Genre: Thriller

Her Darkest Nightmare (and the Rest of the Evelyn Talbot Chronicles) by Brenda Novak | Audiobook Series Review

Posted July 1, 2021 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 4 Comments

Her Darkest Nightmare (and the Rest of the Evelyn Talbot Chronicles) by Brenda Novak | Audiobook Series ReviewHer Darkest Nightmare by Brenda Novak
Series: The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles #1
Published by St Martin's Paperbacks on April 30, 2016
Genres: Mythology, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 431
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER
Evelyn Talbot knows that a psychopath can look perfectly normal. She was only sixteen when her own boyfriend Jasper imprisoned and tortured her—and left her for dead. Now an eminent psychiatrist who specializes in the criminal mind, Evelyn is the force behind Hanover House, a maximum-security facility located in a small Alaskan town. Her job puts her at odds with Sergeant Amarok, who is convinced that Hanover is a threat to his community…even as his attraction to beautiful Evelyn threatens to tear his world apart.

BEGINS WITH AN ESCAPE FROM HER PAST
Then, just as the bitter Alaskan winter cuts both town and prison off from the outside world, the mutilated body of a local woman turns up. For Amarok, this is the final proof he needs: Hanover has to go. Evelyn, though, has reason to fear that the crime is a personal message to her—the first sign that the killer who haunts her dreams has found her again. . .and that the life she has so carefully rebuilt will never be the same…

It’s no secret that I love romantic suspense, so when I saw a romantic suspense series of books about serial killers set in a remote Alaskan town, I was extremely excited! I listened to the prequel novel, Hanover House, and then immediately dove into Her Darkest Nightmare. And then… I binged the rest of the series back, to back, to back. These books are pretty gargantuan and I read all 5 of them in less than two weeks. That’s monumental for me, considering I usually read about a book a week. So clearly, the story really sucked me in and I had to keep going until it was over. Because I read all of these books so close together, it’s a major struggle to review them all individually. I figured why not just lump them all together into one big spoiler-free review? As always, my main points are bolded.

1. This series starts off very strong. I flew through Hanover House, which I highly recommend. Prequel novellas (although, you can’t really call it a novella when it’s 244 pages long) tend to be a take it or leave it kind of a story, but I really think it’s paramount that you read Hanover House. It tells the story of Evelyn Talbot, her serial killer boyfriend from high school, and the reason she decided to make a career of studying the minds of serial killers. It sets the stage for the entire series and introduces you to a very important character named Jasper, who you really need to know. I also think it’s important that readers fully understand Evelyn’s past, because it sheds a lot of light on why she is the way she is in the rest of the books in the series.

2. Her Darkest Nightmare takes place about 6 months after the prequel. Evelyn has been lobbying to build Hanover House, which is a maximum security prison that houses the most dangerous serial killers, and it’s finally open. Its existence is the capstone of her entire career, and she is the driving force behind how it operates and who resides there. She works with a team of other psychiatrists, interviewing and running tests on these inmates with the goal of coming up with a cure or treatment program for psychopaths. She refers to them throughout the entire series as “the consciousless”. We meet Sergeant Amarok, Evelyn’s younger man love interest, in this book. He’s Hilltop, Alaska’s one and only member of law enforcement and has been against Hanover House since it was still a glimmer in Evelyn’s eye. He didn’t want his sleepy little hometown, which has been untouched by major crimes for over a decade, to become home to so many dangerous criminals. It’s out of his hands now, though, so he has to deal with it. And he was right. Hanover House brings a lot of death to Hilltop.

3. Evelyn… I have conflicting thoughts on her. She’s been through so, so much, and the resulting trauma would leave many unable to function, much less work with the very kinds of people who caused such trauma. In that regard, I saw her as strong and resilient. Her desire to make a difference and to help other people never experience what she went through is admirable. At the same time, though, she is also a little too stupid to live. Considering what she’s been through and all of her knowledge on serial killers, I feel like she should be smarter. She makes some very dumb decisions across this series. She says stupid things. She gets herself into situations that I feel could have been avoided if she had just thought a little first. Her stubbornness got on my nerves sometimes, and she has an unhealthy obsession with her work. She’s also incredibly hung-up on the age gap between her and Amarok, which is silly. It’s only 7 years and not a big deal. If the book were about a man dating a woman 7 years his junior, this would not have been a concern and that double standard has always bothered me. She talks like she’s robbing the cradle, and I found it to be pretty dramatic and annoying. Evelyn brings this up a lot throughout the series (even after the love factor is strong between them), and I got pretty tired of it. She is always trying to talk him into leaving her for someone else. Like it’s that easy. Give the man some credit. Either dump him for the shallow reason of being younger or get over it!

