Reviews

The final... 25% odd of this novel is very, very good. Yet the build up to it is so slow and repetitive that it's a miracle I got there at all. Julia and Paul live in a marriage full of secrets. We find out Paul's secret fairly early on, yet what's going on with Julia is danced around in a most annoying fashion. There daughter, Chrissie, is a musical prodigy who suddenly goes missing after a musical competition leaving Julia and Paul in a desperate race to find her.

The problem is that so much time is spent in the past and gently teasing out the secrets that lie behind the perfect nuclear family act that the it is less of a desperate race and more of a meandering jaunt. I suspect the intent was to build up tension and suspense, but instead I simply found myself bored and wishing it would get a move on. The whole premise of the book is Chrissie's disappearance and yet we spend hundreds of pages watching her rehearse, or her dad's obsession with her perfection or her mum's secret life. It felt completely unnecessary.

When we finally get to the good stuff, the book really does pick up and is a fascinating read. Some of the secrets that - FINALLY - come out of the woodwork are actually almost worthy of the insane build up. Others less so, but that's life. I suspect if the characters were more appealing I might not have minded taking the seriously scenic route to get to the point. But both parents are fairly flat and faintly unpleasant and that's who you spend most of your time with.

So all in all, not really a winner for me. It's too slow. To waffly. Too repetitive. The final fifth or forth does pick up, but not enough to redeem it from it's own mediocrity.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

Content Warnings

kba76's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Wealthy couple, Julia and Paul, have the kind of life that many envy. Their daughter, Chrissie, is an accomplished violinist. However, when she goes missing after a competition lots of secrets come out. Nobody in this family is what they claim to be.
While the story kept my interest, I have to confess that the characters were all quite unpleasant. It was obvious that there were numerous issues and these were compounding the problems featuring in the narrative.
The story depended on us not knowing the full extent of the problems, but there were so many hints that it felt unlikely nobody outside the family would have worked out any of these things.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this.

stormyanja's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

yade95's review against another edition

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Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.25

This was bad. I wouldn't have finished this book if I had found some spoilers somewhere. So, to save someone else some time, I will spoil the book for the rest of this review.

Paul, the dad, is controlling, misogynistic, and using his daughter's talent for his own ego. While his whole character is disgusting, I think the writer meant to portray him as a caring, protecting father who would do everything for his daughter. This includes checking his daughter's phone and messages and planning everything seconds of Chrissie's days. He also wants to send her to some fancy art school, without discussing this with her mother mind you, that cost thousands of pounds and to get that money he invests in some shady stocks and loses everything. This last thing has no repocusions for him when his wife found out. During all of this, he constantly feels sick because someone sends his daughter a text saying, "Sexy girl." This poor man.

Meanwhile, Julia was having an affair with a man who turned out to be abusive and kept on bothering her after she tried to break things off. Her father was also abusive, and she never really fell off the stairs when she was pregnant. Instead, her asshole shitbag misogynistic father beat her half to death because women should be pure.

Chrissie, the daughter, had enough of her parents, so she ran away to some community in the woods with her friend Reese. She left her parents some clues behind and faked a struggle so they would call the police. She knew about the affair and the school. The whole thing was orchestrated to make her parents think about the thing they had done.

The men from the affair had assaulted her a few weeks before, and the night she ran away, he followed her, leading her parents and the police to believe they ran away together. But in reality, the man had died in the meantime due to an overdose. They found her and returned back home where Julia's parents were waiting for her. Her father started beating Chrissie, and Julia stood up to him. The mother moved in with Paul and Julia, and everything was fine again 🙂.