Tag: adult thriller

Reviews

Survive the Night Review

by amyleighreads2 Comments on Survive the Night Review

*SPOILERS BELOW*

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk.

I sympathised with Charlie throughout the course of the book. I honestly can’t imagine what she has gone through, losing her parents and then having your best friend murdered. It is just so tragic and I can see why she would choose to flee and want to go back home to recuperate, especially after we find out she tried to kill herself. She just makes a few choices in this book that just didn’t sit right with me, and I get that she couldn’t really trust her own mind but there were I feel various times when she was with Josh that she could of escaped before her epiphany in the diner.

Of course we are immediately told to be untrusting of Josh and I for sure thought he was the killer. He really played on Charlie’s fragile state of mind in the car and really did a good job convincing her and the reader that he was the one who did it. The flashback as well I feel really reinforced the idea in my mind that he was the Campus Killer.

I know that grief takes many forms but I think that its quite despicable that Maddy’s family would blame Charlie and abuse her on the phone the way they did. Obviously given the twist where we find out who’s behind the whole hostage situation that Maddy’s family isn’t capable of making sound decisions. It was definitely surprising when we find out that Marge is in on the whole thing but then once she tells Charlie who she is I was more disgusted that she would stoop to that level. The fact that she would maim and torture a twenty year old girl in order to force her to conjure an image in her mind really displays just how far some people are willing to go to find the truth, especially when they have nothing left to lose.

The format of the book with the time being displayed as almost a countdown was a great way to keep me invested and eager to read on. There are several twists in the story that I didn’t see coming at all and happened at just the right intervals of the plot to keep the pace consistently fast. This was entertaining, gripping and had me on the edge of my seat throughout!

⭐️4/5 stars Riley Sager has done it again for me!

Reviews

The Maidens Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on The Maidens Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

I felt sorry for Mariana for the majority of this book. When we learn about her life and how much death there has been in her family and how she has overcome it all only to be thrown into the midst of these tragic events would trigger anyone. I love how mostly calm and collected she is, instead of reacting she will stop and think about why she is feeling this way and what the other person has said to elicit these feeling, which as a therapist made sense. But then she sort of devolves throughout the course of the book and leans into her anger and is more prone to outbursts, like when she punched Edward in the face.

We are led to believe right from the start that Edward was the killer so naturally I didn’t believe it. I was thinking it was more along the lines of Fred being the killer simply because the way he was introduced was so random and then he was just always around. Sure he was interested in the murders and was attracted to Mariana but the whole prediction thing was a little strange. Then Morris seemed like the next likely out of the male characters to potentially be the killer, but then again it just seemed too obvious so I really had no idea.

I can definitely say I was surprised that Zoe would be able to pull it off. But then there were signs all throughout the book when Zoe would talk about Sebastien and I found it odd how almost accusatory she would speak to Mariana about it, especially when she would throw his death in her face and wish he was here instead of her. I remember thinking how weird for a niece to speak about her uncle who isn’t even her blood. I also found the fact that Zoe would just use Mariana’s first name and wouldn’t call her Aunt or Aunty, even though Mariana would call her niece often. I honestly didn’t even think they were related for the first half of the book, I just thought she was a random girl they adopted.

I liked how Alex Michaelides called back to his previous book and integrated those characters into this book. It honestly made me want to reread The Silent Patient and connect the dots once again. I liked this book, it was intriguing, mysterious and I loved the college setting. I was constantly on edge and surprised at every turn.

⭐️4/5 stars This was unpredictable, weird and pretty fast paced!

Reviews

The Last Time I Lied Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on The Last Time I Lied Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

I really liked this book!

The Last Time I Lied is about a woman named Emma who attended a summer camp when she was 13 and while she was there three of her bunk mates went missing and were never found. Now 15 years later Emma has been invited back to Camp Nightingale where she vows to figure out what really happened all those years ago.

