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A review by chazzerguy
What Remains of Her by Eric Rickstad
2.0
Really, if I am being petty, it's 1.5 stars. This book is a thriller alright... You will be thrilled to be done with it.
Interesting story, although predictable... and the "twist" at the end, while plausible, is ridiculous and its reveal a HUGE stretch. But that's beside the point. The characters are shallow, the writing formulaic and predictable. It feels like this was the output of a random cliche and simile generator, or maybe the semester project in a college level creative writing class. It's one of those books you'll read and wonder what publisher actually thinks "Oh, this is worth investing money in..."
Pretty much everyone in the story suffers at least one minor to moderate bleeding flesh wound. Bloody nose, bleeding chapped lips (not kidding), scalp lacerations galore, scraped hands and fingers. And there seems to be lots of people falling out of beds repeatedly and/or falling over in shock. Also thrown in is some random vomitting and drueling to round out the body fluid narrative. It's just missing semen and urine, an oversight I am sure.
There are holes in the narrative... for instance the protagonist's hair does not match the samples taken from bedding, but at no point have we been told of any warrants being issued or samples taken. The so-called police work seems to more likely be black magic.
There is an attempt to give some background on why the protagonist is the way he is, but it feels contrived as though Rickstad meant to finish the chapter, but never did. I guess he had a rough childhood? I think? Maybe? Not sure why exactly. The explanation is more of a fever dream than anything.
The chapters are short, which generally I like... But in this case they were sometimes ridiculously short... A few paragraphs. And the ending really needed to end more quickly once the final plot twist was revealed. Instead it dragged on maybe twenty pages longer than it needed to, trying to wrap up some loose ends that didn't need to be wrapped up. Or maybe I just didn't care enough at that point. As I said, I was thrilled to be almost finished.
I just cannot recommend this to anyone except maybe a middle school level reader looking for some pulpy escapist reading.
Interesting story, although predictable... and the "twist" at the end, while plausible, is ridiculous and its reveal a HUGE stretch. But that's beside the point. The characters are shallow, the writing formulaic and predictable. It feels like this was the output of a random cliche and simile generator, or maybe the semester project in a college level creative writing class. It's one of those books you'll read and wonder what publisher actually thinks "Oh, this is worth investing money in..."
Pretty much everyone in the story suffers at least one minor to moderate bleeding flesh wound. Bloody nose, bleeding chapped lips (not kidding), scalp lacerations galore, scraped hands and fingers. And there seems to be lots of people falling out of beds repeatedly and/or falling over in shock. Also thrown in is some random vomitting and drueling to round out the body fluid narrative. It's just missing semen and urine, an oversight I am sure.
There are holes in the narrative... for instance the protagonist's hair does not match the samples taken from bedding, but at no point have we been told of any warrants being issued or samples taken. The so-called police work seems to more likely be black magic.
There is an attempt to give some background on why the protagonist is the way he is, but it feels contrived as though Rickstad meant to finish the chapter, but never did. I guess he had a rough childhood? I think? Maybe? Not sure why exactly. The explanation is more of a fever dream than anything.
The chapters are short, which generally I like... But in this case they were sometimes ridiculously short... A few paragraphs. And the ending really needed to end more quickly once the final plot twist was revealed. Instead it dragged on maybe twenty pages longer than it needed to, trying to wrap up some loose ends that didn't need to be wrapped up. Or maybe I just didn't care enough at that point. As I said, I was thrilled to be almost finished.
I just cannot recommend this to anyone except maybe a middle school level reader looking for some pulpy escapist reading.