Book Review Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Disclaimer: Reading is all about exploring new worlds, but this Book Review does not shy away from spoiling specific scenes as this is more of my free-flowing thoughts about a book.

The Analysis:

I’m not sure how I found this one. But, let’s book review it. First, follow me on Goodreads.

Here’s The Blurb:

Has she already had her last chance to be the final girl?

All her life, she’s been the girl who survived. Orphaned at age seven after a horrific killing spree at her family’s Oregon cabin, Kara McIntyre is still searching for some kind of normal. But now, twenty years later, the past has come thundering back. Her brother, Jonas, who was convicted of the murders has unexpectedly been released from prison. The press is in a frenzy again. And suddenly, Kara is receiving cryptic messages from her big sister, Marlie—who hasn’t been seen or heard from since that deadly Christmas Eve when she hid little Kara in a closet with a haunting, life-saving command: Don’t make a sound.

As people close to her start to die horrible deaths, Kara, who is slowly and surely unraveling, believes she is the killer’s ultimate target.

Kara survived once. But will she survive again? How many times can she be the girl who survived?

Cover Critique:

This book is as plain as all get out, but it fits the genre so how much can you really complain? It certainly strikes a chord with the mood if nothing else. Although, I really don’t think it gives you any kind of a hint as to the story.

Now The Story:

Book Info:
Pages: 384
Author: Lisa Jackson
Available: Google Play

The beginning of the book gives you exactly what you want out of a novel, thrills, and chills. It’s told from the perspective of a seven-year-old and for that, you might get frustrated with some of the character’s actions, but you can’t help but feel for her. We’re getting the story of why she’s the last girl to survive. We then fast forward 25 years and she’s a basket case. And we learn that her older brother went down for the murders. Even listening to the evidence, it’s all very flimsy and one of those judgments where the guy’s personality worked against him more than any real evidence.

We get a few points of view in this story. Our hero and heroine, the sheriff, and her aunt. I can’t say that was totally necessary, but it didn’t take away from my reading experience the way it did others. Every point of view added a different aspect to the case. However, if one scene was useless it was reading about the sheriff alerting the next of kin after another victim dies. It was never clear as to why we should care when the woman had nothing to offer that specific case beyond wild and reckless speculations.

I will out of everyone, the hero’s actions left a bad taste in my mouth. He’s a journalist. One with his own connection to the case as his father was the first officer on the scene and died while trying to save the little girl. Quite tragic in its own right. But it was his attempts to “tell the story” that left me frowning. It was clear that he cared very little about the woman or the truth (as he seemed to also believe the brother did it) because like other reporters he just wanted to break some juicy news. So, this is the upstanding guy the readers are supposed to want with the heroine? I don’t think so. one point off. Even as he does prove to be the heroine’s sole backbone as the story goes on. But face it, she didn’t have anyone else to fill the role.

Fast forward some more and she finds her brother’s lawyer dead. She calls the police but not before running away. Perhaps, my sympathy meter is broken on this one because I remember thinking, you know your not seven anymore, right? It just didn’t seem like proper behavior even for someone with PTSD over that sort of thing. She kept saying she wouldn’t wait on police, EMTs, etc while someone’s bleeding out in the background. Not again. I almost laughed. Again? That didn’t happen the first time because she ran and then passed out. Just like she’s running now without taking a breath to think through her next actions.

The portrayal of religion in this book is very surface-level deep. I don’t think it will appease the secular or religious. There is no nuisance to the topic as cons finding religion are served for laughs and secular people seeking prayer are played too lightly to the point you will wonder why it was included.

Anyway back to the story, the brother is proving to be less than trustworthy. It’s hard to root for such a brash person. His sister’s reactions to him weren’t very mature either. But his theories on the case were varied and intriguing. The man was clearly grasping at straws. But his ramblings go nowhere before there in a car accident. While his true involvement in the massacre remained a mystery until the very end, I ended up disappointed.

Only because the subject of wrongful arrests was also played too lightly. This is the second book I’ve read where it appeared as if the notion of cops getting it wrong was a silly one. This one added a fan group of women that believed he was innocent enough to bum-rush a hospital. Again, no nuisance. No acknowledgment that those groups are usually the only people keeping an innocent man from the electric chair. Their not all crazed, fans with daddy issues like the women that send love letters to Charles Manson. And those women aren’t usually protesting the killer’s release beyond putting money on their books and being a nuisance to the guards. But that’s not to generalize as there are crazies on both sides.

Speaking of the hospital, this accident brings many people to the hospital. One is the journalist with the deceased father, our hero. It was at this moment that I decided to take another point off. He didn’t come off as terribly concerned to me, just self-serving. None of the characters are particularly interesting or endearing enough that you want the best for them. Everyone has an ulterior motive and everyone is about as deep as a kiddie pool.

But there is enough to the mystery that you will want to know how it all ends.

My heart went out to a side character with the smallest role in the book. The brother’s (the released convict’s) girlfriend. She went to the hospital to see her boyfriend and was turned away. I kept thinking about how she was the only one that man probably wanted to see and she couldn’t get in. Everyone has been in that room treating him like a criminal and a liar and the one person that wouldn’t, had no authority to get into the room. I found it heartbreaking. The police were even using that moment to interview her.

But the ending delivers on the promise it sets in the beginning. It answers all the questions that the massacre opens. And it only seems fitting that the heroine walks away, still broken, but more open to healing. Somehow she had broken out of the rut the first massacre had left her in. And she came out of it with a new man, who like it or not had sort of propped her up every time she wanted to fall. Even if the relationship wasn’t terribly deep.

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Book Review At A Glance:

Recommendation:  3 out of 5

Book Cover Appeal:

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Story & Narration:

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Romance:

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Character/(s) Personality:

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