A review by jenibus
A Stranger in the House, by Shari Lapena
1.0
A twisty turny thriller like this is built upon the final reveal, the final twist really makes or breaks the book as a whole. Good twists make the reader go OMG HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT COMING whereas bad twists make you annoyed. This is unfortunately the latter. I feel like my time was wasted reading this book because the twist is just... pointless. It doesn't make me re-evaluate previous events, it doesn't make me feel that the story was smart or well-thought out. It is lazy and just tries to pull the rug out of the reader's feet without putting in the work initially.
However, even excluding the final twist, I struggle to look back on this book and appreciate it in spite of its ending. The characters, who initially were interesting and semi-complex, became flat, one-note caricatures of tropes. A character at one point just literally goes insane. Another character is so measly and weak willed that it boggles the mind. The final twist destroys anything we knew about another character. I did appreciate the detective character being a fairly normal human being but GOOD GOD were the rest of these characters frustrating and blatantly unrealistic.
I initially had this at 2 stars because I wasn't enraged by the ending of the book or hate the entire journey. I got through most of this book fairly quickly and without malice, just frustration at the characters. But when you combine the frustrating characters with the horrible ending and the fact I would never recommend this book to someone unless I want to watch them undergo the same reading journey I went through, I'm dropping it down to 1 star. It's probably 1.5 because the set up and initial portions of the story are compelling, but if the rest destroys that build up, what is the point?
However, even excluding the final twist, I struggle to look back on this book and appreciate it in spite of its ending. The characters, who initially were interesting and semi-complex, became flat, one-note caricatures of tropes. A character at one point just literally goes insane. Another character is so measly and weak willed that it boggles the mind. The final twist destroys anything we knew about another character. I did appreciate the detective character being a fairly normal human being but GOOD GOD were the rest of these characters frustrating and blatantly unrealistic.
I initially had this at 2 stars because I wasn't enraged by the ending of the book or hate the entire journey. I got through most of this book fairly quickly and without malice, just frustration at the characters. But when you combine the frustrating characters with the horrible ending and the fact I would never recommend this book to someone unless I want to watch them undergo the same reading journey I went through, I'm dropping it down to 1 star. It's probably 1.5 because the set up and initial portions of the story are compelling, but if the rest destroys that build up, what is the point?