Tag: william morrow

Another not-so-good book club pick: Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister #bookclub #thriller

After starting on a not so good foot, in the other half of January me and my girls picked another book to read together, and this time we were even less thrilled.
I was excited to read another book by Gillian McAllister as I liked some of her novels in the past, but unfortunately Just Another Missing Person didn’t do it for me.
You can read my review bellow.

This novel was first time published on August 1st 2023 and it has 384 pages.

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About the book:

FROM GOODREADS /

22-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again.

Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get.

Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family’s safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia – and must frame somebody else for her murder.

If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do?

This clever and endlessly surprising thriller is laced with a smart look at family and motherhood, and cements Gillian McAllister as a major talent in the world of suspense and a master of creating ethical dilemmas that show just how murky the distinction between right and wrong can be.

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Review:

This was a book club pick for January.
I was excited to read this author again, as I previously loved her other two books, and because in the meantime her career skyrocketed (or so it seems to me).

Unfortunately, reading Just Another Missing Person was not a good choice by me and my friends. Out of five of us, only three of us managed to finish it, and not one of us gave it a rating higher than 2.
So I think in this case it’s a book, not us.

The biggest turn down was the way it was written. Some chapters were written in third person, some in second, with so many characters that it was hard to get into the book.
I couldn’t connect to anyone really, but I didn’t have trouble to judge that mum who threw her son to the wolves and I am still not sure if she was even aware of that.
Since that was the only case when I felt at least something, I will hang on it if anyone ask me how I feel about this book.

Also, I have to mention that the father of a missing girl sounded like a creep and gave me chills. It was like reading from perspective of an adult who is romantically in love with his daughter.

I couldn’t care about the missing girl as the author didn’t do anything to make us connect with her.
The only character I can say I was intrigued about was that young guy who dated the missing girl.

Unfortunately, this was a big let down for me and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

I made a mistake for not picking up Wrong Place, Wrong Time instead, but now, after finishing Just Another Missing Person, I lost the will to give it a try.

2 hearts

So… this was a mess: The Last Word by Taylor Adams #bookreview #thriller

The Last Word by Taylor Adams book cover, William Morrow

As you probably already know, I am a member of a book club where four of us girls (plus from February one guy as a new member) pick a book or two and read it together, while discuss it all along as we read.
2024 didn’t start on a good note, as both books we read in January weren’t that good.

Today I bring you my review for a book that got lot of hype at one point in 2023. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of it, but at least my FOMO was cured.

The Last Word was published on April 25th 2023 and it has 340 pages.

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About the book:

FROM GOODREADS /

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?

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Review:

This was a January pick for our book club and unfortunately 2024 didn’t start well.
The Last Word was a mess, and the book we read after this one was even worse.

I would like to say that this novel started promising. The writing style was good, slow but interesting, and it was easy for me to connect with Emma.
She was a loner, clearly suffering with depression after a tragic event in her life.
I could understand why she chose solitude and comfort in this new, boring way of living (if you can call it that).

However, with part 2 being written in a different way, all the connection I had for the story and our MC slowly but surely fell down the drain.

It’s not even about the choices Emma made, it was mainly the writing style.
All of the sudden beautiful prose was replaced with harsh storytelling, with more action that in Terminator movies.
At one point so much was going on that it made puree in my brain, it was too much to handle.
Especially as I didn’t enjoy the story anyway, nor did I like the characters enough.

The closer to the end we were, my connection to the story was less and less there, until it faded completely.

The last few chapters were pure torture and I couldn’t wait to be done with it and move on.
The only reason I decided to finish The Last Word is because my FOMO activated, just like it does every time I take part in buddy reads.

If anyone asks me, this book got more hype then it deserved.