4. Amarok also gives me conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, Evelyn’s trauma matters to him and he is so patient and understanding. He gives her as much time as she needs to feel comfortable opening up and being more intimate with him. His sense of duty to his job and his dedication to keeping the people of Hilltop safe is great. I loved his dog, Makita, and their bond. But… he’s also very critical of Evelyn’s decision to study psychopaths. He, apparently, knows what’s best for her and has no trouble at all telling her on a frequent basis what a mistake she made choosing her career. I get it, Amarok. You want her to be safe and happy, and that’s great. But let the woman make her own decisions.

5. Hilltop, Alaska is isolated, dark for such a huge chunk of the year, and has no cell service. There’s a couple small businesses but for the most part it’s pretty empty. People come to Hilltop to rent hunting cabins and go off into the wilderness. The rest of the people have lived there forever. It’s really the perfect setting for a creepy series.

6. Her Darkest Nightmare was good for me! I rated it 4 stars, and was hooked on the story quickly. Each chapter starts off with a quote from a real serial killer, and those were creepy. This did not happen during the rest of the books, which left me both relieved and disappointed. Some of the quotes were upsetting so I was glad to not read more of them, but some of them were also interesting or just the right amount of creepy to set the stage for the chapter and I missed those ones as the books went on. The first half of the book is definitely better than the second half, but I was so intrigued by the over-arching mystery of Jasper that I flew through it anyway. The second half drags with Evelyn’s insecurities and repeated thoughts. The ending… left much to be desired. It didn’t go how I wanted it to, and felt a bit far-fetched to me.

7. I found a lot of the information on psychopaths interesting, and enjoyed reading it… until the author started re-using the same bits of info from previous books. Then it felt very repetitive.

8. Hello Again, book #2, also got 4 stars from me. This book centers on a serial killer named Lyman Bishop, who uses an ice pick to give his victims lobotomies and turn them into submissive vegetables that he can do whatever he wants with. He’s a brand new inmate at Hanover House, and Evelyn is eager to dive into his mind. He’s a brilliant cancer researcher, and claims he’s innocent. And new crimes show that he might very well be. Or is someone copying Lyman’s work to mess with people? Who knows? Is Lyman really a charming, wrongly convicted individual or is he also a brilliant psychopath who can play any part? There’s some triggery stuff surrounding his story and his past, including abuse and incest, so prepare for that. It was disturbing. Amarok’s ex girlfriend comes back in to town, and that added in some drama I didn’t like but oh well. Hello Again was pretty good!

9. Speaking of repetition… I do not recommend binge reading this series. You need to read a book, wait until you’ve forgotten most of it, and then read the next one. The author seems to think that her readers will not retain anything, even for a few chapters. Everything, and I mean everything, is repeated. Many times. Across all the books. What a psychopath is, what Hilltop is like, who various people are, what happened to Evelyn, etc. You will never ever be allowed to forget anything. I’m not pulling a direct quote, but this is the basic idea:

Guy at bar: I heard about a new inmate that’s been transferred to Hanover House. How’s that going?
Evelyn: Yes, we have Lyman Bishop at Hanover House now. I don’t know him very well yet.
Guy at bar: Wait. Lyman Bishop? The Zombie Maker? The man who performed ice pick lobotomies on his victims to render them vegetables?

…a few chapters later…

Evelyn: I spoke with Lyman Bishop today.
Amarok: You mean, the serial killer who used an ice pick to perform lobotomies on his victims and essentially turn them into shells of their former selves?

