John

Not gonna lie: Picked this up more or less blindly, didn't realize it was for 15-year-olds. That being said, it wasn't half bad.

It's a PG-13 'Saw,' in a lot of ways. Something in between 'Goosebumps' and 'Fear Street,' with one use of the f-word, if you're counting. Melodramatic, obsessive, neurotic characters that probably would have been relatable a few decades ago.

For what it was, it was fine. Something I flipped through for a few hours last night. Can't say that I wouldn't flip through another one.

My only gripe is that the character with the most interesting possibilities--cousin Tess--is used like a prop throughout the entire thing, when it is clear that she is the true hero of the novel. #TeamTess

Trigger warnings for mental health / suicide.

This was my first Riley Sager novel. I've heard you either love him or hate him. I did not love him.

I agree with most of the criticisms I've seen for this book: slow, boring at times, a flat hero, almost DNF'd, etc. That's all true. And more.

I'm willing to forgive all that.

But, when you deliver two major reveals, back-to-back on the same page nonetheless, they'd better be tight. When you go where Sager does here--dead husband is actually the serial killer the cops are looking for, and he's dead because our hero killed him, and he's a ghost who just possessed the missing girl--it needs to be believable.

I'm not talking about suspending disbelief. Okay, this guy's a ghost now. Also, our hero killed him. Fine. Tell me he was actually in outer space the whole time. I don't give a shit.

But this story is told in first-person. We are inside Casey's head the entire time. Which means that we have access to her thoughts, and there's no way that this wouldn't have crossed her mind on page 7.

The reveal cannot be something that has been inside of the hero's head the entire time, when I've also been inside the hero's head the entire time. It's a cheap trick, and it's a gaping hole in an otherwise weird, fairly enjoyable if sometimes boring story about an obsessive alcoholic woman and the ghost husband she killed last summer.

I like the fact that this thing turned and went somewhere I didn't think it would go. I like how it was actually a different story than the one I thought I was reading. But the whole thing pivots on a huge reveal that just feels underhanded. An unreliable narrator, I can accept. But I have to draw the line at an unreliable author.

To be fair, I am now seeing that this appears to be one of his worst-liked books, and I would honestly give him another shot. But this one is not recommended.