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A review by jakewritesbooks
Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe
3.0
Whew. This book is something. Don't know if I loved it or hated it but I know I won't forget it! I almost quit it five times and yet I couldn't put it down. I can usually handle bleak, depressing crime fiction but oh man, this one is bleak!* It mostly works until it doesn't...but the ending kind of comes together but it doesn't? I really need more people to read this so I can parse it out.
A few more points...
-Loved: Jennifer Wolfe is a writer, man. This is a first novel? Dang! Great momentum on the thrills, well-executed twists (even if some were predictable). Fantastic atmosphere. Whew.
-Hated: Using sexual trauma over-and-over again for plot purposes is not great, Bob!
-Loved: The film setting. Kept evoking Marisha Pessl's memorable Night Film.
-Hated: I'm not sure the ending came together as well as the writer would have liked. It's certainly an ambitious ending.
I think my main problem is: I never connected with the main character. Early on, the writer was trying to establish her trauma as the basis for her life and later on, as the story unfolded, I could only see her in her trauma and not as a fully realized person. And as it unfolds and her secrets unfold and the writer peels back to reveal who she is...just couldn't get there. And that took air out of the balloon.
But what a balloon! I don't know if I liked this or not but I'll remember reading it and I'll read more of what Jennifer Wolfe has to write. If this is her first novel, she will only get better.
*Trying really hard to get away from "dark" as a bad word. If anyone has any stand-ins, I'm all ears.
A few more points...
-Loved: Jennifer Wolfe is a writer, man. This is a first novel? Dang! Great momentum on the thrills, well-executed twists (even if some were predictable). Fantastic atmosphere. Whew.
-Hated: Using sexual trauma over-and-over again for plot purposes is not great, Bob!
-Loved: The film setting. Kept evoking Marisha Pessl's memorable Night Film.
-Hated: I'm not sure the ending came together as well as the writer would have liked. It's certainly an ambitious ending.
I think my main problem is: I never connected with the main character. Early on, the writer was trying to establish her trauma as the basis for her life and later on, as the story unfolded, I could only see her in her trauma and not as a fully realized person. And as it unfolds and her secrets unfold and the writer peels back to reveal who she is...just couldn't get there. And that took air out of the balloon.
But what a balloon! I don't know if I liked this or not but I'll remember reading it and I'll read more of what Jennifer Wolfe has to write. If this is her first novel, she will only get better.
*Trying really hard to get away from "dark" as a bad word. If anyone has any stand-ins, I'm all ears.