This kind of thing went on and on and on throughout the series, just about different people. There was constant repetition about who Jasper Moore is. This is not a spoiler. Readers learn very early on that Jasper Moore is Evelyn’s high school boyfriend who kidnapped her, killed her best friends, tortured her for three days, slit her throat, and left her for dead. She survived and he was never caught. And you will never forget these facts as long as you live. Long after these books are in your rear view and you have read hundreds more, you will hear the name Jasper and your mind will tell you who he is, verbatim, because you will read it so so many times in this series. Here’s another example of what I mean, although these are not direct quotes either. But they’re pretty close.

Evelyn: I’m concerned this could be Jasper’s doing. That he’s found me and is messing with me.
Secondary character: Wait. Jasper as in Jasper Moore? The man who kidnapped you, killed your friends, tortured you for three days, slit your throat, and left you for dead?

…a few chapters later…

Amarok: Evelyn thinks Jasper might have surfaced in Chicago.
His assistant: Are you serious? The man who kidnapped her, tortured her for three days, and left her for dead might be killing again?

…a few chapters later…

A serial killer: I see you have a scar on your neck. Is that from when your high school boyfriend, Jasper Moore, slit your throat and left you for dead after kidnapping you and torturing you for three days?

…a few chapters later…

A detective in another state: We’re looking for Jasper Moore, the man who kidnapped then 16-year-old Evelyn Talbot, killed her friends, held her in a cabin for three days while he tortured her between school and baseball practice, slit her throat, and left her for dead. He was never caught.

I’m not even kidding! It was this bad! Every person, every event, every thing that could possibly be deemed important information is repeated over and over again as though the author expects that nobody paid attention or remembered anything. I don’t know how this made it through editing! These books could have been so much shorter if things were not repeated so often.

10. I’d like to do a keyword search to figure out how many times “the lower forty-eight” is said across all five books, but oh my gosh. It’s like there’s Alaska and then the rest of the United States is just one big blob. People move there from “the lower forty-eight”, people want to move back to “the lower forty-eight”, people come on vacation from “the lower forty-eight”, Jasper is somewhere in “the lower forty-eight” killing again. It. Is. Constant. I dated a guy from Alaska. We had a long distance relationship while he was living there. Never once in our 6 years of dating did he ever say “the lower forty-eight”. I was very close to his family. None of them said it. I flew out to visit him. Nobody there said it. I’ve been on an Alaskan cruise and met many people who live and work there. Not one person said it. But EVERYONE says it in these books.

11. Face Off, the third book in the series, got three stars from me. I liked the overall storyline, but I can’t share much because I’d be spoiling a lot. Don’t even read the synopsis for this one without reading the first two books in the series because you’ll be spoiled. The suspense and the big moments were what I’d been waiting for, but it all came to a head so easily for me. And I can’t explain why because spoilers!

12. The romance didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t feel the love and the swooniness from Evelyn and Amarok that I needed. I never believed their story. She kept pushing him away for various reasons, and I felt like that made him want her even more. She was something to be won. Her fear of intimacy was a hurdle to be conquered. I never felt like she trusted him, and I never felt convinced he loved her and not just. the idea of her. The romance took a backseat to the crimes and the psychopaths, neither of which is a very romantic plot element. I would have preferred it if there was no romance in these books at all.

13. Blindspot, the 4th and final book of the series also received three stars from me. After 5 (if we include the prequel) books filled with repetition, Evelyn’s insecurities, Amarok’s poking and prodding, recycled info on psychopaths, and all the exact same characters, I was worn out. I just wanted to be done and see how everything ended. I can’t say much about this book because I don’t want to spoil anything, but Evelyn is abducted right at the beginning and the bulk of the book surrounds her being in captivity once again. I will admit, I was pretty invested. I had to know how everything ended. The person who abducted her is very creepy. Amarok furiously has all of Alaska hunting for her. It’s intense, and a bit disturbing. Again, though, the ending was just too easy. It all worked out so easily and perfectly and I couldn’t help but be disappointed after all the time I’d invested in this series.

14. There are some surprisingly disturbing passages in all 5 books in this series. Violent crimes are described in detail. Trauma is described in detail. I wasn’t expecting these books to be like this, and I think it would have been better for my own mental health if I had read them more spaced out (for multiple reasons). I found myself weighed down and feeling a little dark and depressed. I think that’s why I flew through the books so fast. A huge part of me wanted to read them all in order to resolve the dark in my mind and move on. Once things ended, I could stop thinking about them. There was also quite a bit of language, which surprised me coming from Brenda Novak.

