laceyhopper's review against another edition
2.0
Too many characters to remember, not a lot of actual character development, and the "big twist" is.... unbelievable. I don't know why there was so much focus on the weight of an underdeveloped side character. This is a quick read, but the constant switch from past to present gives the reader whiplash.
abrswf's review against another edition
3.0
A well plotted and well written whodunnit that gallops to an unexpected ending. Really a 3.5 star book, because 1.5 stars off for the complete absence of anyone of color or LGBTQ, the fairly relentless fat shaming (including the implausible remaking of an overweight character into a crazed berserker), and the presentation of underwhelming feminist literary themes as brilliant fresh insights.
allyens's review against another edition
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? Yes
2.5
kimsmit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
probablyromance's review against another edition
2.0
I wouldn’t have minded that I figured out who did it if the path to the end was interesting or framed “hot for teacher”differently. Instead, I’m left wondering what I’m missing amongst all these five star and four star reviews. I thought the ending was weird too, “vibrant, young woman”? Huh? This woman was slowly checking off all the signs of an abusive partner that is escalating towards a violent/fatal encounter.
I wouldn’t recommend this for purchase. It’s just a simplistic journey through stalking and an affair.
I wouldn’t recommend this for purchase. It’s just a simplistic journey through stalking and an affair.
jennywjordan's review against another edition
4.0
Hmmm
Gerritsen and Braver’s novel is circular events told both in past and present and focusing on different many characters. I liked the characters and although I quickly identified much of the plot, I still found myself drawn to the story. The closet I got or learning more about Taryn, though, the more I felt that this was a car wreck I couldn’t turn away from. It wasn’t the writing or the story itself, it was the shock and bewilderment that kept me reading.
Initially I thought the novel focused on the detectives unraveling the case yet found that in fact the story dive more deeply into those involved in the trauma. Frankie and Mac are important but more so in the fringes of the writing. The story is more of a student and those in her circle.
Taryn is a brilliant college student. Bright, beautiful, and articulate, she is what any man would want. Unfortunately Taryn has a difficult time valuing herself and is drawn quickly and completely to incompatible matches. She fails to recognize the goodness is some and inappropriately latches in the goodness of others.
After several hundred pages, I thought the ending fit more with a television drama. The solution is good but everything after, especially the epilogue feels like an author ready to move on just when I began to be invested
Gerritsen and Braver’s novel is circular events told both in past and present and focusing on different many characters. I liked the characters and although I quickly identified much of the plot, I still found myself drawn to the story. The closet I got or learning more about Taryn, though, the more I felt that this was a car wreck I couldn’t turn away from. It wasn’t the writing or the story itself, it was the shock and bewilderment that kept me reading.
Initially I thought the novel focused on the detectives unraveling the case yet found that in fact the story dive more deeply into those involved in the trauma. Frankie and Mac are important but more so in the fringes of the writing. The story is more of a student and those in her circle.
Taryn is a brilliant college student. Bright, beautiful, and articulate, she is what any man would want. Unfortunately Taryn has a difficult time valuing herself and is drawn quickly and completely to incompatible matches. She fails to recognize the goodness is some and inappropriately latches in the goodness of others.
After several hundred pages, I thought the ending fit more with a television drama. The solution is good but everything after, especially the epilogue feels like an author ready to move on just when I began to be invested
airclay3's review against another edition
1.0
This was Twilight level, perhaps below Twilight level because I didn't think any other book existed at that level and overall, I had higher expectations of this book before starting it. I knew what I was getting into with Twilight. Here's why this book is the worst kind of dumpster fire that I can't recommend to anyone as a fun dumpster fire, because this wasn't fun:
1. The book reads like it is a TV drama crime show script. If I want to get a story told in that way, I'll watch a drama crime show, not read a book. Books require stories to be told in a different way than what works on a screen.
2. The characters are all incredibly unlikable. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if the characters had great motivations and you could see why they were terrible people (such as Marie Lu's main character in The Young Elites). The characters' motivations here are all terrible and aren't shown at all, except for the ONE thing they did kind of okay, see below.
3. The attempt at "woke-ness" is a complete miss, but the authors have no idea and it shows. They make some microscopic mentions about masks and such, not willing to date their book by outright mentions of it but also can't seem to help themselves. Either go big(ger) and commit to the time period setting or go home. What even is a "millenial smile"?????????? Ageist, sexist, and misogynistic phrases all throughout the book, tossed in to "show how terrible men are" but aren't even remotely realistic and also to make fun of the younger generations who are (mostly, there are always the outliers in any population) choosing to prioritize kindness.
4. Their "feminism" is incredibly radical and incorrect. However, see below for the ONE good thing. They defend the woman in the relationship when this is the time to actually not do that. Crazy isn't limited to those of a specific gender. Now that's sexist!
