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karlyo83's review against another edition
1.0
My Rating: 1⭐️ utterly disappointing and completely BORING!!!
Synopsis: Is murder in her DNA? My mother lied to me. My family is not my own. If it wasn’t for the genealogy test, I would never have known I was the child of another woman. Now I’m learning that I have four brothers I have never met. And one of them is a serial killer. My brother is taunting me to play his vicious game - solving his clues before he spills more blood. Who can I trust? How can I find and stop him before it is too late? And what if it is me he really wants?
Ok first up… talk about the lie of all lies telling us if we are fans of Chris Carter and M.W Craven to read this book… absolutely incorrect!! Chris Carters books are edge of your seat bite your nails off gruesome and M.W Craven’s books are engaging and funny and also thrilling… this was anything but… ANYTHING BUT!!!
Secondly, that synopsis sounds like something I would read in one sitting. Well let me say this I was lucky to get through a couple of chapters before I LITERALLY FELL ASLEEP…. Every single time I picked it up I fell asleep… this is a terrible sign of something that is supposed to be thrilling. I was bored… I didn’t care about the MC she was stupid and she behaved in a way that was too stupid for words. The author decided that to make those stupid actions ok she would inner monologue how stupid she was behaving so she could go ahead and be a big dumb dumb!! Sorry but that is lazy.
The writing was really basic and I could have overlooked it if stuff that I cared about happened. Every other page you are held in suspense that someone kills or hurts her dog… I will put you out of your misery… they don’t. The dog is fine… BUT it is supposed to be a guard dog and every single person that comes to the house is able to win this “guard dog” over in seconds. Sorry but I want my money back if this giant dog is not eating people’s faces off that are breaking into my home multiple times.
While we are on the writing it was a hand holding festival… almost every scene was play by play. And just in case the reader wasn’t able to work out stuff… well we will make sure you do by playing every play that can be played over and over again… repetitive and boring… here is a little section…
After a lovely dinner, I relax in my favourite armchair and think back over my latest victory against my sister….
Grant was a wriggly fucker. It took several attempts to wrap the scarf around his neck.
“Stop! Who are you?” He spluttered as I dragged him across the carpet towards his back door. Too many questions then spilled from his lips; all I could have answered, yet chose not to.
Once we were in the garage, I sat him on a chair. Pushing a piece of paper and pen in front of him, I said, “Write what I tell you’. He nodded.
With my silky noose tight around his trembling throat, he wrote his own suicide note. The proverbial Monopoly Get Out of Jail Free card for me, and the cunning clue, slash punishment for Fallon. I’d win this round. Steal her hope of a future with this idiot.
UGHHHH for real… that just all comes across pretentious and boring… honestly I probably fell asleep in the middle of that monologue. BUT don’t get me started on Fallon. She is a woman who has suffered from a traumatic event… one that is drip fed to us from the start now… granted this sometimes works but honestly it would have been better to just know about what happened from the start. AND when we do find out what happened, yes its bad, but this is fictional thriller AND coupled with comparing it to Chris Carter… I was expecting it to be horrific… I was expecting descriptions of horror, and blood and abuse and all the things that we get from Carters books… well you will not get that here… and thats FINE if you don’t compare it to Chris Carter. I am sorry but if you like his books then you are looking for an absolute horror show… so this fell flat in so many ways.
Our MC though is a psychologist but she is just about the dumbest person around… it was really hard to empathise with her… and by the end I was actually hoping she was killed… did she get killed… well if you can make it to the end then find out for yourself… honestly this took me a week to read I fell asleep that many times and to add insult to injury I was almost finished… like one page from the end AND I FELL ASLEEP AGAIN!!! I absolutely shit you not!!! My brain had some aversion to this book big time. Anyway… sorry was I repeating myself… well I am just setting you up for some repetition that you will find in this book… over and over and over Fallon’s inner, whiny monologue goes on and on about everything. ALSO there are crimes being committed but there are no police in sight… an actual member of the forensic police squad was killed… the murder made to look like a suicide okey dokey… that will be fine… signed sealed and delivered!!! Omg this was so lame.
Another lookie at the writing for you… this is our baddie he sounds scary…
While she starred down at her phone screen, I lunged forward. Her neck fit perfectly between my hands. Dropping her mobile, she struggled, but I was too strong. I always am, even against tigers and bears.
WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F*CK!!!! TIGERS AND BEARS… .WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU WRITE THAT!!!
Look I could go on and on and I feel like I already have but quite simply… we have a dumb boring MC, we have a killer that is a jackass but apparently stronger than bears and tigers sooo cool, we have a complete lack of police, the MC’s house keeps getting broken into… definitely no security cameras…. Awesome choice. We have tooooo many twists on twists that aren’t doing anything for anyone except confusing the issue.
AND the kicker… apparently Fallon painted the front of her house and everyone felt the need to mention it looked like a giant dick wrapped around her deck… honestly … was it necessary… I guess you could say the author was going for humour but nahhhh it didn’t land sorry.
Overall… come on… you know what I am going to say… I am not going to recommend this to anyone. I don’t really care who you are… if you like this then awesome I am so happy for you and I really am glad that people will like this… but no one in my reading circle needs to be subjected to it.
Thank you to NetGalley, Hera Publishing and the author for an advanced copy for my brutally honest review. I wish I liked it more and I really really tried.
Synopsis: Is murder in her DNA? My mother lied to me. My family is not my own. If it wasn’t for the genealogy test, I would never have known I was the child of another woman. Now I’m learning that I have four brothers I have never met. And one of them is a serial killer. My brother is taunting me to play his vicious game - solving his clues before he spills more blood. Who can I trust? How can I find and stop him before it is too late? And what if it is me he really wants?
Ok first up… talk about the lie of all lies telling us if we are fans of Chris Carter and M.W Craven to read this book… absolutely incorrect!! Chris Carters books are edge of your seat bite your nails off gruesome and M.W Craven’s books are engaging and funny and also thrilling… this was anything but… ANYTHING BUT!!!
Secondly, that synopsis sounds like something I would read in one sitting. Well let me say this I was lucky to get through a couple of chapters before I LITERALLY FELL ASLEEP…. Every single time I picked it up I fell asleep… this is a terrible sign of something that is supposed to be thrilling. I was bored… I didn’t care about the MC she was stupid and she behaved in a way that was too stupid for words. The author decided that to make those stupid actions ok she would inner monologue how stupid she was behaving so she could go ahead and be a big dumb dumb!! Sorry but that is lazy.
The writing was really basic and I could have overlooked it if stuff that I cared about happened. Every other page you are held in suspense that someone kills or hurts her dog… I will put you out of your misery… they don’t. The dog is fine… BUT it is supposed to be a guard dog and every single person that comes to the house is able to win this “guard dog” over in seconds. Sorry but I want my money back if this giant dog is not eating people’s faces off that are breaking into my home multiple times.
While we are on the writing it was a hand holding festival… almost every scene was play by play. And just in case the reader wasn’t able to work out stuff… well we will make sure you do by playing every play that can be played over and over again… repetitive and boring… here is a little section…
After a lovely dinner, I relax in my favourite armchair and think back over my latest victory against my sister….
Grant was a wriggly fucker. It took several attempts to wrap the scarf around his neck.
“Stop! Who are you?” He spluttered as I dragged him across the carpet towards his back door. Too many questions then spilled from his lips; all I could have answered, yet chose not to.
Once we were in the garage, I sat him on a chair. Pushing a piece of paper and pen in front of him, I said, “Write what I tell you’. He nodded.
With my silky noose tight around his trembling throat, he wrote his own suicide note. The proverbial Monopoly Get Out of Jail Free card for me, and the cunning clue, slash punishment for Fallon. I’d win this round. Steal her hope of a future with this idiot.
UGHHHH for real… that just all comes across pretentious and boring… honestly I probably fell asleep in the middle of that monologue. BUT don’t get me started on Fallon. She is a woman who has suffered from a traumatic event… one that is drip fed to us from the start now… granted this sometimes works but honestly it would have been better to just know about what happened from the start. AND when we do find out what happened, yes its bad, but this is fictional thriller AND coupled with comparing it to Chris Carter… I was expecting it to be horrific… I was expecting descriptions of horror, and blood and abuse and all the things that we get from Carters books… well you will not get that here… and thats FINE if you don’t compare it to Chris Carter. I am sorry but if you like his books then you are looking for an absolute horror show… so this fell flat in so many ways.