Well. This review is a mess. LOL. Honestly, I read these books because I had to know what happened and not necessarily because I was enjoying them. Hanover House was enjoyable and I was so excited to continue. Her Darkest Nightmare didn’t resolve things that happened in Hanover House that I needed resolved, and my obsession grew. I have never read anything this fast, which I have to hand to Brenda Novak. She got me invested, in spite of all my reservations about these books. She had me tearing through the pages and staying up until 4 AM multiple times even though parts of them drove me bonkers. I became obsessed. That’s why I rated them higher than makes sense for what I’ve said here. But this was not a good obsession for me. lol. I should have slowed down and taken the story in smaller doses. Perhaps then I wouldn’t have felt so dark. I still would have noticed the repetition, though, so… who knows? All in all, I honestly have no idea if I would recommend this series. My initial gut reaction was, “Yes! I was obsessed! I’ve never read so fast!” but then… I remember all the little things that grated on me and the overall dark feelings I felt, and I think… I’ve read better romantic suspense that was actually romantic and not so upsetting. So I’m just going to leave my thoughts here and let you decide what they mean.


Home Before Dark by Riley Sager | Mini Book Review

Posted May 5, 2021 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 4 Comments

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager | Mini Book ReviewHome Before Dark Published by Dutton Adult on June 30, 2020
Genres: Paranormal, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman 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?

"What was it like? Living in that house?" Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a non-fiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity - and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself - a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

I adore Riley Sager SO much. His books are some of my favorites ever, so it pains me so much to say that Home Before Dark is my least favorite. It had the makings for exactly what I wanted. I loved Lock Every Door because it took place in a creepy building and had an atmosphere I just couldn’t take myself out of. I was engrossed. Home Before Dark brings us another creepy building, so I was excited! However, I didn’t connect with Maggie, and since a huge chunk of the book is just her in this house I grew bored. Another huge chunk of the book is chapters and excerpts of the book her dad wrote about this house when the family lived there years ago and what scared them so much that they had to leave. I didn’t like his book, and I didn’t like him. Ultimately, the book went in a direction that I really didn’t like. I was hoping for a different explanation and a different outcome, and I won’t provide any more detail than that because I don’t want to spoil anything. I don’t have to like every book an author writes to continue liking that author, so this is fine! I’m looking forward to his next, and hoping I see the things I’ve loved in his other books again.


The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James | Book Review

Posted October 30, 2020 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Blog Tour, Book Review / 3 Comments

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James | Book ReviewThe Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Published by Berkley on February 18, 2020
Genres: Mystery, Paranormal, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 327
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn't right at the Sun Down, and before long she's determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

I love a good creepy thriller this time of year, and am always on the hunt for the elusive atmospheric writing, so I when I was approached by Berkley to join the blog tour for The Sun Down Motel I was definitely excited about it. The Sun Down Motel is full of strong women, creepy ghosts, and a mystery that spans decades. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. The atmosphere was definitely my favorite part of the story. It was just so creepy (sometimes too creepy), and I enjoyed that uncomfortable feeling it gave me. Viv (1982) and Carly (2017) both worked at The Sun Down, each for their own reasons. Viv was there as a means to an end, and Carly was there to find out what happened to her Aunt Viv. This motel is the epitome of everything repulsive. Nobody would ever actually want to say there, and that made it way creepier. It’s run-down, outdated, and full of noises, mysterious smells, and questionable guests. And both women worked the night shift. Alone. Both women go to the point where they knew the ghosts and talked to them. Well, except the man with the noisy shoes who smoked outside every night. He kept quiet. Doors would open and closed by themselves, the lights would flicker or go completely out, there were voices and footsteps… It’s just a very scary place. These were strong women to put up with working there.

2. Strong women is a huge theme in this story. You’ve got Viv, who left home to go into show business in NYC but actually just wanted to get away from her family. She’s a Nancy Drew type who paid a lot of attention, started connecting dots, and made it her quest to stop a serial killer who was preying on women. Nobody believed that there was anything that needed solving, so she jumped in. Then you’ve got Carly, who left home to find out what happened to her Aunt Viv, who disappeared from the Sun Down one night without a trace. Again, nobody really paid any attention to her. Viv and Carly both had cool roommates who helped them solve their various mysteries. There was also a female police officer named Alma, who was given the night shift because nobody else wanted it, and a freelance photographer who I can’t remember the name of that was also involved. All of these characters were strong, persistent, brave, women who stuck up for themselves and looked out for each other. All of them did things they were not comfortable with because they thought it was their only option.

