A review by readwithbells
No One Gets Out Alive by Adam L.G. Nevill
2.0
I wanted to give this a better rating, because the first part pre time skip really did package up some of my worst fears then hit me over the head with them. That story is frightening and poignant and devastating. The second part felt totally unnecessary, we rehashed the same things over and over again, Stephanie became a person with less and less agency, and it really felt like we were doing it so Nevill could comment on media sprees over true crime cases, which is fine but that wasn’t even done in a particularly nuanced way. I also really didn’t appreciate the judgement against sex workers that wasn’t ever examined. Stephanie just stops thinking of the girls as sex workers and then she cares about them as people again.
There’s also a particular line that really rubbed me the wrong way where Stephanie feels herself getting turned on listening to these other girls, like really??
Stephanie starts off as a person with agency but by the end of the story, her own thoughts are on repeat just like the ghosts and it’s exhausting. The entire second part of the book was superfluous and ultimately pretty boring. This is a story I was wary of a man writing, and while I can acknowledge the research that went into this, I would much rather have read a perspective that didn’t turn our main character into a screaming mess reminiscent of pulpy horror for over half the book.
Look it did scare me. And absolutely bummed me out. But this book would have been a lot better had we cut the last two hundred pages. If I had stopped reading right before part 2, I genuinely think I would have been satisfied with a 4ish star for the book.
Update: upon considering for a few days, the resolution and the removal of responsibility from the human monsters makes this book unrecommendable to me. It scared me, but the scares aren’t worth the rest. Reduced from 2.75 to 2 stars.
There’s also a particular line that really rubbed me the wrong way where Stephanie feels herself getting turned on listening to these other girls, like really??
Stephanie starts off as a person with agency but by the end of the story, her own thoughts are on repeat just like the ghosts and it’s exhausting. The entire second part of the book was superfluous and ultimately pretty boring. This is a story I was wary of a man writing, and while I can acknowledge the research that went into this, I would much rather have read a perspective that didn’t turn our main character into a screaming mess reminiscent of pulpy horror for over half the book.
Look it did scare me. And absolutely bummed me out. But this book would have been a lot better had we cut the last two hundred pages. If I had stopped reading right before part 2, I genuinely think I would have been satisfied with a 4ish star for the book.
Update: upon considering for a few days, the resolution and the removal of responsibility from the human monsters makes this book unrecommendable to me. It scared me, but the scares aren’t worth the rest. Reduced from 2.75 to 2 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, and Violence