Scan barcode
reading_warren's review
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
good god i could not like a single character in the book and just when i thought one was likeable they'd do something stupid and like. all of them are evil so why would i want any of them to get what they want instead of what they deserve? and only one or two of them does (get what they deserve)!! But due to corruption of the police force and wrongful incarceration of two teen boys (even though they are certainly growing into bad people) a young (presumably) white girl gets to go free from TWO murders!! awful
if you're looking for a bunch of evil white (presumably, it's never stated otherwise) people fucking each other over, I guess this is your book, but i hope you don't plan on enjoying your time with any of them.
If you care about corruption in the police force and wrongful incarceration this book will probably only piss you off.
The first twist aboutthe missing husband was satisfying, but I honestly was frustrated by anything else.
Also, at the end, the book started to feel like it was second person, like the characters were communicating inner dialogue to me directly, and it didn't feel right, but it was just more bad on top of everything else.
if you're looking for a bunch of evil white (presumably, it's never stated otherwise) people fucking each other over, I guess this is your book, but i hope you don't plan on enjoying your time with any of them.
If you care about corruption in the police force and wrongful incarceration this book will probably only piss you off.
The first twist about
Also, at the end, the book started to feel like it was second person, like the characters were communicating inner dialogue to me directly, and it didn't feel right, but it was just more bad on top of everything else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Abandonment
Minor: Rape and Car accident
janjanjukebox's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-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
2.0
Our Little Secret by Kiersten Modglin
300 pages
5 hours and 54 minutes narrated by Mandy Kaplan and Wyatt Baker
300 pages
5 hours and 54 minutes narrated by Mandy Kaplan and Wyatt Baker
Genre: Suspense, Thriller > Mystery Thriller, Psychological Thriller; Contemporary, Mystery > Crime, Domestic
Featuring: Small Towns, Secrets, Teen Drama, Sex - off camera, Multiple POVs, Flashbacks, Cul-de-sac, Sheriff, Teachers, Mayor, Bad Parenting, Neighbors, Childhood Friends
Rating as a movie: PG-13
My rating: ⭐️⭐️
My thoughts: 38% - Confusion! 😕 There are too many characters. So far I'm more annoyed than hooked. 😒 I think it's obvious what's going on but I don't have enough evidence to jump on anything yet.
55% - More than halfway through this one without a real plot or solid character development. There is still time to fix it but so far it's just been random talking from neighbors, like Cul-de-sac without events.
55% - More than halfway through this one without a real plot or solid character development. There is still time to fix it but so far it's just been random talking from neighbors, like Cul-de-sac without events.
Another dud. I have now read 11 books by Kiersten Modglin and this is the 5th to get less than 3 stars from me. Widow Falls came in this morning but I'm going to read 2 other books first. The first issue I had with Our Little Secret is it is very much domestic suspense with few thrilling moments. I am absolutely sick of publishers putting books in the wrong genre to get us to read them. If I want to read something slow I will pick it out, labeling your book as a thriller when it is a suspense is not doing your book any favors in the long run. Book was labeled as a psychological thriller which I don't feel like it is. Suspenses have tension, you fear whay may happen, as did the characters here for more than half the book. Thrillers are fast-paced and you feel danger and fear for the characters, not at all here. Psychological thrillers are supposed to take the external action and have the characters internalized it into deep emotions for the reader to analyze, not in this book, there is a lot of telling and almost no showing. The second issue I had with this story is the first 70% of it is a lot of anticipation, then there's an answer key ending. I hate answer keys, you're cheating! If your story is good write it, don't give me Cliff notes. His & Hers by Alice Feeny also used the answer key ending, she was going for Gone Girl and it doesn't have an answer key ending so I didn't understand. I could have used an answer key for Sometimes I Lie. Anyway I feel when authors use answer keys it's like they know how they want their story to end but they are tired of writing so they just feed you the answers, or they realize that they didn't reveal enough in the actual story so they tell you what happened. It's lazy writing to me and this story wasn't good so if that's how it was going to end she could have feed me the answers around 80%.
Recommend to others?: Nope. Kiersten Modglin writes 3-5 books a year so understandably not all of them are going to get the same amount of care. This one felt thrown together.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault