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pagesplotsandpints 's review for:
I Know You Know
by Gilly Macmillan
Read Completed 5/4/23 | 2.5 stars
This book had so much potential and when I started reading it, it had very similar feelings to What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall, which I rated 5 stars earlier this year. Sadly, I KNOW YOU KNOW just never really made that special jump into the amazing connection territory and I actually struggled most of the book to click with it. I still kept trying because I was hoping for that moment, but it never happened.
My biggest issue with the book was the characters. I felt like they were all over the place. There's a difference between allowing them to keep secrets and hiding things from/changing things on the readers. Jessica's difference was growth, so there was that, but I had such a hard time understanding who Fletcher was supposed to be and why Felix needed to be so important. It's like all of the pieces were there but they were forced together incorrectly and jarringly so instead of a puzzle being put back together.
I was going to leave this as a 3 star rating, letting it go that maybe I just didn't click with it, but the ending really left me feeling even more unhappy about the book. It was incredibly unsatisfying, a little weird, and felt like more than a couple of odd choices. I personally VERY much don't like when an author throws in a random character or situation in the end to solve a mystery when they weren't even parts of the main plot, and I felt a little tricked here. There were SO many opportunities to keep the shock value but make it good. This felt like a cop out, and then added some twists so throw everyone's character up in the air again for another jumbled mess for good measure.
This was my first Gilly Macmillan book and I chose it because it has two of my favorite narrators (Steve West, Imogen Church) and sadly, even this book made me not like their performances. They were still great, but I felt like their characters were just so blah during the book as well that they didn't even have the chance to make them interesting and bring them to life.
Just a disappointment all around. I REALLY expected to like this one so I kept listening and then I reached a point where it was too late to stop (I don't count my DNFs as read, no matter how far I get, so I finished the book and hey, I also wanted to see if maybe the ending got better too. It did not).
This book had so much potential and when I started reading it, it had very similar feelings to What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall, which I rated 5 stars earlier this year. Sadly, I KNOW YOU KNOW just never really made that special jump into the amazing connection territory and I actually struggled most of the book to click with it. I still kept trying because I was hoping for that moment, but it never happened.
My biggest issue with the book was the characters. I felt like they were all over the place. There's a difference between allowing them to keep secrets and hiding things from/changing things on the readers. Jessica's difference was growth, so there was that, but I had such a hard time understanding who Fletcher was supposed to be and why Felix needed to be so important. It's like all of the pieces were there but they were forced together incorrectly and jarringly so instead of a puzzle being put back together.
I was going to leave this as a 3 star rating, letting it go that maybe I just didn't click with it, but the ending really left me feeling even more unhappy about the book. It was incredibly unsatisfying, a little weird, and felt like more than a couple of odd choices. I personally VERY much don't like when an author throws in a random character or situation in the end to solve a mystery when they weren't even parts of the main plot, and I felt a little tricked here. There were SO many opportunities to keep the shock value but make it good. This felt like a cop out, and then added some twists so throw everyone's character up in the air again for another jumbled mess for good measure.
This was my first Gilly Macmillan book and I chose it because it has two of my favorite narrators (Steve West, Imogen Church) and sadly, even this book made me not like their performances. They were still great, but I felt like their characters were just so blah during the book as well that they didn't even have the chance to make them interesting and bring them to life.
Just a disappointment all around. I REALLY expected to like this one so I kept listening and then I reached a point where it was too late to stop (I don't count my DNFs as read, no matter how far I get, so I finished the book and hey, I also wanted to see if maybe the ending got better too. It did not).