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paulabrandon's review against another edition
2.0
This was an almost book for me. It was almost good. The set-up was intriguing, but it just couldn't stick the landing. The last quarter is silly, unlikely, far-fetched, a bit confusing, and completely drags down the book. Getting there was fun, but the ending was so disappointing it just tainted everything that came before it.
Ivy Seidel is a struggling writer desperate for a short story to get published by The New York Times. Circumstances see her taking over the job of a writer friend who has just struck it big in Hollywood. The job is teaching writing to a handful of prison inmates. Ivy is particularly impressed by the work of one inmate, Evan Vance Harrow. She can't believe someone with his sort of background could be so naturally good at writing.
Ivy becomes a little obsessed, and learns that Vance is in prison for his involvement in a casino robbery where several people wound up dead. But through talking to many (many, many, many) people involved in the investigation and arrest, Ivy becomes convinced that Vance is innocent of the crime that got him incarcerated. Trying to prove his innocence gets her in over her head.
There's no doubt that this story kept me involved. Ivy likely needed to have her head examined over her obsession with proving Vance's innocence, but I was intrigued by the notion that a lot of it was driven by Ivy's jealousy that someone from an unprivileged, tough background could actually be a better writer than her, who had actually studied the form. And could she simply be attracted to the notion of the "bad boy" ideal? That undercurrent certainly kept me interested. Also, author Peter Abrahams has a simple, crisp style that conveys information succinctly.
However, it just didn't completely work as a whole! It got a bit repetitive, with Ivy meeting a neverending parade of people to question them either about Vance, or the casino robbery. The book often felt like it was in a bit of a holding pattern. It also stretched credibility that Ivy was not able to locate all these people so easily, but that all of them were completely willing and happy to talk to her, despite her flimsiest of cover stories.
That credibility gets stretched beyond breaking point in the last quarter of the book. The ending was also confusing. A bit of reflection after finishing the book, and some re-reading enabled me to mostly put it all together and figure out what everyone did and why, but some extra clarity would have been nice! This is a case where the dreaded "killer monologue" would have helped things a great deal!
I'm disappointed I can't give this more than 2 stars, since it's been a lacklustre reading year for me so far, and this really had promise. But this was too repetitive, a bit too slow-paced, and the home stretch just pushed credibility and believability way too far for me to be satisfied.
Ivy Seidel is a struggling writer desperate for a short story to get published by The New York Times. Circumstances see her taking over the job of a writer friend who has just struck it big in Hollywood. The job is teaching writing to a handful of prison inmates. Ivy is particularly impressed by the work of one inmate, Evan Vance Harrow. She can't believe someone with his sort of background could be so naturally good at writing.
Ivy becomes a little obsessed, and learns that Vance is in prison for his involvement in a casino robbery where several people wound up dead. But through talking to many (many, many, many) people involved in the investigation and arrest, Ivy becomes convinced that Vance is innocent of the crime that got him incarcerated. Trying to prove his innocence gets her in over her head.
There's no doubt that this story kept me involved. Ivy likely needed to have her head examined over her obsession with proving Vance's innocence, but I was intrigued by the notion that a lot of it was driven by Ivy's jealousy that someone from an unprivileged, tough background could actually be a better writer than her, who had actually studied the form. And could she simply be attracted to the notion of the "bad boy" ideal? That undercurrent certainly kept me interested. Also, author Peter Abrahams has a simple, crisp style that conveys information succinctly.
However, it just didn't completely work as a whole! It got a bit repetitive, with Ivy meeting a neverending parade of people to question them either about Vance, or the casino robbery. The book often felt like it was in a bit of a holding pattern. It also stretched credibility that Ivy was not able to locate all these people so easily, but that all of them were completely willing and happy to talk to her, despite her flimsiest of cover stories.
That credibility gets stretched beyond breaking point in the last quarter of the book.
Spoiler
Ivy is having sex with Vance in the prison hospital, and is then later breaking him out of said hospital by climbing into his room via a ladder and freeing him with bolt cutters, and not a single person noticing! What the actual fuck?!?I'm disappointed I can't give this more than 2 stars, since it's been a lacklustre reading year for me so far, and this really had promise. But this was too repetitive, a bit too slow-paced, and the home stretch just pushed credibility and believability way too far for me to be satisfied.
wildflowerz76's review against another edition
4.0
At first, I thought this was going to be another one of those books with a lot of meandering and no real action. But I was pleasantly surprised! Ivy was entirely too naive, but it did make for an interesting story. This book reminded me a lot of The Swan Thieves by Kostova. There was a lot of "detecting" on the party of Ivy when the person who had all the answers was right there for her to ask.
flogigyahoo's review against another edition
3.0
Peter Abraham's writes terrific mysteries, the kind one can't stop reading. End of Story is one. Erstwhile writer takes a job as a writing teacher at a prison and quickly becomes aware that one of her "students" is extremely talented and super smart. She begins checking into his background and is certain he is innocent of the robbery gone wrong he is in prison for and thus begins a thrill ride until the End of Story. Abrahams has written better, but this one had me going until...
