THE LAST HOUSE is vivid, enigmatic, luscious, and savagely rich like entrails on expensive china.
The Audiobook version is especially recommended here. I am so thankful I was able to receive this in audiobook format. It was a little confusing at times, and I think the chapter headers and different narrators helped dispel some of that disorientation.
The most amazing thing about the writing is simply Ward’s way of combining words to make sentences that sink deep into your bones. Reading her books is more than turning pages. It’s an experience. One I will not soon forget.
Thanks to @netgalley and #Macmillanaudio for this amazing audiobook in exchange for my honest review!
Make sure to mark it on your tbrs for this fall. It’s a stunner, and it would look absolutely stunning on the big screen.
They are hunting a killer so silent, so invisible, that his unspeakable crimes are the only proof he exists.
A car submerged in a remote pond. The bodies of two girls strapped into their seats. The mystery of their mother, vanished without a trace, leads Gwen Proctor and Kezia Claremont into dangerous territory.
On the surface, Gwen’s life is good—two children approaching adulthood, a committed partner, and a harrowing past dead and gone. But that past is attracting the attention of someone invisible…and unstoppable. Trouble’s just beginning. So is the body count in this backwoods Tennessee town.
As threats mount and Gwen’s hunted by an enemy who pulls all the strings, Kezia has her back. But working to solve these vicious and unreasonable crimes will expose them both to a killer they can’t for the life of them see coming.
I have read every book in Rachel Caines Stillhouse Lake series. I have enjoyed them immensely.
I was a bit apprehensive to read it initially as I did and still do not know when in the publication process Ms. Caine so sadly passed. I have read posthumous work and have felt conflicted. I hoped they would not do something detrimental to the storyline, like kill off a character to end the series.
It is after reading the title, I guess that the entire book was written by Rachel herself prior to her death. This is important to me as a reader for several reasons which I will not go into here, suffice to say, I thought the publishers have so far handled her death with the care she deserves. Onto the book.
RIP Roxanne Longstreet Conrad
I feel readers will read this entire series either as a favorite as I do, or they may have tepid responses. I think that due to its quiet nature. The most interesting things about Heartbreak Bay are the discussions centering around victimology.
How do we become perpetrators vs. how we perpetrate?
Some of the interesting topics discussed are what happens after a crime is committed? What are the ramifications of being involved with a person who commits a crime? IS the main character naive, complicitous, in denial about who the people are her are?
Will she ever stop being the victim?
Its interesting from a psychological standpoint and a sociological standpoint.
Some of the themes from the book I find engaging are:
Family
Struggling to overcome obstacles.
Secrets taking physical form.
Cults
Kick-ass Female or Female getting her ass kicked?
I call this kind of book:
Matriarchal triad domestic thriller
Where the main character is the protagonist, female.
Everything revolves around her,
A co-triad partner.
And an issue of hers to resolve with that person.
I like these books!!!
I love to see a character battle herself. That is what it is all about. Her overcoming!! And does she ever!
When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive…
As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.
Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…
The multimillion-copy New York Times bestselling author B.A. Paris returns to her heartland of gripping psychological suspense in The Therapist–a powerful tale of a house that holds a shocking secret
This is B.A. Paris’s fifth book and the fifth one I’ve read. BRING ME BACK was a disaster as far as I was concerned, so I was curious where Paris would go with this one. Psychological thrillers are my absolute favorite books to read. When the storyline involves an actual mental health professional, it piques my curiosity even more. There are so many dark avenues to navigate when talking about characters who explore other people’s minds.
In This book, however, there was a bit of mirror play. Overall, I believe Paris was really expressing the narrative of boundaries and that came through in different plot lines and in several of the dynamics of the characters. I found this book to be extremely consumable, with enough going on that I was continuously interested and relatively satisfied with the book as a whole.
The biggest problem that I have with the writing is that I really felt Paris was again over-explaining, re-hashing too much, Internal dialogue mimicking external dialogue. It creates unnecessary lulls and times where I’m rolling my eyes screaming, “get on with it already.”
Paranoia is often an annoying personality trait to play out with a character while reading a book. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, avoidance of red flags and general apathetic regard for the truth and obvious signs are even more annoying. Paris possibly pushed it to the limit from time to time during this book.
Overall, super entertaining!
Four Stars
So glad I was able to get my hands on an early copy thanks to @netgalley and #macmillanaudio
Check out #netgalley for your advanced copy; request today!