Emma I really formed an attachment to right at the start. She is likeable and realistic I think and over the course of the storyline her character shifts and we find out she might not be as reliable a narrator as we might have thought. The mystery surrounding the missing girls has really taken over her life and I liked the fact that she decides to take up Franny’s offer and go back. She is definitely an enigmatic character and I was constantly being surprised by her. I really thought for a minute that she might of been capable of murdering the girls or at least knew who did it and was covering for whoever that was.

I think I would of liked and appreciated this even more if it was maybe a dual perspective with Theo. Seeing how similar his and Emma’s lives were affected after everything happens and have their perspectives interwoven would of added that extra layer of depth and doubt to the reader. I would of liked to get more of an insight from his character and how the whole situation effected his family.

The format of the story with the flashbacks kept me highly engaged and eager to find out what really happened. There are various twists and turns that occur throughout the course of the storyline that was a little predictable and then would completely take me by surprise. I was on the edge of my seat while I was reading this book.

The ending I didn’t really need. I would of liked more of an ambiguous ending where we don’t know for sure whether or not Vivian was still alive or not. The meeting between them wasn’t really necessary in my opinion though I did appreciate that Emma doesn’t let her get away with it!

⭐️4/5 stars atmospheric, thrilling, unexpected twists, highly recommend!

Reviews

Home Before Dark Review

by amyleighreads1 Comment on Home Before Dark Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

This was better than I was expecting!

Maggie returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound – and dangerous – secrets hidden within its walls?

I was definitely enthralled right from the start. From learning about Maggie and how she doesn’t remember any of the events over the 20 days her family spent in Baneberry Hall. Getting the truth from her mother that it was indeed all a lie only to go back and see that maybe what her father wrote was true.

There was a sense of eeriness and unease that wove its way throughout the course of the plot line and definitely added a bit of depth and atmosphere, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Just from reading Riley Sagar’s previous words I knew that the twist wasn’t going to be supernaturnal and their would be a solid explanation to the events that took place and I was pretty much correct.

Maggie as our main protagonist was wonderful. She had the perfect amount of drive to figure out what was really happening but also opened herself up to other explanations that added that sense of mystery. I wish we had touched a little more on the other characters in the book. Again I knew inevitably they would have more of a significance to the storyline than what we were getting at the start and I would of liked to learn more about them.

The jumps between present day and the narrative that Maggie’s father wrote was very well done and again just gave me more incentive to want to read on and figure out what was going to happen next. Riley Sagar has a way of manipulating the reading into thinking that these mysterious, otherworldly events really could of happened only to turn that on its head and have plausible explanation that was staring you right in the face.

I highly enjoyed this book. It was a little predictable at the end there but I was still surprised by a few of the twists and turns and it gave me hella spooky house vibes!

⭐️4/5 stars Definitely a page turner!

Reviews

No Exit Review

by amyleighreadsLeave a Comment on No Exit Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

This was a wild ride!

No Exit is about a college student named Darby who is on her way back home to visit her mother who is dying from cancer. On the road she is caught in a snow storm and is forced to take refuge at a remote truck stop, where she finds a young girl who has been kidnapped in the back of one of the cars owned by someone else who has been forced off the road by the weather.

I really liked Darby as our main protagonist. I thought she was portrayed realistically and reacted I think within reason throughout the course of the plot line. She was under and incredible amount of stress after she found Jay and I couldn’t even imagine what that would of felt like. I found in a few reviews people questioned her decision making, but honestly I thought given her state of mind before even entering that situation I could overlook that and just enjoy the story.

I am not really an avid mystery/thriller reader so I am usually surprised with everything I read as I have never come across a lot of these tropes before and that is the same for this book. I definitely had my predictions the whole time I was reading this book and I was 100% wrong most of the time, which definitely kept me engaged and entertained. 

I liked that even though it was mostly written from Darby’s perspective but we are given a few chapters from the other characters as well. I felt like it gave the book a lot of depth and gave us more of an insight to what these others characters were thinking and their motivations behind their choices as well.

The pacing of the book was perfect, it was a slow start to establish the scene and then after the main twist when Darby discovers Ashley’s treachery it was just action right up until the end.

⭐️4/5 stars This had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.