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A review by pagesplotsandpints
One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
3.0
<b>Read Completed 5/22/24 |</b> 3 stars
I'm always excited to read a new Ruth Ware book but this definitely wasn't my favorite from her. I know sometimes her thrillers can be more slow burners and this one took forever to get into the good stuff, in my opinion. The concept is a couples reality show gone horribly wrong on essentially what becomes a deserted island paradise, but the book spent far too long setting everything up. I couldn't have cared less about the TV show aspect, getting to know all of the couples, etc. This is something that could have been incorporated into the plot as it was going along. The introduction to everything was very long and boring and took a good 25%.We also spent way too much time getting to know the boyfriend when he was just going to get kicked off the show and get killed off page. How boring.
The thrills and the murders on the island were... okay. I was definitely interested in what was going on but there were a lot of characters and some of them just blurred together. I'm also kind of irritated that this is <I>another</I>And Then There Were None concept because we already did that with ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware. I mean, it's a thriller trope you can use over and over again, but it really didn't work here for me like it did with ONE BY ONE.
There were things in the book that literally went nowhere that I was confused were left open-ended. The twist in the end felt like it was thrown in at the last minute and it made NO sense at all. I feel like this book was just kind of sloppy. The pacing didn't flow, the concept was not executed well, the dialogue was not good, and the characters were incredibly flat.
I'll probably leave this at 3 stars because I do like Ruth Ware and there's also a sense of familiarity in her writing. This was probably one of her weaker books, though, and I felt like a lot of things are just pandering to BookTok nowadays. I miss the impact of her earlier works!
AUDIOBOOK THOUGHTS: I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Imogen Church who does all of Ruth Ware's books (British accent and British characters, if you didn't know). I still really like her narration! She's very hit or miss with some people, and some of her narration choices to get on my nerves sometimes, but I do really like her voice and she always does a good job at differentiating the characters so it's not confusing to listen to. Her narration can be a bit slow, but that also helps me since she has an accent and it's easy for my to listen to and follow along!
I'm always excited to read a new Ruth Ware book but this definitely wasn't my favorite from her. I know sometimes her thrillers can be more slow burners and this one took forever to get into the good stuff, in my opinion. The concept is a couples reality show gone horribly wrong on essentially what becomes a deserted island paradise, but the book spent far too long setting everything up. I couldn't have cared less about the TV show aspect, getting to know all of the couples, etc. This is something that could have been incorporated into the plot as it was going along. The introduction to everything was very long and boring and took a good 25%.
The thrills and the murders on the island were... okay. I was definitely interested in what was going on but there were a lot of characters and some of them just blurred together. I'm also kind of irritated that this is <I>another</I>And Then There Were None concept because we already did that with ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware. I mean, it's a thriller trope you can use over and over again, but it really didn't work here for me like it did with ONE BY ONE.
There were things in the book that literally went nowhere that I was confused were left open-ended. The twist in the end felt like it was thrown in at the last minute and it made NO sense at all. I feel like this book was just kind of sloppy. The pacing didn't flow, the concept was not executed well, the dialogue was not good, and the characters were incredibly flat.
I'll probably leave this at 3 stars because I do like Ruth Ware and there's also a sense of familiarity in her writing. This was probably one of her weaker books, though, and I felt like a lot of things are just pandering to BookTok nowadays. I miss the impact of her earlier works!
AUDIOBOOK THOUGHTS: I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Imogen Church who does all of Ruth Ware's books (British accent and British characters, if you didn't know). I still really like her narration! She's very hit or miss with some people, and some of her narration choices to get on my nerves sometimes, but I do really like her voice and she always does a good job at differentiating the characters so it's not confusing to listen to. Her narration can be a bit slow, but that also helps me since she has an accent and it's easy for my to listen to and follow along!