Reviews with content warning for Stalking - One by One

a bit cliche/obvious about who ends up being the killer, but not too bad of a book. it was a bit too similar to The Hunting Party, which i have read before this book, so that’s probably why it was quite easy to guess who the murderer was. also didn’t like how they had Liz sort of hella change near the end of the book and how she sort of did a 180 and was like not shy or nervous all of a sudden.

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growintogardens's review against another edition

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mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

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julienicole1106's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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patricia_epub's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I greatly enjoyed listening to this book. The introduction immediately caught my attention and got me hooked, and made me even scramble for my reading journal to take notes about each character profile so I could piece together their "personalities" based on the music they listened to, and maybe link them up into some archetypes as well.

I also enjoyed the back-and-forth POVs between Erin, the chalet worker, and Liz, the oddball in the group of guests. I knew there was a reason why they were chosen as the "eyes" of the story and I am quite proud to say that I pieced that together early in the story. I loved the epistolary-like sections at the start of each chapter, which ultimately showed me the author's hand long before she was ready to give the readers the twist. Despite this, I am happy that knowing the identity of the killer did not put a damper on my enjoyment of the remaining 70% of the book.

I have my reservations with the fleshing out of some of the minor characters, who felt at times like caricatures with their brief comments or opinions. But considering how short their 3-day interaction was (not to mention the tragedies they faced on after the other), I think it's easy to get over with and just enjoy the ride. They were all definitely archetypes, as I had suspected right from the beginning, which did not give me much expectation in the character development area. My biggest issue was how some parts felt a bit draggy or even unnecessary. When I realized the entire ordeal only happened within 3 days, I was shocked because it felt like they've been in the cabin for a week at least.

The ending for the "villain" felt a bit anticlimactic for all that build-up, though. But I do appreciate Ruth Ware's attempt at parallel imagery. I would say that despite the twists and turns of the plot, the ending definitely cemented to me that this was a character-driven story. Overall, it was a good story and an equally-as-good execution.

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