5. Their attempt at romance is forced, with cliched lines and no show of a genuine connection, making the affair between a professor and student that much worse. It isn't even believable on a human level. Factual level, yes, it's sadly believable. But not in the way it's told to us.
6. For someone who worked as a physician (one of the two authors), I highly doubt that a doctor would inform a patient he had terminal cancer using such incomprehensible language for a non-doctor person.
7. For someone who is a professor (the other author), I would have expected a better conveying of how much work it is to be a professor. The main character came up with his own unique class, has to grade weekly essays, and makes lesson plans. Additionally, they must do service for the university (at least, US universities have this requirement), where 40% of your time is teaching, 40% is research (of which the main character professor does zip nada none), and 20% is service. That isn't something you just pop in for to do some quick Saturday afternoon grading. He had more in his life than this poorly-written affair and his troubles with his wife. How did these emotions affect his grading and time not in the classroom but preparing for lecture? His service? His non-existent research??
8. One of these authors is a professor. That isn't the bad thing. It's that this book exists that is bad and reflects terribly on his skills. I would run far away from his class after reading this garbage.
9. They degrade people by their appearances and make fat jokes way more times than is needed. None of the characters I could see doing it, except that clearly all the characters are written by boomers.
10. The authors only ever told the reader what to think and how to react to a specific sentence. This isn't a good thing and should always be avoided because it isn't good storytelling. (See what I did there? Muahaha!) The authors never showed us characterization. They spoonfed me like I was a baby, when hinting in the first few pages: "oooooooh but is this rEALLLY A SUICIDE???????? My sexist male colleague is mocking me for wanting to find the victim's cellphone when all other signs point to suicide! Oh my goodness, I can't believe how sexist all men are!! Let me keep mentioning this a billion more times!" A lot of lines in this book are a waste of words and paper, only adding a line for dramatic effect and not to actually advance the plot in any way (refer back to point 1).
11. Cliches are sometimes fine in stories, when they aren't used in a wrong way or weirdly. This used cliches, with cringey lines that could be taken straight out of something like, My Immortals, the most notorious and cringey fanfiction to exist.
12. Why was the woman cop investigator friends with the wife of the professor?? There was nothing to indicate these women may become friends or that they have anything in common except cheating husbands. I guess the authors decided this because they were the only women still alive in the book, so they must become friends by the end. This epilogue chapter should have been told in the perspective of the wife, not the detective. Or they could have each had one page/ chapter for an epilogue. We learn that the detective isn't great at letting things go with her husband's location of death. Perhaps this case hit close to home, as was shown during the interrogation between the two women, and so the detective watches from afar occasionally, to make sure the wife is doing okay. That would have fit so much better.
The ONE (partly) good thing:
Taryn Moore is completely insane. This insanity is so well written, she was properly terrifying!! I was constantly torn between feeling sorry for her (because she was obviously murdered as soon as page 1) and in thinking that perhaps she did get served justice, because she was harrasing all the men who got romantically involved with her. She became the foil to actual feminists, which was very interesting because she saw herself as the hero. The problem with Taryn is with the way she is talked about by the woman detective (see points 4 and 10, this is the same woman who annoys her male colleague for thinking this is more than a suicide) defends Taryn! She defends Taryn as a fellow woman recovering from a spurned relationship with a man, in the name of being a feminist and believing in women's rights. Taryn is CRAZY and stalks her ex-boyfriend for months, sneaking into his apartment and stealing his t-shirts when he isn't home, and harasses him for that long by texting and calling him incessantly, when he has specifically told her they are over. Taryn is most certainly not a progressive person when she is being written in a good light. She's pure crazy and Taryn should never have been defended except for the basic right to not be murdered. This is the time where the ex-boyfriend is actually in the right, even though he is portrayed as the evil, rich jock boy who tossed out his poor, drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend to find a more moneyed girl.
The 1.5th good thing:
I did NOT see it coming with who the killer was! So, great job on that front. This was the only reason I finished the book. Halfway through (almost exactly, around page 150 of 320) I decided to keep reading in order to learn who the killer was.
1. The book reads like it is a TV drama crime show script. If I want to get a story told in that way, I'll watch a drama crime show, not read a book. Books require stories to be told in a different way than what works on a screen.
2. The characters are all incredibly unlikable. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if the characters had great motivations and you could see why they were terrible people (such as Marie Lu's main character in The Young Elites). The characters' motivations here are all terrible and aren't shown at all, except for the ONE thing they did kind of okay, see below.
3. The attempt at "woke-ness" is a complete miss, but the authors have no idea and it shows. They make some microscopic mentions about masks and such, not willing to date their book by outright mentions of it but also can't seem to help themselves. Either go big(ger) and commit to the time period setting or go home. What even is a "millenial smile"?????????? Ageist, sexist, and misogynistic phrases all throughout the book, tossed in to "show how terrible men are" but aren't even remotely realistic and also to make fun of the younger generations who are (mostly, there are always the outliers in any population) choosing to prioritize kindness.
