one, THIS one was really pulling the strings! This gets old. Elin's desicionmaking throughout is like the girl in a horror movie where at every turn you're like WHY YWOULD YOU GO INTO THAT ROOM WHEN THE KILLERS ON THE LOOSE
The final reveal....It was Cecile! the sister of the hotel director! Her brother looked the other way when she was raped as a teenager, so she is getting her revenge. Side note there should be so much abotu sibling relationships here, Cecile and Luca, and Elin and Isaac/the dead babu brother. But somehow there isn't because this is a mystery and there is not time to meaningfully explore relationships I guess. The sanitorium is discovered to have been a site where women who were not actually sick were institutionalized by their husbands/families. Doctors then used these disposable women for depraved medical experiments. i actually have a book in my to-read that was about this topic, so i hoped they might explore this a little more, but they didn't. Basically, as revenge for her rape, Cecile kills several women, in a place where women were denigrated and tortured, mimicking the scenes of torture from the past, because of........feminism?? maybe????It was so convoluted. Like she was killing people because she was mad that no one was paying attention to the nefarious history of the hotel. She's md that crimes against women go ignored. So she kills more women? Also, she says in the big reveal how she kills because she wanted to drum up controversy and get caught, but I thought she killed Laure for having evidence agaisnt her, so which is it? honestly i started tuning out during the grand reveal which is never a good sign. Where is the editor! How does killing more women do anything to rectify the damages done to you at all ????? I'm not even getting started on the absurdity of Margot's motives.
It's also just annoying when there is a whole info dump at the end explaining the grand plan. Actually, I don't always mind that, but it only works when the monologue at the end ties together a bunch of disparate elements and makes you go "OHHHH NO WAY SO THATS WHY THAT HAPPENED!" This motive did not get hinted at anywhere before and instead comes out of nowhere, making it very unsatisfying and unbelievable. Literally made no sense lmao
Pearse uses the word "liquid" as an adjective constantly. She relied on the word "something" to create suspense to the point where any time i heard the word "something" i wanted to check off a bingo card. I listened as an audiobook so I can't go find quotes, but it would be like "something was forming in Elins mind, a thought, but she couldn't quite grasp it". "Something" is always tickling the back of Elin's mind! But it is never correct anyway bc Elin doesn't know what tf shes doing.
The epilogue. So is this supposed to be the Hayler guy from the original case she was traumatized by. Is this yet another "but actually it was HIM all along!" after we already had "it was Margot all along!" and "it was luca all along" and finally "it was Cecile all along". We barely know anything about the Haylor case and it gets so lost in the shuffle amidst the "I acutally knew Laure as a kid" and "Isaac let my baby brother drown" and so on and so on. The goodreads entry has this listed as #1, so maybe this is supposed to be the lead in for book 2 but i'll never find out as I will not read that lol.
my audiobook mystery. We have a lot of copies at work and I can see why people wanted to get rid of it. Spoilers will abound but it's also really predictable and i don't reccommend it anyway. I can't muster up enough emotion about it to give it one star. The best thing about it was recounting every dumb thing that happened to Kai while rolling my eyes and then we would both laugh.
so we have a former TB sanitorium that has been converted into a sleek minimalist hotel. The cover designer fucked up becuase they put an old timey building, which is what i would have pictured, but the hotel is described as very modern and full of glass and having no resemblance ot the original building other than the creepy artifacts strewn about. I thought this would be a great premise for a thriller, we all love whodunnits that are in a contained location. They can't leave because of the remote terrain and there is a big blizzard. Sadly, as with "leave the world behind", the author chose a tension-creating setting while forgetting to actually create tension.
There was too many plot elements going on. Our main character is Elin , a detective on leave due to a traumatic case involving a man named Hayler. This would've been enough of a backstory for me, but in addition to this we have her trauma from her little brother's drowning when she was 12. She is going to this hotel with her fiance to attend her brother Isaac's engagement party to a woman named Laure, who is a manager at the hotel. Oh and Laure and Elin also share a past--they were childhood firends. This has basically no bearing on the plot and she hides this from her fiance for no reason but I can't even remember if it was ever revealed bc it's not like it's a major secret?? That was silly. Anyway Elin and her brother are estranged, she only wants to go to this engagement because she wants to confront him becuase she is convinced he was the cause of the baby brother's death all those years ago. Because it makes perfect sense that, after stewing about this for 20 years, that would be the moment you choose to bring this up. I mean none of that subplot made sense or added anything at all but i digress. Oh and Elin's mom recently died and she was the caretaker and isaac did not attend the funeral. This is way too many backstory elements! And for what!! So Elin has these 4 "dark past" plots going on with her. Spoiler alert, she obviously remembered wrong and turns out SHE was the one who accidentally caused the baby brother's death! Oh man!! Didn't see that one coming!!! The reveal on that was also so ridiculous. Laure is eventually killed, and you have to imagine Isaac is pretty upset that his fiance is dead. Elin's fiance also gets stabbed but is not dead, and she chooses the bedside of the fiance as the perfect moment to confront her brother. The weirdest thing about this character is that she's presented as so anxious and deeply traumatized in the beginning, but then when all this fucked up things keep happening in the moment she barely even reacts.
