Review: The Woman In Cabin 10

Title The Woman In Cabin 10
By Ruth Ware
Genre Psychological Thriller, Mystery
Format Audiobook
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Lo Blacklock, a writer for a travel magazine, is going on the maiden voyage of the prestigious cruise ship the Aurora. With a recent break in at her home and her relationship with her boyfriend on the rocks Lo is finding her insomnia unbearable but lack of sleep or not she's sure of what she hears and sees one night on the cruise. A scream and a splash and something that looks like blood smeared on the balcony next to hers. Sure that something awful has happened to the woman in the cabin next to hers, Lo starts investigating but no one believes. As she starts to dig deeper the threats start coming but Lo can't give up on trying to find the woman in cabin 10.

First Sentence
The first inkling that something was wrong was waking in darkness to find the cat pawing at my face.

  This is my first Ruth Ware book and a friend of mine was horribly disappointed in it so I was reluctant to pick it up. But, as often happens, I needed an audiobook to listen to and it was available so here we are.

I actually ended up really liking the book. Mostly, I think, because the main character, while a bit naive, was likable: A rare thing in these psychological thrillers.

I also really liked the story. I wanted to know what was going on and who Lo could trust. The present day to past timeline added to the intensity as well.

I felt like I was reading an Agatha Christie book a little because you have this cast of characters isolated from the world and someone has gone missing. But where an Agatha Christie novel would have a investigator on board and everyone scared of everyone else this one was just a magazine writer against the whole company. No one else believed her and there was no record of anyone missing on board.

Anyway, it made for a fun read and I enjoyed it. I'm eager to try Ware's other books now.

Review: A Simple Favor

Title A Simple Favor
By Darcey Bell
Genre Adult Psychological Thriller
Format ebook
Rating ⭐️

Synopsis
Stephanie is delighted to have made a friend like Emily, She's elegant, sophisticated and seems to have it all with the perfect job and husband. So Stephanie is shocked when Emily goes missing. As the search begins for her friend, Stephanie will learn more than she bargained for about her, so called, best friend.

First Sentence
Hi moms!




I know it is no longer polite or politically correct to bash a book as bad as I'm about to but this book deserves it so get ready.

I first learned of this book because I saw a preview for the movie which looked silly but fun and I suspected it was based on a book. Of course it was, so I put the book on hold on Overdrive. Then I started seeing all the negative reviews of the book around and decided I wasn't going to read it. But I'd forgotten I put it on hold and it came in and well, I'm an idiot and glutton for punishment, apparently, because I decided to read it.

And what's worse is when it got stupider and stupider, I KEPT reading. Why?!

Most of these psychological thrillers have unlikable characters. Have you noticed? So the fact that this one was full of them was not a surprise or a deal breaker for me. What made me seethe with rage was the complete pointlessness of this one.

*Spoilers*

Emily claims she loves her son. Yeah. Right. Who would put their child through the trauma of making them believe you were dead? Really? I don't buy it. Plus she claims she wants to spend more time with him but runs away in hiding and becomes far more obsessed with her revenge and plans than with her son.  Then she shows herself to her son because, "She can't stay away" Therefore traumatizing him further because he thought she was dead then sees shes alive then when he tells people she's alive they call him a liar and suggest he needs therapy! Who does this to a six year old?!! Not someone that loves them!

Then, there's the whole insurance policy scam. That's why she pretended to be dead; to collect insurance money. When that starts to look like it won't pan out she goes nuts, kills the insurance agent, for no good reason that I could see, and then changes her story to get rid of her husband, get a divorce and lives happily with her son...but still spend all her time working so she STILL never sees her son. *face palm*

So basically she really doesn't know what she wants and accomplishes nothing but throwing her husband under the bus, allowing the only person she really loved to kill herself and traumatizing her son.

And then there's Stephanie. She was the stupidest character to walk the pages of a book since...Bella. I just didn't buy that she was that naive and malleable. Not when she had the secret she did and kept it all hush hush as well as she did...until she met Emily, that is.

*End of Spoilers*

The book was mess. There was no point and the characters were unbelievable and didn't act like actual people would. Not even psychotic people.

I was blown away that someone would read this monstrosity and think, "This would make a great movie". Just no.

However, I saw the movie (Glutton for punishment) and saw that someone obviously hated the book as much as I did but saw its potential and "fixed" it. I thought the movie was pretty stupid too but at least it had a point and ended much better then the book.

Which makes me wonder...why the hell didn't the author end the book like the movie? Did she actually think she'd written a great story here? Who the hell told her that? I'd be humiliated to have this story tied to my name in any shape or form. Yuck!

Review: Genuine Fraud

Title Genuine Fraud
By E. Lockhart
Genre NA Psychological Thriller
Format Audiobook
Rating ⭐️

Synopsis
Spoiled rich girl and slightly psychotic girl equals a recipe for disaster.