3. The detective work was so exciting to me. I loved reading about the stakeouts and the research and following people around, hoping to not be seen. Carly/Viv were impersonating people on the phone to get info and sending anonymous tips. It felt like Veronica Mars a little bit in this regard.

4. I really could have done without the ghosts. Actually, I could have done with less activity from the ghosts. It’s fine that they were there, and they really added to that creepy feeling I liked. Sometimes it just got to be too scary for me, though. Some of these ghosts were… mad. Very mad. But they ended up being there for very a important reason in the end, so I understood the need for them.

5. I did struggle sometimes with keeping Carly and Viv straight across the dual timelines. They had the same jobs, were about the same age, each had a roommate, both worked with Alma and the photographer… Sometimes I just got lost on who was who. Even thinking back now on my reading experience, I can’t exactly remember which girl did which important thing. I don’t think it matters, though. Maybe the point was to have these girls live parallel lives so there was barely a seam between them.

6. The plot itself was not very complex, but I was still riveted and had to know what happened. 

7. The book starts out pretty slow, so hang in there!

All in all, I ended up enjoying The Sun Down Motel way more than I thought I would. There were a couple spoilery twists that I called… and one was just a little too twisty to seem reasonable to me, but I still enjoyed the story overall. It’s a great book to read during spooky season, and I’m definitely interested in getting more atmospheric reads from Simone St. James in the future!


The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware | Book Review

Posted May 21, 2020 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 7 Comments

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware | Book ReviewThe Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
Published by Gallery/Scout Press on August 6, 2019
Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 337
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
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When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

I really love books set in creepy buildings… and I love them even more if isolation is thrown into the mix, so The Turn of the Key had my name written all over it. And Riley Sager, author of my favorite creepy building book: Lock Every Door, recommended it to me when I reached out on twitter so I was EXCITED. And I was so engrossed. I quickly became very addicted to the story and could not stop myself from reading long into the wee hours of the night.

What I Liked:

  • I listened to the audio, and Imogen Church is an amazing narrator.
  • Ruth Ware is SO GOOD at the atmospheric, suspenseful feelings. This book is eerie and dark and tense in a very subtle way that works itself into your very being. I’d read about a creepy sound and then feel sure I’d just heard that sound in my own house. I was afraid to run across the hall to go to the bathroom at 2 AM. I wouldn’t say the book is scary, it’s just got this underlying sense of foreboding like anything could happen at any moment.
  • The Turn of the Key is written as a letter from Rowan to a solicitor she hopes will represent her in her murder trial. I enjoyed reading a book in this format, and felt it brought some added intrigue to the situation. Rowan is currently in prison for murdering one of the girls in her care, but she swears she’s innocent. I loved unraveling her story and trying to figure out what really happened. 
  • The setting was exactly what I hoped it would be. I was so creeped out and uncomfortable reading about this isolated smart home with cameras and voice controlled everything (and I mean everything). Lights turning on on their own, doors locking themselves on their own, secret locked doors with who knows what behind them, a do-I-trust-him-or-not groundskeeper who seems to be very nice but might actually be a serial killer. I was so unsure of everything.
  • During the day Rowan and the girls explore the grounds a little bit, and discover a bit of the house’s history. CREEPY. I’d love a prequel book to get the story of the original inhabitants of the house in more detail. 
  • All the previous nannies could not handle living in Heatherbrae House, and I really loved trying to figure out the mystery of why. This book was really one mystery within another, and I liked all the layers that gave me to work through. I was never bored.

