This book was well written and it kept me glued to the page wanting to unravel the mystery. The only downside is that I couldn't warm up to the main character. At the end of the book you are left wondering if anything Pen had revealed is true or if she's manipulated us. I received this for free from NetGalley and House Party as part of the #rhmysterypack in exchange for my honest review. #sponsored
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I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Chatterbox by HouseParty in exchange for my honest review. I was really disappointed in this book. It wasn't really a suspenseful mystery at all and it was really hard to follow. It started off slow - the flashbacks were very confusing, and by time things got interesting at university, everything started going downhill and getting more and more confusing. Too many interwoven stories forced to connect and byt the end it all fell flat. The end was a total cop out. Like she totally gave up. Not a fan. #RHMysteryPack #Sponsored ( )

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Chatterbox by HouseParty in exchange for my honest review. I was really disappointed in this book. It wasn't really a suspenseful mystery at all and it was really hard to follow. It started off slow - the flashbacks were very confusing, and by time things got interesting at university, everything started going downhill and getting more and more confusing. Too many interwoven stories forced to connect and byt the end it all fell flat. The end was a total cop out. Like she totally gave up. Not a fan. #RHMysteryPack #Sponsored ( )

Clifford's first novel starts out promisingly. Penelope (Pen), our narrator states up front that her role in the events played out in the novel could be construed in a number of ways depending on where you start the story. Pen begins her story by escaping her small provincial town to start law at university. There are clues that Pen has been involved in a tragedy - one that has included her best friend and also made her a pariah in her home town. Through her sessions with a psychiatrist The Reader gradually learns of this episode. When Pen starts university, unexplained deaths begin.
The period is specific: late 1980s; it may be pedantic of me but there's something unsettling about the locale of this novel, presumably the uni is in a large-ish town or city, but there's so little detail provided it's distracting. The university itself - large or small; with such a small cast of characters should we assume it's tiny? And for a law student Pen doesn't appear to take any classes or even study. ( )

None of us ever pick up a book with the expectations of disliking it, nor do most of us enjoy writing negative reviews. But it happens, and this is one of those instances for me.

I'll start with a positive note: I love the premise for this story. The author writes well, as far as engaging sentences and showing action.

Sadly, my enjoyment stops there.

So much of this book didn't work for me. I'll start with the most glaring irritation. This story is told in three different timelines, all from Pen's perspective. We have the present timeline, which turns out to be a very small part of the story. Then we have the recent past, in which we spend a whole lot of time. This takes place during Pen's first year of college. And then we have the more distant past, in which we visit her teen, pre-college years. These timelines are jumbled together and the story winds up feeling disjointed.

I almost gave up at the beginning, and perhaps I should have so I wouldn't be writing this uncomfortable review. We spend an inordinate amount of time doing nothing but hanging out at college, watching young adults interact, talk about each other, drink, and have sex. No one studies. Ever. There was no suspense here, and not even much of interest going on. These young adults were mostly rude to each other, and they were not particularly likable.

It took me a while to figure out that this part is a flashback of sorts, as Pen tells her story to herself as she works out what to tell her psychologist in the story's present timeline.

The plot's execution took what could have been a dark, suspenseful story and dragged us around to the point where the eventual unveiling was anticlimactic. A point exists in which a tantalizing detail is held out as suspense for so long that the constant alluding to that detail becomes an annoyance. This book far surpassed that point.

Then we have the characters, who are lacking a spark of life. Here we have a bunch of college kids, with murders happening all around them, yet no one seems particularly disturbed by this. Pen herself is the quintessential unreliable character. She lies to her friends, to her mother, to her psychologist, to the police, and to herself. Her constant lies, combined with the jumbled timelines and dragged out attempt at suspense left me wondering what, if anything, was real in this story.

The major twist toward the end didn't surprise me much at all, because of the way the particular character stood out throughout.

The ending isn't a complete ending. We're left to conjecture and assumptions as to how the rest of the story played out.

Overall, the story is a confusing accumulation of events that left me feeling disconnected from any emotion or suspense.

*I was provided with an advance ebook copy by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.* ( )