samalexauthor's review
3.0
This collection of short stories was interesting. It wasn’t what I expected really. As the blurb suggests I was expecting it to be about second looks. Taking the same information and it being completely about something else, but the stories kind of read like a regular story would. Especially the final story.
As the Blurb specifically states taking a second glance reveals more insight only two of the stories perfectly delivered on this and the last one, which was my favourite, delivered the least on this because it was effectively a shock ending.
In the first, fourth, and sixth stories the characters' choices were hard to get on board with. At their ages and maturity levels, the decisions they made just didn't add up and felt forced to drive a certain narrative. The last one was the best written but the ending took away a lot from the good build-up instead of enhancing it.
All in all the writing was great. The stories were interesting. And it was a short somewhat engaging read. I’d definitely recommend it for a quick weekend read when you want something entertaining, but not something you have to get too emotionally involved in. For me, however, I was expecting more of an in-depth exploration into how things can be different from what they seem and the best example of that, even with its flaws, was the first instalment. It quite literally did exactly what the title of the novel and blurb said. The rest, not so much.
As the Blurb specifically states taking a second glance reveals more insight only two of the stories perfectly delivered on this and the last one, which was my favourite, delivered the least on this because it was effectively a shock ending.
In the first, fourth, and sixth stories the characters' choices were hard to get on board with. At their ages and maturity levels, the decisions they made just didn't add up and felt forced to drive a certain narrative. The last one was the best written but the ending took away a lot from the good build-up instead of enhancing it.
All in all the writing was great. The stories were interesting. And it was a short somewhat engaging read. I’d definitely recommend it for a quick weekend read when you want something entertaining, but not something you have to get too emotionally involved in. For me, however, I was expecting more of an in-depth exploration into how things can be different from what they seem and the best example of that, even with its flaws, was the first instalment. It quite literally did exactly what the title of the novel and blurb said. The rest, not so much.
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