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A review by bookshelfjpg
No Exit by Taylor Adams
4.0
We live in an extremely fast digital era, where every single book marked "thriller" is seemingly picked up instantly to become the next best show/movie on netflix. Yes, although we all know the book is almost always better, No Exit is the first read in a hot second that I feel like was practically made for a dramatic screenplay. But this isn't about a movie, this is about the book so let's crack into it.
Darby, an innocent college student just trying to make amends with her dying mother, tries to fight a road trip against a blizzard and ultimately loses. The weather forces her to stop at your average American rest stop, complete with shitty coffee and odd characters. All of a sudden she finds herself not only knee-deep in snow trying to get cell service, but also suddenly knee-deep in the middle of a kidnapping.
PROS: I thought it was an extremely creative story line (not to mention perfect to read this while it's still a never-ending winter here in Fargo). I think it had the perfect amount of gore without being overly disgusting (which I have learned is a very fine line that many thrillers toe). But the part I loved most, I literally saw nothing coming. This is the book to read if you like twists that will literally confuse the heck out of you (also maybe a con? That's to come). I felt like every paragraph kept me turning the pages because things kept happening - things I couldn't even have guessed were about to happen.
CONS: I haven't read anything else from this author, so the writing wasn't quite what I expected. The characters were okay, but still held their ground okay with the story line. The book covers 13 hours of being stranded at the rest stop - a lot can happen in that amount of time BUT it's also hard to keep track. Although the author put nice little checkpoints in amongst the story (the Garfield clock helped me immensely) and sectioned the book into time checkpoints, it still was a large chunk of chaos that I had to keep track of. But I chalk this up to the fact that I would probably feel the same confused chaos if this was actually happening to me. And lastly, yeah. A lot of these twists in the plot seem MAYBE plausible at best. What are the odds that all these connections would happen and that the gun would easily transfer hands so effortlessly every time someone would attempt to kill someone? Some things were a little far fetched, but ultimately did help move the book along in a thrilling way and outright shocked me, so I can't complain too much.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book! It was right up my alley with a solid story line and I'm always excited when the reading world hops on the hype train for a new thriller. I loved the cinematic feel this book had to it without even being on a screen, it was fast paced and exciting to read. Although the twists and turns seemed a little outlandish at times, I DID just recently brag that I was getting too good at predicting twists in all these new thriller releases so this must just be karma putting me in my place. A solid and cold read - I will now probably always keep a knife and a cellphone charger on me while at rest stops.
Darby, an innocent college student just trying to make amends with her dying mother, tries to fight a road trip against a blizzard and ultimately loses. The weather forces her to stop at your average American rest stop, complete with shitty coffee and odd characters. All of a sudden she finds herself not only knee-deep in snow trying to get cell service, but also suddenly knee-deep in the middle of a kidnapping.
PROS: I thought it was an extremely creative story line (not to mention perfect to read this while it's still a never-ending winter here in Fargo). I think it had the perfect amount of gore without being overly disgusting (which I have learned is a very fine line that many thrillers toe). But the part I loved most, I literally saw nothing coming. This is the book to read if you like twists that will literally confuse the heck out of you (also maybe a con? That's to come). I felt like every paragraph kept me turning the pages because things kept happening - things I couldn't even have guessed were about to happen.
CONS: I haven't read anything else from this author, so the writing wasn't quite what I expected. The characters were okay, but still held their ground okay with the story line. The book covers 13 hours of being stranded at the rest stop - a lot can happen in that amount of time BUT it's also hard to keep track. Although the author put nice little checkpoints in amongst the story (the Garfield clock helped me immensely) and sectioned the book into time checkpoints, it still was a large chunk of chaos that I had to keep track of. But I chalk this up to the fact that I would probably feel the same confused chaos if this was actually happening to me. And lastly, yeah. A lot of these twists in the plot seem MAYBE plausible at best. What are the odds that all these connections would happen and that the gun would easily transfer hands so effortlessly every time someone would attempt to kill someone? Some things were a little far fetched, but ultimately did help move the book along in a thrilling way and outright shocked me, so I can't complain too much.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book! It was right up my alley with a solid story line and I'm always excited when the reading world hops on the hype train for a new thriller. I loved the cinematic feel this book had to it without even being on a screen, it was fast paced and exciting to read. Although the twists and turns seemed a little outlandish at times, I DID just recently brag that I was getting too good at predicting twists in all these new thriller releases so this must just be karma putting me in my place. A solid and cold read - I will now probably always keep a knife and a cellphone charger on me while at rest stops.