What I Didn’t Like:

  • I feel like we never get a heroine who is strong and level-headed in a Ruth Ware book. Unreliable narrators are a Ware hallmark, it would seem, and sometimes I don’t love it. Rowan put herself into some pretty sucky situations and then didn’t trust herself enough to be able to handle them. She never stuck up for herself. She never put the bratty, misbehaving girls in their places. I got a bit annoyed at how spineless she was, and how quick she was to believe that’s she’s going insane instead of the victim of someone other than herself.
  • The ending is VERY unsatisfying. So much is left up in the air and, after everything I had gone through as a reader, I wanted more answers. Be prepared to Google for other readers’ theories or find someone to chat with when you’re done (I’m happy to DM on twitter if you need someone to listen to your theories or discuss things!).

Additional Thoughts:

  • I really want to read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James now and see what the original story is like!
  • Imogen Church has to mimic a creaking floor in her narration, and oh man. It gave me goosebumps.
  • I never, in a million years, would have guessed the ending. Ruth Ware always tricks me and I never get it right, so that’s obviously one of the main reasons I keep coming back for more! She’s a very entertaining storyteller and a great writer.

All in all, The Turn of the Key was creepy and atmospheric and so engrossing. The ending drove me insane and I still think about it all the time, but I guess that serves Ruth Ware well! She’s always marinating in the back of my head. I keep telling myself I need to stop reading her books because I always come away slightly frustrated, but perhaps that’s her goal. And… I know I’m going to read more of her books. lol. So great. More torture on the horizon for me!


The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware | Book Review

Posted November 3, 2017 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware | Book ReviewThe Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Published by Gallery/Scout Press on July 19, 2016
Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 340
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Edelweiss)
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In this tightly wound story, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

With surprising twists and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another intense read.

I really, really love mysteries and I love them even more if they are set at sea. So obviously the cover and the synopsis had me sold, not to mention that our heroine is a travel journalist sent to write about a luxury cruise on a small, elite, incredibly expensive vessel during its maiden voyage. The Woman In Cabin 10 is suspenseful, exciting, chilling, and completely enthralling. While trying to write my review I realized I don’t want to stick with my usual format of bolding my points and elaborating on them. I just want to list things out instead, so here we go!

What I liked:

  • We start off with a bang. We immediately learn that Lo has crippling anxiety, which was very well written. In the beginning of the story, someone breaks into her house while she is there. Understandably, she is already on edge and quite paranoid when she boards the ship and soon hears something horribly wrong happen in the cabin next to hers on night.
  • The setting. The Aurora has 10 cabins, with only a handful of guests (20 at most) and a few common areas. It’s lavishly decorated and sounds super cozy and intimate. The guests are sailing the freezing Norwegian fjords, which is a huge bucket list item for me. I’m so jealous of the beautiful scenery they saw. Northern Lights, people!!
  • The mystery. One night, Lo hears a scream followed by a splash. She sees blood on the balcony next to hers, but the person who was supposed to be in that cabin never boarded. But Lo met the woman in cabin 10 the day before. So what is even going on? What caused the splash? Whose blood was that on the balcony? And why are there more questions than answers? Lo’s anxiety is blamed as the investigation proves no help, so she’s left completely helpless on a little boat in freezing waters, surrounded by guests and crew that do not believe her and that she cannot trust.
  • The atmosphere. As amazing as the Aurora sounds, it turns into a very creepy place once murder is suggested. Things felt very ominous, unsettled, and unsafe as Lo laid in bed at night trying to sleep or as she walked the halls looking for answers.
  • There’s a twist that I wasn’t expecting at all.
  • I didn’t know who did it until the end.

What I didn’t Like: 

  • The characters. Lo exhausted me. Her anxiety and paranoia, while very well done and very realistic, kind of wore me out because I never got to know anything else about her. She became a condition instead of a character, and I could not separate the two and see who she truly was. She also makes some silly mistakes for the sake of making the story work. And she has no backbone. The supporting characters were shells, and not very memorable or used to their fullest potentials.
  • Parts dragged a bit and slowed down at times.
  • The narrator of the book is rather long-winded and repetitive at times.
  • The resolution. The end went in a direction that was interesting, but not what I was hoping for. Things started to feel unbelievable, but not enough for me to be irritated or upset.

All in all, I really enjoyed the mystery. I tend to like the story more than the characters in mysteries like this, so the fact that I didn’t enjoy the characters didn’t bother me. I love mysteries at sea, and this one was quite entertaining. I’d definitely recommend it to those looking for an entertaining mystery.