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melaniejayne35's review against another edition
2.0
This book is about a struggling author who is offered a part time job teaching writing in a men's prison. She becomes interested in the case of one of the prisoners in her class and thinks he is innocent of the crime he was prosecuted for. She investigates and gets in WAY over her head.
I thought the book was o.k. A good thing was that I wanted to find out how everything would end. Another good thing; at just past the halfway mark I thought I had the ending all figured out. (I thought it would be the predictable, obvious ending). Nope, I was wrong. Didn't see the end coming. A bad thing; the main female character was an idiot. So because of her a 2.5 rating from me rather than a 3.
I thought the book was o.k. A good thing was that I wanted to find out how everything would end. Another good thing; at just past the halfway mark I thought I had the ending all figured out. (I thought it would be the predictable, obvious ending). Nope, I was wrong. Didn't see the end coming. A bad thing; the main female character was an idiot. So because of her a 2.5 rating from me rather than a 3.
keep_reading17's review against another edition
4.0
Per other reviews, many readers have identifies this novel as having a weak main character that seems to lose credibility as the plot continues. I found it intriguing for a completely different reason. As a former teacher with students exhibiting severe behavioral challenges I continually identified with the inmates in the novel and saw terrifying connections between them and my struggling students. It refocused me on how I worked with them and for that reason I chose 4 stars. Fiction has a way of changing lives in unintentional manners.
strangerthanfiction's review against another edition
2.0
At first, I was a bit skeptical about this book. I had chosen it as an experiment to see how borrowing e-books worked from my local library and how to get them on my Kindle. I went to the last page of e-book selections, and this was the first one on the last page. With that alone, I was thinking that maybe this book wasn't going to be the best. Why else would it be on the last page of e-books? Nevertheless, it was categorized as a mystery/thriller and I love those books. So I decided to actually read the book that I was using to learn the ropes of borrowing books.
First off, it was hard for me to get a read on the main character, Ivy. At moments, she seemed very smart and capable, if not just lacking some real confidence in herself and her ability. But towards the end of the book, I couldn't help but think that maybe she had hit her head, and had brain damage because her actions just made absolutely no sense. Overall, it seemed that Ivy was lost. That is in no way a bad thing, but I do think it helped contribute to her VERY questionable actions towards the latter third of the book. (Although I'm still not ruling out some kind of head trauma that happened that we didn't know about).
I really was enjoying this book for the first two-thirds of it. There were a few sentences, that I did have to read a couple of times because the wording confused me, but overall, it was an easy read. We were introduced to a lot of interesting characters, that did keep you guessing about their motives and actions. There was Danny, the guy from the bar, who knew more than he was letting on about the prison. Then there were the characters from the prison writing group that had a great dynamic together and made me want to know more about them (and more importantly, what their crimes were).
The last third of the book, truly just made everything unbelievable to me. Obviously, with fiction, you often have to be willing to suspend disbelief, in order for the story to move forward. This was not the case to me. The actions were so out of place, that the entire story became completely unbelievable and pretty much unlikeable. Really, what person thinks it's a smart idea to track down a criminal, who not only evaded arrest but also Federal Marshalls from the Witness Protection program? And then once you have located him, instead of going to the authorities, like the one involved in the original case, who was very friendly and mostly cooperative to your questioning and research in the case you decide to handle things yourself. But that's not all, Ivy then decided that the only way to clear Harrow's name, would be to break him out of prison (or technically the hospital). Did she not realize that by potentially clearing him of one crime, she'd be getting him charged with another crime and herself, by breaking him out of jail? It was very clear that she really wasn't thinking at all, which again leads me to believe that there was some kind of head trauma that occurred that impaired her judgment.
Also, I'm unsure of when this book took place, I wasn't paying as close attention as I probably should have in the beginning, but I do feel like a lot of Ivy's questions and research could've been done from the safety of her laptop. Although I guess that wouldn't have made for much of a story.
