Reviews

Strangers We Know by Elle Marr

jmele's review against another edition

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2.0

The premise of this is super interesting but then the author turned it into something ridiculous. I finished if only to see how it would end and if it would surprise me. It didn't.

lenyp19's review against another edition

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2.0

Liked the story, couldn't relate with characters.

briaraq's review against another edition

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1.0

This…was not good. It was aaaall over the place.

pandasbookshelf's review against another edition

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4.0

Strangers We Know | Elle Marr
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Amateur detective
Strangers We Know is a standalone psychological suspense novel by author, Elle Mar. The story follows Ivy who finds out are submitting her DNA for testing that she is related to the Full Moon Killer, a serial killer who has been targeting women for decades. Ivy, who was adopted as a baby sets out in search of answers to her past and parentage and unravels a lot more than she bargained for when more victims start to turn up.

Told from multiple POV with alternating timelines, this suspenseful and fast-paced thriller is not to be missed. From the gripping first chapters as we follow along with Ivy on her search for the truth to the action-packed conclusion you will be hooked. The author somehow manages to throw everything you could want together in this book; murder, cults, family secrets, and more. There is enough to keep you guessing and several twists that I didn’t see coming at all.

Thank you to the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, the author, Elle Mar and Netgalley for a copy of this book.
#StrangersWeKnow #NetGalley

desnkoz's review against another edition

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5.0

Page turner

I was so shook by the turns that this book took towards the middle and end. Could not be happier with the outcome. Highly recommend.

neesh333's review against another edition

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4.0

I really enjoyed this book and it’s style. The chapter layout was really interesting and I really liked how the author wrote her characters. Quick paced and didn’t see the twist coming.

avalinda's review

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1.0

Editor: How dumb do you want your intended audience?
Author Elle Marr: Yes.

Thus begins this magnificently boring saga of wannabe true crime. Complete with:

- An amateur sleuth who can't decide whether investigating her medical history > investigating her mother's death or vice versa;
- An FBI agent whose intellectual capacity rivals that of said amateur sleuth;
- A star reporter whose reporting skills consist of "disappearance = murder", with a dash of assault and battery;
- A seasoned serial killer who somehow gets taken out by an old woman;
- A small town plagued by said serial killer, which observes a curfew out of fear but doesn't need to lock their doors;
- A rich family that especially doesn't need to lock their mansion doors, except when kicking out unwanted relatives;
- A knockoff Manson Family cult taken straight from the Walmart shelves;
- Doctors who don't know how to diagnose lupus;
- And last but not least, a cop-out plot twist (a supposed murder which didn't happen!) that will test how long you can roll your eyes without stopping.

And that's all for the low low price of $2.98 on Kindle or $14.36 on paperback. What a steal.

As with most indie-authored crime novels (which I'm quickly starting to lose faith in), I really wanted to like this. I gave the first 1/3 of it a good and honest shot before I started skimming to save my life.

Spoiler
Our MC Ivy starts off as a relatively down-to-earth woman, growing up in an adoptive family with undiagnosed health problems that she suspects comes from her biological parents. She submits her DNA for analysis and comes up with a biological cousin, Lottie, who she seems to hit it off with. But she also gets approached by an FBI agent telling her she might be related to a serial killer (in public, where they discuss rather sensitive info, already kinda sketchy, but I thought that was the last of it). Then, Ivy goes out of state to visit her biological family, who helped build the same small town where the killer is known to operate. Here's where things get funky:

- She immediately agrees to stay with her biological cousin despite only having talked to her over the phone.

- THEY DON'T LOCK THEIR DOORS IN THIS TOWN! EVEN WITH A SERIAL KILLER ON THE LOOSE! CAN I SAY THIS ENOUGH!?

- And day 1, a man angrily comes into their house late at night and tries to get into Ivy's bedroom. But no matter. Just an angry relative. No big deal. Let me continue to stick around and ask my relatives very obvious and sometimes incriminating questions about their past, expecting straight answers every time.

- The next third of the book proceeds in this manner. Ivy is slow to gather answers and the whole "investigation" reads like a sleep-deprived high-schooler's attempt to finish a research project, complete with cringy interviews. Also, if you suspect your supposed relative Mr. Serial Killer might be after you, why would you go around telling even complete strangers who you were?

- Ivy's interactions with the killer had me rolling. She meets him at a bar, believes his mega-fake story about why he's there, and proceeds to tell him HER. WHOLE. LIFE. STORY. Then, when he tries to strangle her and she manages to escape with her life (because her elderly grandmother took out this full-grown man without suffering a single scratch) she's STILL left wondering who the killer is. His MO is strangling, so hello?

- But oh yeah, we're expected to believe it's not him, because our aforementioned star reporter claimed that his MO was strangling AND poison. So in what order might that have happened? Strangling the victim after they had died of poisoning? Or poisoning the victim after they had died from strangulation? I have no other words there.

- Finally, the ending. It turns out that Ivy's mother Tatum never died, but was threatened by a fellow family member (a cult member) and went into hiding with her husband. Somehow, the two never tried to reach out to their daughter more than once over the next twenty-eight years, which astonishes me.

- And given the above, the whole suspense buildup of switching between Tatum's and Samson's (the killer's) POV seems pointless after the fact, given that they never even ran into each other! If we were expected to see the family as an additional threat along with the killer, why not give some of their points of view to balance things out? Oh well. Apparently this wasn't necessary from an editor's standpoint. I'm just a dumb reader, right? Right.



I'm glad to say that I only got this book for free from the Amazon Prime monthly list. Can't get back the time I spent on it, but at least I'm learning more about how NOT to write a crime novel.

creepybookcorner's review

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

2.0

ironfordy85's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

dearleader's review against another edition

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4.0

After doing a DNA test for medical reasons, Ivy Han is informed by a member of the FBI that Ivy is related to a serial killer. After getting in contact with a blood relative through an ancestry.com type website, leads Ivy back to a small town where her families secrets come to light.

This book is wild. So many twists and turns!

My only gripe with this book is that Ivy finds out her mom is still alive and she finds her by doing an anagram of her mother's name and I just, can not sync with this info. Besides this aspect I was enthralled by the story!