general

  • quick summary - a thriller about a solitary woman's battle for survival after her negative online review provokes a sociopath author to terrorize her in her remote beach home.
  • key themes - stalking, loss, grief, trauma, isolation, the power of words.
  • fav character - I found deek an extremely comforting character—up to a point lol I don't think any of the characters are necessarily lovable, but emma sure is a fighter.

interests

  • what i found interesting - how adams was able to weave some humor into a very dark story. the obvious contradictions in emma's pov and the "author's" written were sometimes comical. the plot twists at the end of each chapter kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time—I always knew something crazy was about to happen.
  • fav quote - "(...) there are three t's. time. tears. talking. they'll get you through it. trust me"

books it reminded me of

  • the gggtm series - in a sense both authors wrote about trauma and its consequences in a very realistic way.

rating

  • 4.25/5 - this book freaked the shit out of me. I was dreaming about stalkers coming into my home for three days straight. the remote setting, quick pacing and sprinkled in clues were brilliant. after finishing a terrible ya mystery, the great characterization in this book felt like a breath of fresh air. all the characters felt extremely real, and I found myself feeling compassion and understanding for them even if they were not perfect. now, I did not rank it higher because most plot twists were quite easy to guess, such as who howard's mom was. a lot of things that happened did not seem to be entirely realistic, but sure it is interesting to reflect on the impact of what we write online (hopefully no crazy author will try to break into my house!)
jun 19 2024 ∞
jun 19 2024 +