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A review by jelkebooks
The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This took me a while to rate. I just went back and forth on the rating for quite some time. I have to say that a one star rating seemed a bit harsh for me. I didn't absolutely hate this book. That being said I truly do not have a single postive thought about this book. It was just so extremely underwhelming. I still can't wrap my head around it. So I still landed on a one star rating.
I do have to say this started off alright to me. Overall it was an extremely slow read. Almost nothing happened in this book. At the start that was alright, because there was this undercurrent of something's not right here. It kept me engaged enough to start reading. However, with a start like that you really need to stick the landing, and this book didn't do that.
For starters, the actual mystery didn't really come into play until like the 75% mark. It took us so damn long to get there, and the characters themselves weren't engaging enough to keep the book going for me. Kelly in particular was just an exhausting character to be in the POV from. But then we actually get into the thick of it, and it's so incredibly dragged out. There were like 3 different points where I thought this book could perfectly end but it just kept going. This also meant that the reveals just felt extremely lackluster as well. They came out of nowhere, and (in my opinion) just weren't satisfactionary answers to the questions raised through the book. By the end this just became a shore to read.
So yeah, this book just really didn't work for me. I think that's a shame because this book did sound incredibly interesting to me. I just feel like this failed to deliver on every single front. There truly wasn't a single thing I liked.
This took me a while to rate. I just went back and forth on the rating for quite some time. I have to say that a one star rating seemed a bit harsh for me. I didn't absolutely hate this book. That being said I truly do not have a single postive thought about this book. It was just so extremely underwhelming. I still can't wrap my head around it. So I still landed on a one star rating.
I do have to say this started off alright to me. Overall it was an extremely slow read. Almost nothing happened in this book. At the start that was alright, because there was this undercurrent of something's not right here. It kept me engaged enough to start reading. However, with a start like that you really need to stick the landing, and this book didn't do that.
For starters, the actual mystery didn't really come into play until like the 75% mark. It took us so damn long to get there, and the characters themselves weren't engaging enough to keep the book going for me. Kelly in particular was just an exhausting character to be in the POV from. But then we actually get into the thick of it, and it's so incredibly dragged out. There were like 3 different points where I thought this book could perfectly end but it just kept going. This also meant that the reveals just felt extremely lackluster as well. They came out of nowhere, and (in my opinion) just weren't satisfactionary answers to the questions raised through the book. By the end this just became a shore to read.
So yeah, this book just really didn't work for me. I think that's a shame because this book did sound incredibly interesting to me. I just feel like this failed to deliver on every single front. There truly wasn't a single thing I liked.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Drug use
Minor: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, and Stalking
There’s also a minor content warning for doxxing.