4. Their "feminism" is incredibly radical and incorrect. However, see below for the ONE good thing. They defend the woman in the relationship when this is the time to actually not do that. Crazy isn't limited to those of a specific gender. Now that's sexist!
5. Their attempt at romance is forced, with cliched lines and no show of a genuine connection, making the affair between a professor and student that much worse. It isn't even believable on a human level. Factual level, yes, it's sadly believable. But not in the way it's told to us.
6. For someone who worked as a physician (one of the two authors), I highly doubt that a doctor would inform a patient he had terminal cancer using such incomprehensible language for a non-doctor person.
7. For someone who is a professor (the other author), I would have expected a better conveying of how much work it is to be a professor. The main character came up with his own unique class, has to grade weekly essays, and makes lesson plans. Additionally, they must do service for the university (at least, US universities have this requirement), where 40% of your time is teaching, 40% is research (of which the main character professor does zip nada none), and 20% is service. That isn't something you just pop in for to do some quick Saturday afternoon grading. He had more in his life than this poorly-written affair and his troubles with his wife. How did these emotions affect his grading and time not in the classroom but preparing for lecture? His service? His non-existent research??
8. One of these authors is a professor. That isn't the bad thing. It's that this book exists that is bad and reflects terribly on his skills. I would run far away from his class after reading this garbage.
9. They degrade people by their appearances and make fat jokes way more times than is needed. None of the characters I could see doing it, except that clearly all the characters are written by boomers.
10. The authors only ever told the reader what to think and how to react to a specific sentence. This isn't a good thing and should always be avoided because it isn't good storytelling. (See what I did there? Muahaha!) The authors never showed us characterization. They spoonfed me like I was a baby, when hinting in the first few pages: "oooooooh but is this rEALLLY A SUICIDE???????? My sexist male colleague is mocking me for wanting to find the victim's cellphone when all other signs point to suicide! Oh my goodness, I can't believe how sexist all men are!! Let me keep mentioning this a billion more times!" A lot of lines in this book are a waste of words and paper, only adding a line for dramatic effect and not to actually advance the plot in any way (refer back to point 1).
11. Cliches are sometimes fine in stories, when they aren't used in a wrong way or weirdly. This used cliches, with cringey lines that could be taken straight out of something like, My Immortals, the most notorious and cringey fanfiction to exist.
12. Why was the woman cop investigator friends with the wife of the professor?? There was nothing to indicate these women may become friends or that they have anything in common except cheating husbands. I guess the authors decided this because they were the only women still alive in the book, so they must become friends by the end. This epilogue chapter should have been told in the perspective of the wife, not the detective. Or they could have each had one page/ chapter for an epilogue. We learn that the detective isn't great at letting things go with her husband's location of death. Perhaps this case hit close to home, as was shown during the interrogation between the two women, and so the detective watches from afar occasionally, to make sure the wife is doing okay. That would have fit so much better.
The ONE (partly) good thing:
Taryn Moore is completely insane. This insanity is so well written, she was properly terrifying!! I was constantly torn between feeling sorry for her (because she was obviously murdered as soon as page 1) and in thinking that perhaps she did get served justice, because she was harrasing all the men who got romantically involved with her. She became the foil to actual feminists, which was very interesting because she saw herself as the hero. The problem with Taryn is with the way she is talked about by the woman detective (see points 4 and 10, this is the same woman who annoys her male colleague for thinking this is more than a suicide) defends Taryn! She defends Taryn as a fellow woman recovering from a spurned relationship with a man, in the name of being a feminist and believing in women's rights. Taryn is CRAZY and stalks her ex-boyfriend for months, sneaking into his apartment and stealing his t-shirts when he isn't home, and harasses him for that long by texting and calling him incessantly, when he has specifically told her they are over. Taryn is most certainly not a progressive person when she is being written in a good light. She's pure crazy and Taryn should never have been defended except for the basic right to not be murdered. This is the time where the ex-boyfriend is actually in the right, even though he is portrayed as the evil, rich jock boy who tossed out his poor, drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend to find a more moneyed girl.
The 1.5th good thing:
I did NOT see it coming with who the killer was! So, great job on that front. This was the only reason I finished the book. Halfway through (almost exactly, around page 150 of 320) I decided to keep reading in order to learn who the killer was.
nikkeht's review against another edition
3.0
An easy read with a muted ending. Could have bring stronger.
dianaluna92's review against another edition
5.0
This book was a definitely page turner, I just couldn’t put it down, it was so entertaining and the story was so easy to follow, I definitely recommend, this book is definitely a book you will like to read over and over again, I also felt like a movie while reading it.