This is what we call foreshadowing, kiddies. But what is that you say? You say, no, it's not! You say, it's a spoiler right in the first line! Well, perhaps but what if this line is a secret red herring disguised as foreshadowing? The writer could be intentionally leaving the sentence incomplete. Perhaps, later the sentence will repeat in uncensored or unedited form, and it will read with the addition ...in her rat-infested motel room. That perhaps is not a very good example. I suspect this author could do a better job.
Besides, let's face it, everyone dies eventually, so it's understood that characters eventually die. Even Alice dies in some unpublished act. So dying isn't that interesting; it isn't that much of a hook, but the question that gets raised with this line is the how? It's that delicious morbid curiosity we have. We must know how? Don't worry; it's perfectly normal and healthy.
The next sentence and final one of the first paragraph:
But instead she had adopted her usual attitude of resigned disappointment, trying not to look too disconsolate as she stared at the other guests dancing as if nobody was watching.
The final two clauses of this sentence confuse me a little. Were the guests dancing as if no one was watching. If so, what kind of moves would that entail? I don't know about you, but I see the Minister of Silly Walks at his teen daughter's first high school dance bent on embarrassing her, but that image gets quickly superseded by old people doing stripteases. Or is she staring as if nobody is watching her staring at them? If so, I know exactly how creepy that looks.
Anyway, then the next paragraph introduces how she is bullied at work, by being excluded and passed over with polite conversation which is quite rude, or is she just paranoid? By the end of the first page it states that she was 'definitely insane.' Full stop.
First thing said:
"I've been headhunted for a job in Cardiff."
This is part of a flashback in which Kathryn remembers getting dumped three years before.
There was no reason to review this except the title caught my eye on the library shelf. The word insidious made me chuckle because it feels extreme in relation to intent, like it referred to something much worse than murderous intent. This made me wonder if the opening was as insidious as the title. Well, I guess that's what a title is supposed to do: function as click bait, as it were.
I like how the cover has no tagline that sharpens the hook, but instead a simple statement that this book is by a bestselling author. Her fans already know this, so this declaration can't be for them unless she's amassed a legion of forgetful fans. That means it must be on the cover for those who have no idea who this author is. My question is: Do people actually buy books based on the statement: Internationally bestselling author on the cover?
Is this scenario possible? Someone goes into a bookstore and asks a clerk for assistance and says, "I would like to buy a book, but I have, like, no idea what. Do you have any ideas? Oh, and I read only bestselling authors. I don't have time to read crap."
Then what if the clerk suggested this book:
And the shopper says, "God no. It's not by a bestselling author. Weren't you listening to me.? Besides, it says it's a movie, so I'll just go see that now, won't I?"
No wonder Stephen King is slowly becoming irrelevant.
Anyway this book didn't pull me in. Quite the opposite, it got me distracted as the above review can attest to. I guess if a book isn't overriding my mind's natural impulse to imagine and isn't stifling all the associative thinking I'm prone to having, then I'm not reading.
Verdict: 2 Stars (Fail)
Sincerely,
Theo
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