I purchased this book for my own personal collection.
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: April 25, 2023
Summary:
After posting a negative book review, a woman living in a remote location begins to wonder if the author is a little touchy—or very, very dangerous—in this pulse-pounding novel of psychological suspense and terror from the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and Hairpin Bridge.
Emma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington coast. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and (via text) the house’s owner, Jules.
One day, she reads a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel by the author H. G. Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument with none other than the author himself. Soon after, disturbing incidents start to occur at night. To Emma, this can’t just be a coincidence. It was strange enough for this author to bicker with her online about a lousy review; could he be stalking her, too?
As Emma digs into Kane’s life and work, she learns he has published sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and murder. But who is he? How did he find her? And what else is he capable of?
My thoughts:
I absolutely loved Taylor Adam’s debut novel, No Exit. I devoured it in one sitting. It was an intense, crazy ride and so I know what I’m getting into when I pick up his books. I really liked his second book, Hairpin Bridge, too and so it was a no-brainer that I would want to read his next book, plus one of my book clubs was reading it so I had to!
This was definitely another wild ride and quite entertaining – but I don’t know in all honesty if I would have kept reading it had it not been for my book club. I just never got into it, though the twist towards the midpoint definitely grabbed my attention and had me paying a little more attention. There is also a lot of what I felt to be gratuitous violence in this book that I don’t necessarily feel needed to be there and I had a really hard time with this – if you’ve read the book you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, feel free to message me – but to say it outright would be a spoiler.
I realize with thrillers there is the need to suspend disbelief at times, and most of the time I am able to, but here I just never bought into the overall theme of the story I guess. I didn’t hate the book, I just didn’t love it the way I thought I would. I will say the twists did surprise me and kept me reading so there is that.
I did enjoy our discussion of the book, though, at our book club meeting. I saw things I hadn’t thought about and left the meeting with a better appreciation for the book. Even though I didn’t love this one, I will still be eager to see what Taylor Adams writes next…he really is a talented author!