First off, it was hard for me to get a read on the main character, Ivy. At moments, she seemed very smart and capable, if not just lacking some real confidence in herself and her ability. But towards the end of the book, I couldn't help but think that maybe she had hit her head, and had brain damage because her actions just made absolutely no sense. Overall, it seemed that Ivy was lost. That is in no way a bad thing, but I do think it helped contribute to her VERY questionable actions towards the latter third of the book. (Although I'm still not ruling out some kind of head trauma that happened that we didn't know about).
I really was enjoying this book for the first two-thirds of it. There were a few sentences, that I did have to read a couple of times because the wording confused me, but overall, it was an easy read. We were introduced to a lot of interesting characters, that did keep you guessing about their motives and actions. There was Danny, the guy from the bar, who knew more than he was letting on about the prison. Then there were the characters from the prison writing group that had a great dynamic together and made me want to know more about them (and more importantly, what their crimes were).
The last third of the book, truly just made everything unbelievable to me. Obviously, with fiction, you often have to be willing to suspend disbelief, in order for the story to move forward. This was not the case to me. The actions were so out of place, that the entire story became completely unbelievable and pretty much unlikeable. Really, what person thinks it's a smart idea to track down a criminal, who not only evaded arrest but also Federal Marshalls from the Witness Protection program? And then once you have located him, instead of going to the authorities, like the one involved in the original case, who was very friendly and mostly cooperative to your questioning and research in the case you decide to handle things yourself. But that's not all, Ivy then decided that the only way to clear Harrow's name, would be to break him out of prison (or technically the hospital). Did she not realize that by potentially clearing him of one crime, she'd be getting him charged with another crime and herself, by breaking him out of jail? It was very clear that she really wasn't thinking at all, which again leads me to believe that there was some kind of head trauma that occurred that impaired her judgment.
Also, I'm unsure of when this book took place, I wasn't paying as close attention as I probably should have in the beginning, but I do feel like a lot of Ivy's questions and research could've been done from the safety of her laptop. Although I guess that wouldn't have made for much of a story.
kathleenitpdx's review
3.0
A fun suspense read.
Although I kept challenging the main premise of someone teaching writing in a prison. Having read [b:Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer|1767657|Crossing the Yard Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer|Richard Shelton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348431428s/1767657.jpg|1765759], an amazing book by [a:Richard Shelton|157463|Richard Shelton|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] about his experiences teaching writing in an Arizona prison and having heard about the experiences of someone who has taught writing at San Quentin, the set up in this story does not ring true. But maybe they do things differently in New York.
Although I kept challenging the main premise of someone teaching writing in a prison. Having read [b:Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer|1767657|Crossing the Yard Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer|Richard Shelton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348431428s/1767657.jpg|1765759], an amazing book by [a:Richard Shelton|157463|Richard Shelton|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] about his experiences teaching writing in an Arizona prison and having heard about the experiences of someone who has taught writing at San Quentin, the set up in this story does not ring true. But maybe they do things differently in New York.
spygrl1's review
3.0
Another fun thriller from Abrahams, author of Oblivion. This time our protagonist is Ivy Seidel, a wannabe author with an MFA and a stack of rejection letters. Her friend Joel sells a screenplay and is off to Hollywood, so he bequeaths his job teaching writing to prisoners at Dannemora to Ivy. Ivy is impressed with the writing skill demonstrated by one student, Vance Harrow, and sets out to find out more about the man's background. As she pokes around, she begins to doubt that Harrow is guilty of the robbery/homicide for which he's serving 25 years. The reader can tell Ivy is in way over her head long before she can -- she often seems to be a beat behind, missing the implications behind words and actions.
I liked the way Abrahams juxtaposed Ivy's strained efforts to make herself a skilled writer with the seemingly effortless way Harrow strings words into a compelling story. The inmate even gives her a hand with a story that was previously rejected by The New Yorker, leading to her first taste of success.
And I really liked the way Abrahams denied Ivy a happy ending. It seems at first like law-breaking is just the tonic her faltering literary aspirations needed, but then an early betrayal of one of her writing pupils comes back to bite her in the ass. Inspiration flees.
I liked the way Abrahams juxtaposed Ivy's strained efforts to make herself a skilled writer with the seemingly effortless way Harrow strings words into a compelling story. The inmate even gives her a hand with a story that was previously rejected by The New Yorker, leading to her first taste of success.
And I really liked the way Abrahams denied Ivy a happy ending. It seems at first like law-breaking is just the tonic her faltering literary aspirations needed, but then an early betrayal of one of her writing pupils comes back to bite her in the ass. Inspiration flees.
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