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A review by strangerthanfiction
End of Story by Peter Abrahams
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.