My Five Word TL:DR Review : Still Thinking About This One

It’s not a bad thing when a book makes you think about it long after you finished reading and yet I have slightly mixed feelings with this one that I don’t think I’ve quite unravelled.  Perhaps writing this review will help.

I think that having loved The Only One Left so much I picked this one up with impossibly high expectations. To be fair to the book and author, this is a compelling read with plenty of atmosphere but it didn’t have the breakneck reveals of the last read that made my jaw clang to the floor. 

That being said, I had no problems dashing through this one and practically completed it in two sittings – so what can I say.

I’ll keep this overview short to avoid spoilers. 

The start is really gripping. Ethan, now an adult, has returned to his family home. Thirty years ago Ethan’s best friend disappeared from the tent they were both camping in, in Ethan’s backyard. The crime was never solved, Billy was never found, and Ethan is still haunted by events. Returning to the home of the trauma might not have been the wisest choice and when strange things start to happen Ethan feels like his long lost friend is haunting him, trying to provoke him into looking for clues about what really happened on that fateful night. 

My feelings for this one

Well, firstly, it is undoubtedly a compelling read. I was so curious about what happened to Billy that I really couldn’t stop reading and as I already mentioned, the start really pulls you in.

Secondly, we discover fairly quickly that Ethan is something of an unreliable narrator. This is a ploy that I enjoyed. Within fairly short shrift we discover that the day on which Billy disappeared was a lot more eventful than first suspected and there are many secrets being kept by a number of friends and neighbours. 

I love it when everyone becomes a potential suspect and this soon becomes the case here. All the suspects know each other and there’s this close knit feel where slowly but surely one reveal leads to another, and so on. 

I liked Ethan. He’s really not a bad guy at all and in fact he’s the only character that I didn’t have my beady eye on. 

The setting is small in scope. We have a small, sheltered cul de sac, many of the residents the same as during Ethan’s childhood, an ominous wood that houses a secret institute and an almost claustrophobic feel with everyone watching each other warily. 

I liked the way the tension and the atmosphere is built and really enjoy Sager’s writing and especially the dual timelines where we jump back and forth discovering what really happened all those summers ago whilst also trying to get a grip on what’s really taking place in the current timeframe. 

What gave me pause for thought. There is some repetition. As things unfold we learn about events but replay them from a different angle. I did enjoy this aspect but at the same time it sometimes felt that the story slowed down and along with this some aspects just felt a little overstretched. 

I enjoyed the reveals but at the same time I couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed with the final reveal from the night in question. It felt a bit too much somehow – however, having read the incredibly dramatic and totally OTT The Last One Standing I think I should have been more prepared for all the twists and turns so that’s something I need to embrace a little more with future reads. 

As it is, I enjoyed this, I had a slight twinge of feeling let down by the final reveal, but at the same time I’m not quite sure what I was expecting and  really that’s more to do with me than the book. 

So. I will definitely read more by this author and I would recommend this without doubt. 

I received a copy through Netalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion. 

My rating 3.5 of 5 stars rounded to 4