I want to say this isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. I really want to. And it isn’t. Except … well, it just might be.

The plot is unbelievable and has roughly a million holes in it. And I’m not even talking about the supernatural aspect. The ghosts are probably the most believable part of the story. The characters’ dialogue is unnatural, and their behaviours not in the least bit believable. As I read through, I found myself despising the book. And I hate to say that because I know how much work goes into writing a book. Normally, I would have given up after a few chapters, but I’m trying really hard to finish every book I start this year. And I kept hoping it would get better. Fortunately, this isn’t a particularly long book. However, it meant that by the time I decided I really couldn’t continue reading, I was almost halfway through. So, I did continue.

The author’s writing is not polished. She makes good use of punctuation. I will give her that. But the book reads like a first draft an amateur writer may have written. It is not professional.

So, the plot. A twenty-five year old waitress who spent her whole life in the foster care system learns she has inherited a mansion and millions of dollars from the family she never knew. However, when she returns to the house, odd things start to happen. The one thing I liked about this book is the name for the mansion: Desolate Ridge.

The characters are two-dimensional and do not come across as real. The author tries to make the protagonist, Aubrey, have some depth by showing her previous flirtation with mental illness and her difficulty with allowing people to get close to her. She does this by telling the reader on (pretty much) every other page that Aubrey isn’t used to people getting close to her or caring about her. It gets boring pretty quickly.

The setting isn’t really addressed a lot. The author could have made so much out of the isolated setting of the house. Instead, the only real setting we get is where Aubrey finds the family of graves, and the author says there is a fog around them. Not very original.

So, all in all, I did not like this book at all. I looked up the author and the book when I finished to see whether other people have felt the same way, and I was surprised to find that it’s not the case. This book apparently won some American Mystery/Thriller Award. Baffling. Am I becoming a writing snob? I don’t think so. But, come on. This book actually made me angry; it was so bad. I don’t get how anyone could not have picked up on the things I did.

The name of 'Desolate Ridge.'

Also, it is a short book. That's good.

Pretty much everything. See above.

Scream. And not from fear; from frustration.

Angry.

I won't be reading her again.

It's terrible.

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Created May 12, 2021 at 3:26am • Submit your own review...