As an investigator Elin was totally inept incompetent foolish etc. She was literally always wrong so that the author could make another forced plot twist moment. Oh she thinks its this character... well actually THIS one is behind the whole thing.... wait now that she is sure its this one, THIS one was really pulling the strings! This gets old. Elin's desicionmaking throughout is like the girl in a horror movie where at every turn you're like WHY YWOULD YOU GO INTO THAT ROOM WHEN THE KILLERS ON THE LOOSE
The final reveal....It was Cecile! the sister of the hotel director! Her brother looked the other way when she was raped as a teenager, so she is getting her revenge. Side note there should be so much abotu sibling relationships here, Cecile and Luca, and Elin and Isaac/the dead babu brother. But somehow there isn't because this is a mystery and there is not time to meaningfully explore relationships I guess. The sanitorium is discovered to have been a site where women who were not actually sick were institutionalized by their husbands/families. Doctors then used these disposable women for depraved medical experiments. i actually have a book in my to-read that was about this topic, so i hoped they might explore this a little more, but they didn't. Basically, as revenge for her rape, Cecile kills several women, in a place where women were denigrated and tortured, mimicking the scenes of torture from the past, because of........feminism?? maybe????It was so convoluted. Like she was killing people because she was mad that no one was paying attention to the nefarious history of the hotel. She's md that crimes against women go ignored. So she kills more women? Also, she says in the big reveal how she kills because she wanted to drum up controversy and get caught, but I thought she killed Laure for having evidence agaisnt her, so which is it? honestly i started tuning out during the grand reveal which is never a good sign. Where is the editor! How does killing more women do anything to rectify the damages done to you at all ????? I'm not even getting started on the absurdity of Margot's motives.
It's also just annoying when there is a whole info dump at the end explaining the grand plan. Actually, I don't always mind that, but it only works when the monologue at the end ties together a bunch of disparate elements and makes you go "OHHHH NO WAY SO THATS WHY THAT HAPPENED!" This motive did not get hinted at anywhere before and instead comes out of nowhere, making it very unsatisfying and unbelievable. Literally made no sense lmao
Pearse uses the word "liquid" as an adjective constantly. She relied on the word "something" to create suspense to the point where any time i heard the word "something" i wanted to check off a bingo card. I listened as an audiobook so I can't go find quotes, but it would be like "something was forming in Elins mind, a thought, but she couldn't quite grasp it". "Something" is always tickling the back of Elin's mind! But it is never correct anyway bc Elin doesn't know what tf shes doing.
The epilogue. So is this supposed to be the Hayler guy from the original case she was traumatized by. Is this yet another "but actually it was HIM all along!" after we already had "it was Margot all along!" and "it was luca all along" and finally "it was Cecile all along". We barely know anything about the Haylor case and it gets so lost in the shuffle amidst the "I acutally knew Laure as a kid" and "Isaac let my baby brother drown" and so on and so on. The goodreads entry has this listed as #1, so maybe this is supposed to be the lead in for book 2 but i'll never find out as I will not read that lol.
sarah_okay's review
2.0
Thought it would be more spooky and less of a procedural crime mystery. I couldn't find much relateability in the characters either. All in all not a complete waste of time.
mel_smith's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
spookymadds13's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I was not a fan of this book. There were certain plot points that were never explained and didn't seem necessary anyway, and the motivation of the bad guy didn't seem believable or compelling. There were multiple times where I contemplated putting the book down because it lost my interest.
swiftbarness's review
3.0
3,5⭐️
Me ha gustado, mucho, pero hay algo que me chirria y nome acaba de convencer, la verdad la parte de vengarte por que te violaron y tu hermano ni se dignó a apoyarte me parece una idea genial para la trama de un asesinato, peeerooo lo que me chirria es como se relaciona con los asesinatos del sanatorio, me parece un poco cogido ocn pinzas y creo que o haces una histotia o haces otra (tipo venganza por los abusos del hospital a esas mujeres), pero juntar estas dos historias no me acaba de convencer.
Me ha gustado, mucho, pero hay algo que me chirria y nome acaba de convencer, la verdad la parte de vengarte por que te violaron y tu hermano ni se dignó a apoyarte me parece una idea genial para la trama de un asesinato, peeerooo lo que me chirria es como se relaciona con los asesinatos del sanatorio, me parece un poco cogido ocn pinzas y creo que o haces una histotia o haces otra (tipo venganza por los abusos del hospital a esas mujeres), pero juntar estas dos historias no me acaba de convencer.
mandalabunny's review
2.0
DNF. This one just isn't for me. I thought it sounded interesting because I love creepy settings like this but I just found it boring.
learaloveslit's review
3.0
2.5 ⭐️ - I felt like I enjoyed this book a fair amount until we got about halfway through. There were multiple places that felt slow and dragged on. The final reveal of “whodunnit” was not at all believable (which is usually not a problem for me, I like unbelievable at times) however, the motive behind the “whodunnit” was weak. Using something like sexual assault as a plot device isn’t a good choice. I’m all for women taking their power back and seeking revenge on the men who did them wrong, but sexual assault is not a plot twist and it’s not something to casually throw into a story. That needs to be established early on and it needs to be up front and center so we can feel for the character and grieve with them.
I felt that the Sanatorium was a great setting, and I loved the feel of claustrophobia. However, this book felt a little all over the place and I had a difficult time keeping track of where everything was going at times. The epilogue at the end also confused me. I had to look up theories to try and figure out what it meant.
All in all, this book was okay. Not my favorite thing to read, but not the worst.
I felt that the Sanatorium was a great setting, and I loved the feel of claustrophobia. However, this book felt a little all over the place and I had a difficult time keeping track of where everything was going at times. The epilogue at the end also confused me. I had to look up theories to try and figure out what it meant.
All in all, this book was okay. Not my favorite thing to read, but not the worst.