Mini Reviews: Lying to You and The Family at Number 13
3 ***
I am a little conflicted how to review this book, because I listened to the audiobook and the narrator who did Jess's voice had a really irritating voice. I don't know whether I would have enjoyed the book more in print this time. I do think, in any case, it would not have been more than a three star read, because it moved so very slowly and I didn't really care about any of the characters. The final reveal did not feel shocking at all, and even though the writing was quite good, the story never completely grabbed my attention. Though this book was not for me, I don't want to call it bad. I have been reading so many books in the crime fiction genre lately, and some of them were so gripping that this one just compares unfavorably. So any other readers clearly enjoyed it very much, so if you decide to pick it up, I hope you do, too:-)
2**
Ugh, I really hate giving bad reviews, but wow, this was a bad book! The only reason it gets two and not one star is because I actually finished it, so there had to have been a tiny, remarkably elusive fragment of something intriguing. I don't want to harp on, but when giving a negative review, I have the need to explain why this did not work for me. I felt very quickly that the characters were all quite weird - which does not have to be a bad thing, I might add - but in this book weird translated as stiff and akin to terrible actors in a soap opera. The dialogue was stilted and unnatural, the plot dragged on and on, and was remarkably unspectacular when the conclusion FINALLY arrived. To be honest, I found myself at the end thinking, why did I even finish this? But I did, and thus I feel I am entitled to an opinion, even if it is unfavorable. I wish I could have loved this and it had been as "gripping" as the title suggests, for me, however, it was a waste of time.