Scan barcode
A review by judithdcollins
Normal by Graeme Cameron
2.0
A special thank you to Harlequin Mira and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
NORMAL by Graeme Cameron is told in the first person, an unnamed killer, whose favorite pastime is trolling the neighborhood and abducting women and killing them.
From the mysterious front cover, the summary, and the first 3% of the book, I was ready to settle in for a chilling psychological thriller. The positives stop here.
From this point on, it declines quickly, and if I had not requested it through NetGalley, I would have thrown this one aside before the 10% mark. I literally put it down numerous times, and was not going to invest the time to finish, as I have too many other great books, sitting on my shelf.
However, I continued to read, thinking it would get better and unfortunately it never happened. For me it was not even twisted humor. It did not hold my interest and overall, a non-engaging read. The only character with any sort of intelligent dialogue was Annie.
First, who wants to read a book which refers to “I” the entire book, with no background? I think the author may have been going for dark humor, which again was unable to pull off, in my opinion.
By reading the author’s notes at the end, he is inviting readers to "fill in the blanks with a monster who may be normal, individual to you. Every man-because that‘s who this killer is". If you are going to do this, make him interesting enough to keep reading.
NORMAL by Graeme Cameron is told in the first person, an unnamed killer, whose favorite pastime is trolling the neighborhood and abducting women and killing them.
From the mysterious front cover, the summary, and the first 3% of the book, I was ready to settle in for a chilling psychological thriller. The positives stop here.
From this point on, it declines quickly, and if I had not requested it through NetGalley, I would have thrown this one aside before the 10% mark. I literally put it down numerous times, and was not going to invest the time to finish, as I have too many other great books, sitting on my shelf.
However, I continued to read, thinking it would get better and unfortunately it never happened. For me it was not even twisted humor. It did not hold my interest and overall, a non-engaging read. The only character with any sort of intelligent dialogue was Annie.
First, who wants to read a book which refers to “I” the entire book, with no background? I think the author may have been going for dark humor, which again was unable to pull off, in my opinion.
By reading the author’s notes at the end, he is inviting readers to "fill in the blanks with a monster who may be normal, individual to you. Every man-because that‘s who this killer is". If you are going to do this, make him interesting enough to keep reading.