First Sentence 
It was a bloody great hotel.





E. Lockhart is a hit or miss with me. I love her Ruby Oliver series but her serious books, We Were Liars and this one, apparently aren't for me. My biggest problem with this one, after the completely unlikable characters and the pointless story was, how similar it was with The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was a complete ripoff of that one. Some similarities would have been fine but this one was nearly identical.

Since I find The Talented Mr. Ripley pointless and full of crappy characters as well you can imagine why I didn't like this one.  Sadly, I really don't have much else to say. Lockhart is a great writer but sometimes her stories and me just don't get along.

Review: Bring Me Back

Title Bring Me Back
By B.A. Paris
Genre Adult, Psychological Thriller, Suspense
Format Ebook
Rating ⭐️

Synopsis
Finn and Layla were in love and Finn was about ready to propose. On a road trip he stops at a rest station and leaves Layla sleeping in the car while he uses the restroom. When he comes back, Layla is gone. That's the story he tells the police, but it's not the whole truth. Years later Finn's grief and Layla's sister Ellen's grief have brought the two together. But when they get engaged everything starts falling apart. Item's from Ellen's childhood with Layla start to show up and an old neighbor claims to have seen Layla. Could Layla be back? What does she want? Is she seeking revenge?

First Sentence
We were on our way back from skiing in Megeve.



I really loved Paris' other two books, Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown so I was eager for this one. However, instead of buying it I borrowed it from the library and, boy, am I glad I did. Spending a  single dime on this would have been as bad as spending all that time reading it.

I kept seeing disappointed reviews so I should have known but I still had my hopes up. This book was one big mess! It honestly felt like Paris grabbed an old rejected manuscript from ages ago and polished it up a bit and her publishers published it now that she's made a name for herself.

It was awful. The twist wasn't surprising at all and completely unbelievable, the characters were all flat and uninteresting and the plot was boring and repetitive and made me lose interest 50 pages in.

Please, please, please don't let this one deter you from her others, though, they were both very good. This one should have been left at the bottom of her rejected manuscripts pile.

Oh well. Every author  usually has a book or two that disappoints us. I intend to read anything else she publishes so it wasn't a complete loss.

Review: Sometimes I Lie

Title Sometimes I Lie
By Alice Feeney
Genre Adult Psychological Thriller
Format Audio book
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
When Amber wakes up in a hospital she has no memory of how she got there. Even worse she's not really awake. She can hear everything going on around her but she's in a coma and can't talk or move. Alternating between one week before her accident and the present the truth slowly unfolds.

First Sentence
I've always delighted in the free fall between sleep and wakefulness.



Maybe you've heard of this one? It's fairly popular in the world of psychological thrillers made popular by the likes of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. I find these to either be a hit or a miss for me.

Sadly, this one was a miss. I just don't get why people are raving about it. It was OK and I didn't see a few things coming but I did see enough to be unimpressed.

At one point I was listening and a huge reveal came but I was at at a restaurant ordering food so I paused it and then just sat there, my mind coming up with this really awesome way the story could go and how mind blowing it would be. Then I started listening again. Nope. It went some predictable boring way and I was left feeling disappointed.

On the bright side I have an awesome idea for a psychological thriller if I could make myself actually write it.

Friday Flicks: Unsane

Unsane
★★★

What It's About
The unsettled victim of a stalker, Sawyer reaches out to a therapist and gets committed to a mental health hospital. As if things couldn't get any worse the stalker has gotten a job there. Starting to question her own sanity, Sawyer fights to survive.

I debated with myself about whether to review this one or not. I'm guessing most of you haven't heard of it??? But I decided to go ahead any way. I was very excited to see it since I love psychological thrillers and the entire movie was shot with an iphone so I was curious.

I had a few disappointments with this one. First, my iphone won't do half the things this one did. Night vision video? What the hell?! Come on! I guess I should get the iphone X if I want that feature. ;)

My real disappointment was that the previews lead you to believe that you're going to be trying to decide if Sawyer is actually sane or not. I don't know why they marketed it that way. There was never any doubt in my mind that she was sane. They should have just marketed it for what it was. A twisty, disturbing tale of a girl held against her will in the one place where no one will believe her.

So if you decide to go see this one, just go into knowing she's perfectly sane and it makes the unfairness of it all so much more disturbing and creepy.

Claire Foy was quite different than she is in The Crown and even puts on a passable american accent. Her stalker, Joshua Stine did an excellent job of being maddeningly creepy.

Besides feeling a bit too long, I enjoyed this one.

Let's Talk
Why do movies and even books often mislead us in their advertising? It's so annoying!

Recommendation
You don't have to pay full price at the theater but it's worth renting from Redbox or Amazon and enjoying a chilling thrill ride in the comfort of your home.