Reviews with content warning for Incest - The Death of Mrs. Westaway

It was gonna be 3 stars because it was so slow but the incest knocked it down to 1. The twists were fairly predictable and the writing was so repetitive it could’ve been half the length. Instead of moving the plot forward the main character just kept changing locations. I regret reading this.

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lostinworlds's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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armstrongangela83's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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laedybug's review against another edition

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mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This is the third book by Ruth Ware that I have read and she has been consistently okay. Her books are enjoyable enough and, considering that I only spent a day reading it, worth the time. However, there's nothing really remarkable about any of her books, this one included.

Let's start with the characters: Hal, which is short for Harriet (something I spent a lot of time confused about, but that's just me) is a low-key con artist. From giving tarot readings she does not believe in to deciding to defraud a family out of an inheritance, she definitely does some stuff that might be considered morally grey. Unfortunately, Ware doesn't seem to want to let her live in grey-ness. Ware is constantly reminding the reader that Hal is acting like this out of necessity, that Hal would rather not be giving readings to her impressionable regulars. To me, this takes away some of the uniqueness of Hal's character, especially because it doesn't feel consistent. At one point in the novel, she considers telling a half-lie, and then stops and thinks to herself "No, that's still a lie. I've lied enough." However, when she gets to actually talking to the people, she tells the half lie. Straight up, no hesitation, no thinking to herself about what the consequences of this would be, not truly. I just think the idea of the con-artist, morally grey protagonist is SO promising, and Ware did not deliver.

After Hal, there's a medium sized cast of other Westaway family members (whose home she and the others have come to for the funeral/will reading Hal is trying to con her way into). Ware attempts to give the reader a good framework of how they are all related, so props to her, but some of these characters appear so infrequently and inconsequently that I have to keep flipping back and forth to remember who "Freddie" is. The adults are rather well characterized and easy to tell apart.

The "twist" in the story is interesting because it both came out of nowhere and could be seen from a mile away. It was easy to figure out if you have any degree of familiarity with thrillers or mystery novels, but there was not (in my opinion) as much groundwork laid as there could have been. I was a little disappointed that the final confrontation ended in
something beyond Hal's control. The novel is heavy on Hal making choices (making the choice to go to the funeral, making the choice to leave, making the choice to come back) and yet the climax was her incidentally being saved by nature.

By far my favourite part of this book was whenever it would talk about tarot or would show Hal using her cold-reading skills. In the context of the readings, it was fun to hear how she would lead the conversation based on the cues she picked up, and in the context of day-to-day it was super cool to see how her skills translated to her conning them instead of just being told she could lie really well.

This novel is a fine mystery thriller. It's the kind of thing you would read on the beach or in a hammock after you find it at a garage sale or thrift store for $1 or less, but not (to me) a book you would buy new on the day of release. As long as you go into it expecting a novel that is just okay, you'll be pleased!

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sarah_speaks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ashleycmms's review against another edition

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2.75

Anyone who knows me and my reading tastes knows I’m a super for family drama, dynamics, and relationships. I always enjoy it no matter if it’s possible, healthy, traumatic, fictional, or non-fiction. However, I went into this expecting a thriller/horror and figured out the antagonist 25% in. By 50% I figured out the plot twist. I read and watch a lot of horror/thriller content so it’s not unusable for me to be able to figure out what’s going to happen before I get there. However, what was a real let down for me was the sheer lack of concrete reasons as to WHY these things even came to happen. This is a story that relies heavily on backstory while simultaneously being incredibly vague about the events of the past. We get a few diary entries of the past that were very intriguing, but they often caused me to wonder more about what happened during that time. Especially to the main villain of this story. We get no reasoning, which I guess would be fine if the story was “some people are just evil” but there’s constant wording that “over time,” “something happened,” and “before and after.” So WHAT…. WHAT IS IT THAT HAPPENED?

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