A review by meeklovestoread
Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre

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

3.5

You know I think I read this book on a great day. I only had a day left of the month and I wasn't having a good couple of days. I honestly wasn't in the right headspace to read, but I wanted to. I had this book on my list and it was short so I decided to give it a shot one afternoon and literally finished the whole thing.

Now, I've heard a lot of praise for A.R. Torre's thriller. Quite frankly, I'm not impressed. I hated "The Good Lie". Rated that 2 stars. And this one was just fine. I felt neutral the entire time I read this. To call her books thrillers is a huge stretch because they possess no thrilling aspects, especially this one. I saw someone describe this as some form of soapy drama and I'm inclined to agree with them. There's nothing thrilling about this book.

Almost everyone is extremely unlikeable
Neena being so self-aware of her actions and yet doing them anyway was a little jarring
, but I figured that was the point so that didn't bother me. Their motivations for everything they did were very loose. But the plot was basic and I didn't care much for this author after reading my first book by her so I let it go. 

This isn't the best book ever, but it's not the worst. It did it's job. It was entertaining enough to keep me going (granted i did read this on 2x speed on audio). I don't think the past timelines provided much to the book. Everything in this book is predictable (not a bad thing just something to point out).  This was literally a woman-hating-on-woman novel. Even worse, a woman hating on woman while fighting over a mediocre man.
Don't like how William literally got off scoff-free for everything. Also, his POV literally added nothing to the book. Whoopie! He knows his wife is psychotic.
So, if that's something you can't tolerate then I don't recommend this book.

Also, the last 15% of this book was a mess and not in a good way. Don't like what the author did to Matt's character.
He was the only decent character in this book until he pimp slapped his wife just for talking and trying to explain herself. Not trying to defend Neena at all. She's a terrible person, but he had no right to hit her just because he was angry. I'll never excuse physical abuse like that.
Also, what was with that ending? It literally made everything that was going on for nothing.
Cat all of a sudden feels guilty for ruining Neena's life even though she did all that methodical planning to ensure that nothing would be traced back to her and that Neena's life would be ruined. Girl, you were so ready to pull the trigger (figuratively), and now you wanna back out?! And she also helps her reunite with her husband so literally what was the point of this?!
Overall, this book was fine. I wouldn't recommend it because it's nothing special, but it wasn't the worst thing ever.
The whole railing thing with Matt was never explained. Did Cat do that too?
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