Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Quiet in Her Bones

Things I liked:
- diverse cast of characters, connected together by living in the same neighborhood
- New Zealand setting
- short chapters
- questioning everything and everyone
- the twists at the end
- Pari

Things I didn't like:
- all the characters except for Pari
- takes a while to remember who is who, because there are so many characters (even by the end, a name would be mentioned and I would think, "Wait who was that again?")
- the pacing felt off to me in places (there would be a tension-filled moment and then the next chapter would act like that moment hadn't just happened)
- the ending felt rushed; nothing was happening and then a lot happened in the span of a few pages and then it was done

Overall, a decent mystery that kept me guessing, but the unlikable characters and lack of any real character development kept me from rating this higher.

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cursedepub'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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Quiet in Her Bones is an enjoyable and suspenseful read, but ultimately isn't very fulfilling. The prose is great - tense and action-packed, while providing a lot of emotional appeal and insight into main character Aarav's personal psyche, and the book is populated with the perfect cast of dramatic, trashy, filthy rich people that make for the most fun mysteries and thrillers. It starts off strong and the pace picks up very nicely, but towards the end I was beginning to grow impatient with the almost never-ending addition of new possibilities to explore and how nothing we had previously discovered seemed to be coming together. The final reveal of the culprit and of the circumstances of Nina Rai's disappearance and death was very unsatisfying for me, and the way it was all hinged on

a completely different disappearance and death

came off as cheap and sloppy. I think more should have been done to establish the connection earlier in the novel, rather than spending time on points and hints that would eventually fade away or not end up particularly important.

One thing that definitely detracted from my enjoyment of the novel is how egregious the sexually objectifying male gaze was in the narration. I think genuinely every woman above the age of 18 in the novel was described in terms of her sexuality and/or physical attributes, to a degree I found gross and uncomfortable.

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katiemack's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I've only read Nalini Singh's romances, so I was intrigued when I saw she had written a thriller (not my typical genre, but I've greatly enjoyed some). Singh's writing shines through, as usual; I always love her descriptions and some of the snarky dialogue she writes. I also enjoyed getting to know the side characters in the Cul-de-Sac as their lives become increasingly more interwoven and secretive.

The toughest aspect to get used to was the pacing--the way Singh reveals information to the reader was tough for me to handle. Aspects and detailed were doled out piecemeal, and while I detest the word-vomit exposition style of some novelists, this was almost as bad. I felt like I didn't have a great grasp on Aarav's family, especially his mother, or even Aarav himself. The ending felt rushed as well, which was frustrating.

If you're a big fan of thrillers, though, I'd give this one a try. It also features diverse characters, which is a plus.

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