Book 3/30.
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
One thing about me, I will ALWAYS find a way to inject Taylor Swift into a conversation and this review is no exception. Track five on Taylor’s seventh studio album, Lover, is called The Archer. For those who do not know, track fives have a big reputation among Swifties because ever since her debut album, Taylor has saved her most vulnerable, personal, honest and emotionally resonant songs for the fifth track. All of this to say, in The Archer the beat never drops and the lore behind that is the beat never dropping leaves you waiting fruitlessly for it, mimicking the quiet anxiety that is present in relationships rife with uncertainty.
And that is exactly what reading this book was like. I kept waiting for the beat to drop. For the good stuff. After all, The Good Girl is recommended for fans of Gone Girl and I went into this expecting to be, at the very least, entertained. But the beat never dropped and the good stuff never came 😒 I kept encouraging myself with “it’s gonna be in the next chapter” for so many chapters, and it was only in the final third of the novel that I realised the book is as good as it gets as the story is sooo fucking UNDERWHELMING and BORING. Also, because of the changing perspectives, there is very little mystery behind the kidnapping. We know exactly what happened to Mia and, because of the changing “before” and “after” perspectives, we also know that she will be “rescued”.
This Mary Kubica debut was my first 1 star read in 495 days, a detail made even worse by the fact that I was quite excited to read it. There was zero mystery in this Mystery & Thriller and the big reveal at the end was just as underwhelming and boring as the rest of the book.
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 