A review by optimisms
Confessions: The Murder of an Angel by Maxine Paetro, James Patterson

dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.0

It got worse.

Yes, I did end up reading this one, even after how much I hated Book 3. I had no delusions about this book being good, but the audiobook was only 5 hours and I knew on >2.5x speed, it would take less than 3 – and I hate leaving things unfinished. 

It was just as bad as I expected it to be after Book 3. The characterization continues to devolve, drawing more and more characters into the mess.
SpoilerCP is a complete caricature now, James doesn't care about Tandy at all, Peter and Royal Rampling both go from awful in a mildly unbelievable way to full-blown cartoon villain, Tandy has the therapist from hell, and more
. This book carries on Book 3's habit of introducing "shocking" events that disappear a chapter or two later, and the amount and scale of these events increases to a ridiculous degree. There's
Spoilera shooting, a car crash, a lawsuit that gets dismissed in the same chapter, a plane crash, another shooting, an attempted stabbing, a possible poisoning that ends up just being food poisoning, a forced hospitalization, and an attempted overdose
. Every time something new happened, I couldn't decide whether to roll my eyes or laugh at the absurdity. This book also added a new bad habit of its own, of scenes straight from r/thathappened, where one of the Angel kids gets mad at an adult in authority, monologues at them about why they suck, and then everyone claps because it was just such a good speech. Just don't read this book.