Our MC though is a psychologist but she is just about the dumbest person around… it was really hard to empathise with her… and by the end I was actually hoping she was killed… did she get killed… well if you can make it to the end then find out for yourself… honestly this took me a week to read I fell asleep that many times and to add insult to injury I was almost finished… like one page from the end AND I FELL ASLEEP AGAIN!!! I absolutely shit you not!!! My brain had some aversion to this book big time. Anyway… sorry was I repeating myself… well I am just setting you up for some repetition that you will find in this book… over and over and over Fallon’s inner, whiny monologue goes on and on about everything. ALSO there are crimes being committed but there are no police in sight… an actual member of the forensic police squad was killed… the murder made to look like a suicide okey dokey… that will be fine… signed sealed and delivered!!! Omg this was so lame.
Another lookie at the writing for you… this is our baddie he sounds scary…
While she starred down at her phone screen, I lunged forward. Her neck fit perfectly between my hands. Dropping her mobile, she struggled, but I was too strong. I always am, even against tigers and bears.
WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F*CK!!!! TIGERS AND BEARS… .WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU WRITE THAT!!!
Look I could go on and on and I feel like I already have but quite simply… we have a dumb boring MC, we have a killer that is a jackass but apparently stronger than bears and tigers sooo cool, we have a complete lack of police, the MC’s house keeps getting broken into… definitely no security cameras…. Awesome choice. We have tooooo many twists on twists that aren’t doing anything for anyone except confusing the issue.
AND the kicker… apparently Fallon painted the front of her house and everyone felt the need to mention it looked like a giant dick wrapped around her deck… honestly … was it necessary… I guess you could say the author was going for humour but nahhhh it didn’t land sorry.
Overall… come on… you know what I am going to say… I am not going to recommend this to anyone. I don’t really care who you are… if you like this then awesome I am so happy for you and I really am glad that people will like this… but no one in my reading circle needs to be subjected to it.
Thank you to NetGalley, Hera Publishing and the author for an advanced copy for my brutally honest review. I wish I liked it more and I really really tried.
booksbybindu's review against another edition
4.0
‘The Brother’ is a dark and chilling tale that was right up my street! It was highly original and truly went to places I have never read about before. It might change your mind about taking a DNA ancestry test though… This was the first book that I have read by Nicky but I see she also shares my fascination with serial killers so I will be keeping an eye out for further books and going on to read her last book.
Is murder in Fallon’s DNA? Her mother lied to her. If it wasn't for a genealogy test she would never of known she didn't belong. She isn't her mother’s daughter. Now Fallon has four extra brother’s but one of them is a serial killer. He is leaving her clues and taunting her but will Fallon find him before it is too late?
Fallon was a great protagonist! The fact that she was a psychologist allows the reader to understand the mental aspects of what constitutes a serial killer! I thought that the author did a great job of explaining Fallon’s PTSD with empathy too. Like Fallon, you are trying to work out which brother is the killer and the author keeps you guessing right until the end! Was the end one twist too far though? Some people will have loved it but I was frustrated as I didn't guess that!
I devoured this book in one sitting and it was packed full of action and tension from the get-go right to the very end! I can there that there is the possibility of another book after this one and I definitely would read more about Fallon!
Let me know if you pick this one up!
Is murder in Fallon’s DNA? Her mother lied to her. If it wasn't for a genealogy test she would never of known she didn't belong. She isn't her mother’s daughter. Now Fallon has four extra brother’s but one of them is a serial killer. He is leaving her clues and taunting her but will Fallon find him before it is too late?
Fallon was a great protagonist! The fact that she was a psychologist allows the reader to understand the mental aspects of what constitutes a serial killer! I thought that the author did a great job of explaining Fallon’s PTSD with empathy too. Like Fallon, you are trying to work out which brother is the killer and the author keeps you guessing right until the end! Was the end one twist too far though? Some people will have loved it but I was frustrated as I didn't guess that!
I devoured this book in one sitting and it was packed full of action and tension from the get-go right to the very end! I can there that there is the possibility of another book after this one and I definitely would read more about Fallon!
