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A review by bookph1le
Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra
2.0
Didn't really do it for me. More complete review to come.
Full review:
Oh, how I hate writing reviews for books I was pretty ambivalent about. *sigh*
On a technical level, I wouldn't say there's anything necessarily wrong with this book. It failed to click with me, but not because of poor writing or poor pacing or poor construction. I simply didn't much care for it. The plot sounds implausible but isn't, for reasons that become more obvious as the book progresses, so that wasn't an issue either. Sometimes I understand what I disliked about a book, and at other times it's hard for me to put a finger on why it failed to launch for me. This is one of those second situations. Some spoilers to follow.
Told in alternating chapters, this book is set in 2003 and told from the perspective of the real Bec, and in 2014 from the perspective of imposter Bec--I'm giving nothing away here, because the book makes it pretty clear from the beginning that the main character is not who she says she is. I thought Bec's voice was just fine and, in fact, may have been the strongest part of the book. In particular, I found it very pointed when Bec realizes that her fantasies are just that--fantasies. I think I would have liked to read more about her and what she ends up doing once she understands that she's been looking for a means of escape and has misapplied her hopes. That may well have been a book I found very engrossing.
Instead, I felt like this book was more about the fake Bec. Sure, the flashbacks explain what drove the real Bec, but it's more like they're there to create the horror when it comes time for the big reveal for the fake Bec. Fake Bec is okay. It's not that I had a problem with her as a character. Yes, what she does is horribly unscrupulous, but she does get that. She makes a lot of justifications for why it's okay for her to do this unscrupulous thing, which I didn't find unrealistic because, hey, we're all good at excusing our own behavior when we really need to. Her transformation is kind of interesting, but there are just too many far-fetched things that happen along the way, particularly when it comes to her relationship with the officer investigating the case. (Why are police officers always so incompetent in books, unless those books are police procedurals, in which case the cops might have actually have a chance?) I don't want to give too much away, but I found it entirely conceivable that the family reacted as they did, given what's uncovered about them later in the book. Bec's friend's reaction was good, as was her brother's, but it still struck me as strange that they didn't act, since they didn't know about the big family secret.
Maybe the problem is that I read a lot of literary suspense. It's a genre I enjoy very much, but it's one that fails spectacularly when the plot feels too contrived. Even so, it's not so much that I found this plot contrived, it's that I didn't get the sense that it was really about Bec at all. Everything feels more like a big, elaborate setup constructed for fake Bec's climax. I didn't think the book was boring, necessarily, but much like a game of Mouse Trap, the interesting part is when the contraption goes off at last. Building the contraption? Not so much.
And therein lies the problem. In order for it to be successful for me, literary suspense has to draw me deep into its world. I have to connect with the characters in some way, either because I sympathize with them or because I'm so disgusted by them I want to know if their actions are going to lead to their downfall. This book did neither. I felt the whole time like a third party observer watching pretty indifferently.
Full review:
Oh, how I hate writing reviews for books I was pretty ambivalent about. *sigh*
On a technical level, I wouldn't say there's anything necessarily wrong with this book. It failed to click with me, but not because of poor writing or poor pacing or poor construction. I simply didn't much care for it. The plot sounds implausible but isn't, for reasons that become more obvious as the book progresses, so that wasn't an issue either. Sometimes I understand what I disliked about a book, and at other times it's hard for me to put a finger on why it failed to launch for me. This is one of those second situations. Some spoilers to follow.
Told in alternating chapters, this book is set in 2003 and told from the perspective of the real Bec, and in 2014 from the perspective of imposter Bec--I'm giving nothing away here, because the book makes it pretty clear from the beginning that the main character is not who she says she is. I thought Bec's voice was just fine and, in fact, may have been the strongest part of the book. In particular, I found it very pointed when Bec realizes that her fantasies are just that--fantasies. I think I would have liked to read more about her and what she ends up doing once she understands that she's been looking for a means of escape and has misapplied her hopes. That may well have been a book I found very engrossing.
Instead, I felt like this book was more about the fake Bec. Sure, the flashbacks explain what drove the real Bec, but it's more like they're there to create the horror when it comes time for the big reveal for the fake Bec. Fake Bec is okay. It's not that I had a problem with her as a character. Yes, what she does is horribly unscrupulous, but she does get that. She makes a lot of justifications for why it's okay for her to do this unscrupulous thing, which I didn't find unrealistic because, hey, we're all good at excusing our own behavior when we really need to. Her transformation is kind of interesting, but there are just too many far-fetched things that happen along the way, particularly when it comes to her relationship with the officer investigating the case. (Why are police officers always so incompetent in books, unless those books are police procedurals, in which case the cops might have actually have a chance?) I don't want to give too much away, but I found it entirely conceivable that the family reacted as they did, given what's uncovered about them later in the book. Bec's friend's reaction was good, as was her brother's, but it still struck me as strange that they didn't act, since they didn't know about the big family secret.
Maybe the problem is that I read a lot of literary suspense. It's a genre I enjoy very much, but it's one that fails spectacularly when the plot feels too contrived. Even so, it's not so much that I found this plot contrived, it's that I didn't get the sense that it was really about Bec at all. Everything feels more like a big, elaborate setup constructed for fake Bec's climax. I didn't think the book was boring, necessarily, but much like a game of Mouse Trap, the interesting part is when the contraption goes off at last. Building the contraption? Not so much.
And therein lies the problem. In order for it to be successful for me, literary suspense has to draw me deep into its world. I have to connect with the characters in some way, either because I sympathize with them or because I'm so disgusted by them I want to know if their actions are going to lead to their downfall. This book did neither. I felt the whole time like a third party observer watching pretty indifferently.