I bought myself The Amateurs as a gift about this time last year. Everything about the synopsis screamed that this would be a me sort of book. I expected that sharing a cast of like-minded characters would make for a fast-paced, unputdownable read but it turns out, not so much. Look, amateur detectives solving crimes that baffle the police is always going to be a hit or miss. It depends on how believable you can make the crime-solving feel and the random luck of these characters did not feel realistic in the slightest. Helena’s murder was definitely intriguing, yet there were too many happy coincidences for my liking. Chatty witnesses. Five-year-old phones with service. Public social media accounts. Convenient cop love interests. It was too much.

There were also elements that just did not work for me. For example, the fact that characters were unsure of when Helena was murdered completely confused me. Her body was found. Surely there was some sort of coroner report that stated her estimated time of death. How could there not be? Is this one of those things that are basic facts of the matter in crime shows and not the case in real life? I don’t know but it bothered me. A lot.

I was also frustrated by the foreshadowing, which I found a tad too obvious for my tastes. In particular,

I called the Brett twist from the get-go. There were so many hints to it that I found myself rolling my eyes. Why I definitely guessed that Marissa Ingram was involved, I could not quite place my finger on a motive so waiting for that reveal did keep me on my toes.

What really ruined it all was the unlikable cast. All of the character - all of them - were underdeveloped. I didn’t care about any of them. They spent the majority of the story thinking about whether they should make out with X character or not. It was infuriating. Aerin and Seneca had potential but I felt like we barely got to know anything about them. Same with Maddison. She would randomly pop up at times but for the majority of the time, I forgot she was there. She felt like a last minute add-in. Maddy was by far the worst character, though. He had no redeeming qualities. I hated how Shepard made him believe that he was only worth knowing now that he had shed his ‘dorky kid’ image and grew into a good-looking jock Olympic wannabe without addressing it. Seneca knew him to be this funny nerdy guy but we never got to see that, not really, and it frustrated me to see him cling to this idea that his look defined his likeability, especially when it shaped his attitude toward women. Umm, he was all kinds of sexist? He literally thought that Seneca should be flattered by being in his presence because other girls would be envious of it. Umm, what.

While there was significantly less slut-shaming than I worried there would be - I cannot even recall a single scene, that God - all of the female characters, excluding Seneca, were variations of the rich girl/rich wife stereotype: vain, materialistic, giggly, boy-obsessed, 'feminine'. That was annoying. Also, there were some dodgy comments about race that made me pause. Brett makes this comment to Maddison:

Brett stared at the Japanese girl in the gallery windows, then nudged Madison. "You talk to her."
"Why me?" Madison thumbed her chest.
"Don't Asian chicks stick together? You could say something to her in Chinese, maybe. Do some kung fu. We'd be in for sure."
"Brett!" Seneca chided, half teasing, half horrified.
Madison looked confused. "I'm Korean."

Why.

The fact that this was meant to have internet friendship play an important role in the story was also lost on me with all the inconsistencies. Seneca and Maddy were best friends for a long time online before they meet but they only ever messaged each other, they never Skyped/FaceTimed/etc. I don’t know anyone with long-term online friendships who plan to meet each other and stay at one of their houses who has not spoken face-to-face before. I could have easily forgiven that though if it was not for the fact that Seneca did not know that Maddy was not a girl until they meet for the first time. How the heck do you communicate with someone for that long with asking for their pronouns or at the very least, accidentally dropping some sort of hint or presumptive pronoun or something that indicated otherwise!? If Seneca truly thought that Maddison was Maddy the whole time - and he never corrected her - that is some sort of accidental catfish thing right there and it made me so uncomfortable.

Overall? This book could have been so much more if I had liked any of the characters. I struggled with the coincidences in the mystery but I did find myself glued to my seat until I was finished. It was a page-turner. If there had been less of a focus on the unlikable characters and their make-out fantasies, I could have really gotten into this. Unfortunately, it tainted my enjoyment completely. I would still recommend this to PPL or [b:Private|381489|Private (Private, #1)|Kate Brian|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1331126301s/381489.jpg|2764] fans.