Tense and twisty yet also tedious and predictable.

 

The premise for this story is excellent.  We all know what Amanda Knox went through.  As much as I love to travel, being detained by foreign officials is an incredibly scary thought.  

 

Kristin and Emily didn’t quite fit in with classmates at college.  Kristin was bold and confident.  Emily was a demure follower.  They immediately bonded and became fast BFFs.  Now that they are career women, they meet up each year at some exotic location to catch up and get away from the stress of the world.  But the last two trips haven’t been quite so stress free.  Two dead men.  The first one attacked Emily on the trip to Cambodia.  And the second attacked Kristin in Chile.   

 

While there were times I felt intensity in this book, the overall execution of the premise just didn’t work like I had hoped.  Instead it became a bit tiresome, and I knew exactly how it would end.  Ultimately, I wonder if this book would’ve benefited from a secondary POV to keep the storyline fresh and make me question the reliability of the characters.   

The thing that worked really well in this book was the author’s depiction of what gaslighting looks like.  She painted a clear picture of how the victim second guesses, replays events, and constantly feels upended.