Our kind of cruelty

I picked up this book based on only what the blurb told me because it ticked a few boxes - unreliable narrator, obsessive relationship, and psychological suspense. Because this is the kind of book that is best read when you know very little, I'm not going to summarize the plot, but I'll say that if you liked books like [b:You 20821614 You (You, #1) Caroline Kepnes https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411958102s/20821614.jpg 39913517] by Caroline Kepness or [b:Best Day Ever 34007977 Best Day Ever Kaira Rouda https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1496783181s/34007977.jpg 55005136] by Kaira Rouda, this might a book for you.The thing that sets this book apart for me is how it touches on how the media often treats women unfairly in cases of relationships gone wrong. As the author notes in her acknowledgements, this book is “a mad spurt of anger at the continued injustices perpetrated against women in our so-called civilized society.” The trial scenes in the second part of the novel are when the book really picked up the pace for me and I found myself unable to put the book down. Also, Hall keeps you guessing through an incredibly manipulative writing style, so that you don't really know what the truth is until the end. Even in the final chapters I was only pretty sure I knew what was happening. This book won't be for everyone, but if you like being in the head of obsessive creepers, I highly recommend it!

I didn't know it was possible but I can say with all honesty that this book was a little too much for me. I wanted to give it the full five stars but there were some things and some parts of the book that just didn't do it for me, although in all this book is fantastic and a very intense, dark read.

It took me finishing the whole book to understand what made me feel that the book was too much for me, it was the lack of different perspectives and seeing things from different character's eyes. At first, I took the main character's truth as the actual truth but soon realized that he was very biased and deluded in his love for the heroine, V. This not being able to trust him and his words anymore really made me feel uneasy and didn't give me any real sense of closure, since his obsessiveness with V didn't let go for even a moment and we never really found out the actual truth, just what we could construct from his overly false sense of it.

The plot was also not the most exciting one, although it did have some more exciting moments towards the end, after starting off very slowly. I prefer books with a real mystery in it but this was just a simple crime, followed by everyone's different versions and reconstructions of the events that led up to the main crime. I hate that even after the book has been read, I have no concrete knowledge of who is lying and who is telling the truth, just my own opinions. I came out of this book with more questions than I started with and that is something I am not used to when it comes to reading novels.

The main character, Mike, he is very well developed and because we are always in his head, we get a very complete sense of who he is, although we can't be sure that what he is saying and also thinking is completely accurate to the events as they transpire. I have not come across such a complicated, conflicted and wonderfully intricate character in a novel in a very long time and that really pushed me to keep reading, even when the plot was mediocre at best.

The writing style was pretty good too, although it didn't flow as effortlessly as I would have preferred and the sentences themselves could have been cut down and made just a tiny bit more simple. Although now that I am writing this, I realize that the style of the writing makes more sense when I think about who's head all these thoughts are happening in and in that case, the writing fits very well in this individual situation.

All in all, this book had a lot of things I loved and also some that I didn't really care for. Maybe because I am already quite an intense and emotional person myself, the point of view of the main character was a bit too overwhelming for me, especially since it extended for the whole book. Maybe it just feels unnerving to me because as crazy as the main character is, I can also understand and see his perspective, even if I don't quite agree with it. I would recommend this book for someone who is looking for an INTENSE reading experience and wants to be completely immersed into the mind of someone obsessed with another person, not really someone looking for the most unique and exciting plot. I quite enjoyed it but it was definitely not a personal favorite.

I'm always a little dubious when a book is marketed as the “biggest/most gripping/crazy thriller of [insert year]”, especially when that is actually after the book title when you buy or download it (for example, Amazon has this as “The most addictive psychological thriller of 2018, tipped by Gillian Flynn and Lisa Jewell). When this little marketing tagline is included, it generally doesn't end up being that way and unfortunately this was no exception.

In my opinion this isn't really a thriller, it's a psychological suspense and character study of a man's obsessive love of his ex-girlfriend. Just something to be aware of if looking to pick this up.

This follows Mike and V (Verity), we get some of their back story when they were together and we find out V is marrying someone else so we know immediately that their relationship didn't work out. This isn't a spoiler.

I will say this is well written and does completely pull you in from the start, it's fairly quick to read and the pacing suits the story. Mike is such a complex character to learn about, you know his obsession is just not right but he's actually likeable and you end up wanting the best for him despite his actions with V.

My main issue with this book was the structure, it is split into three parts - parts one and two cover the back story, current situation and the main ‘action' in the story, then the entire third part is basically the trial (again not a spoiler). I can't help but this this might have benefited from some back and forth between the first section and the trial in a sort of flashback or time switch format. The issue with the different parts is that the action has already happened in part two, so there's no climax to the end of the book. It just sort of ends with the end of the trial, somewhat like a true crime book, but this is fiction. It's just a bit flat.

I appreciated the afterword from the author where she explains why she wrote this particular story, it did help to understand some elements of the novel. I also appreciate that this book will not be for everyone and I think it will raise a lot of discussions as people will like different characters, different side of this and will end up with an entirely different view on the ending but that is the beauty of reading.

All in all, I did enjoy this for the most part as the story is interesting and well written, but the latter half an ending was quite unsatisfying and just left me feeling a bit sad.