Let me know if you pick this one up!
james1star's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.5
This was a very fast paced and intriguing thriller that I really enjoyed. We’re following Fallon who’s a psychologist still dealing with the aftermath of being involved in a crime months prior with the upcoming trial looming too. For Christmas her adorable brother Ollie (or Oli I dunno I listened to the audiobook) gifts her a DNA test but after competing it… finds out they’re not related. After coming to terms with this fact, her mum tells all and Fallon finds out she has another family and four new brothers. Sounds great right? No. Because a police officer tracks her down via her DNA results and tells her one of their new brothers is a serial killer as she’s pieced together connections between multiple cases (some already ‘solved’) and wants help tracking him down. It’s dual-POV with chapters from Fallon and ‘the brother’ as he’s choosing and killing more people.
The writing isn’t particularly amazing and whilst I did like the characters I feel you’re defo here more for the plot. It’s intriguing, entertaining and constantly pulls you forward. The investigation, how things happen and are pieced together was super ‘fun’ to read and I just loved it basically. Maybe a couple things were a little farfetched but no the convoluted, long-way-around plot was very enjoyable. What I really liked was how ‘the bother’ taunts Fallon, forcing her to play his twisted game before more blood is spilt. I was trying to figure out what has happening and which of these brothers was the killer, thinking ‘no please don’t let it be x or y’ if you get me. Also Ollie was just so cute (and he’s gay so yay for that).
Defo recommend and I’d like to read Peacock’s debut.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Death, and Murder
jocepatey's review
4.0
Fallon Hurley is a psychologist who has recently undergone a traumatic incident of her own; as she learns to cope with her survival guilt she also learns that she was not biologically related to her family, instead she is the sister of a serial killer. Fallon tells the story of her traumatic survival all while trying to uncover which of her four brothers has prolifically murdered over twenty people.
The Good:
There is something so absolutely fascinating about forensic DNA; I was obsessed with the case of the Green River Killer, and was very intrigued by this element of The Brother. I especially enjoyed how the author wove in the complications legally of this type of evidence, and the realistic reactions of the police. As a new science, it is complicated and Fallon is right to morally question how her connection was uncovered. She did not put heer DNA on the website, and it was obtained without her consent. I think these elements really humanized the story and made it interesting.
The Bad:
There was just a lot happening to Fallon!! She was a relatively reliable narrator, and it was very interesting how she would weave her understanding as a psychologist with her experiences but at times it felt like a lot to have her as a witness in a murder trial all while trying to solve the mystery of her brother, the serial killer. As her boss tells her throughout the story, she was trying to do just a little too much!
The Verdict:
A unique and intriguing thriller! I couldn’t put it down and was anxiously awaiting the reveal of which brother was the serial killer. I loved his POV alternating with Fallon’s as it gave a bit of edge and momentum to the story. Definitely one to read!
redheadbookgirl's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.5
This sounded right up my street and the synopsis gave me major SERIAL KILLER’S SISTER vibes. Dark, chilling and suspenseful, this family reunion turned game of cat and mouse thriller was fast paced and interesting, BUT I wasn’t crazy about it.
While the plot line was intriguing and well thought out, unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style itself. A lot of the dialogue came across as quite simple, some major events and twists felt rushed, and although I’m normally a fan of multiple storylines, this aspect didn’t work as well as it could have in this book.
Having said that, I switched to the audio version about a third of the way in and enjoyed it a lot more. There were plenty of positive features: there was no shortage of twists and turns, and the introspective look at nature vs nurture when it comes to serial killers was compelling. I also found, being a psychologist, the perspective of our main character was a super interesting one, as she intertwines her experiences with her understanding. The prologue was also PERFECTION 🙌🏽
𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒚 @ 𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 🥀
While the plot line was intriguing and well thought out, unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style itself. A lot of the dialogue came across as quite simple, some major events and twists felt rushed, and although I’m normally a fan of multiple storylines, this aspect didn’t work as well as it could have in this book.
Having said that, I switched to the audio version about a third of the way in and enjoyed it a lot more. There were plenty of positive features: there was no shortage of twists and turns, and the introspective look at nature vs nurture when it comes to serial killers was compelling. I also found, being a psychologist, the perspective of our main character was a super interesting one, as she intertwines her experiences with her understanding. The prologue was also PERFECTION 🙌🏽
𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒚 @ 𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 🥀