A review by joandidionscorvette
The Clasp by Sloane Crosley

Did not finish book. Stopped at 53%.

Have you ever been reading a book and a character does something that makes so little sense to you that you think you had to have skipped some pages or read something incorrectly? This happened about 200 pages in and I believe this is the catalyst for the actual active plot of the story, but it left me so confused that I couldn’t continue.

Spoiler

Why did Victor lie about knowing where the jewelry was? He didn’t steal anything or do anything wrong, the family just wants to know where it was being kept. Why bother lying? Maybe it’s class anxiety and he thinks they’re accusing him of stealing because they’re filthy rich? But that didn’t track for me based on the dialogue. Is he that paranoid, or even that self involved, that he couldn’t just let the family know where the mother’s jewelry was hidden? It seems like he perceives the situation wildly inaccurately. It was just confusing.

I just fundamentally didn’t understand the motivations or why it was happening the way it was. I was fine with this book in the beginning when it was laying out the characters and their dynamic that they’ve all had since college. Nobody really grabbed me character-wise, but I thought maybe they’d evolve. But when the whole story hinges on a character’s decision that makes little to no sense to me, I can’t see a reason to keep going.