I usually do a good job picking out books to read; some may be less enjoyable than I hoped, but rarely do I choose one that turns out to be a clunker. However, the one I just finished was so much of a clunker that I wished it had a physical book I could throw across the room. I was so annoyed with the waste of my time and money (over $16) that I actually returned it to Audible this morning.
The book in question,
One Step Too Far, by Tina Seskis, was touted as a thriller. The publisher's summary states:
Quote:
The number-one international best seller reminiscent of After I'm Gone, Sister, Before I Go to Sleep and The Silent Wife--an intricately plotted, thoroughly addictive thriller that introduces a major new voice in suspense fiction; a mesmerizing and powerful novel that will keep you guessing to the very end.
No one has ever guessed Emily's secret.
Will you?
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Sounds like fun if you like thrillers, right? I'd read and enjoyed two of the books the publisher compared it to (
Sister and
Before I Go to Sleep), and another highly hyped thriller I'd just read (
The Girl on the Train) had actually lived up to the hype, so I figured I'd give this one a go.
It was an unfocused, meandering mess. The story starts promisingly enough with Emily running away from her life and family, and transforming herself into Cat to build a new life. We the readers are kept dangling by the promise of some big twist (Emily's Secret!) to explain it all. First-person chapters about Emily/Cat's new life alternate with third-person chapters about the past: vignettes focusing on Emily's parents' unhappy marriage, Emily's unstable twin sister, Emily's romance and marriage, and even, inexplicably, Cat's new friend's past.
True, some of this was interesting, but it just didn't ever GO anywhere. There was no real mystery; the people Emily left behind would certainly have known why she ran away, even if not the complete reason. There's one bit of misdirection that I simply found annoying and rather stupid--I can only think that THAT was the "twist," but, seriously? It was only the author tricking the readers; it was external to the story itself.
This was in no way a thriller. I don't know what it was, but I can't remember when I last read something so annoying and disappointing.