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emilyctrigg 's review for:
A Slow Ruin
by Pamela Crane
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Okay so.... This book was just not for me. It seems like a lot of other people like this one, so take my review with a grain of salt.
It was a mystery about a girl named Vera who disappeared 6 months ago. Her family is falling apart without her, and her mother refuses to believe that Vera is dead. Weirdly, Vera's great great grandmother Alveira disappeared on the same day 110 years ago. Alveira was a suffragette who mysteriously disappeared only 3 months after having her first child. Is there any connection? Is the name Vera cursed?
Overall there were several things I really didn't enjoy about this title:
- The author was just trying SO HARD to make sure you know what timeframe it was. Making a million references to COVID or what's on TV. In sections of the book set in the past, she mentions American Idol and who the finalists were that season and the series finale of Gilmore girls about 100 times. Yes, we get it. It's the past!
-Similarly she was trying way too hard to make one of our main characters, Felicity, a "cool mom." She's always saying things like "that's sus. My daughter Vera taught me the slang." Please. You doing that is cringy.
-One of our main characters, Marin, is half white- half Black. The author is not Black and didn't seem to write Marin's Blackness or mixed race-ness very well. It made me uncomfortable to read some of the things Pamela wrote about Marin since she isn't Black. Specifically, there's a scene with Marin's racist boss who says a lot of supremely ugly racist and sexist comments about Marin. It just felt..... wrong?... to know that that had been written by a white woman.
-The story had so many twists and turns. Just for the sake of having twists and turns. Many of them didn't really make sense or were just SO coincidental that I found myself rolling my eyes and snorting at the absurdity.
-The "mystery" with Vera's disappearance is dumb. I won't spoil the mystery here, but just know that it was incredibly stupid, especially for a smart teenager like Vera. It felt completely out of character and unresolved.
-The mystery of what happened to Alveira wasn't anything at all. It never ties into anything and is just there for no reason. It could have been completely cut.
-The resolution to the other things that happen to the family (threatening phone calls; vehicular intimidation) was also ridiculous. When we got the answer to this, I literally laughed out loud.
-Felicity's narrator had really sibilant S's in her narration and it was distracting.
The narration for Marin and the other secondary voices was fine. Nothing special; nothing egregious. Like I mentioned before though, Felicity's narrator was really annoying to me-- and unfortunately, hers is the voice we hear most often.
I wouldn't recommend this book to any avid mystery readers as they would likely find this title over-the-top and melodramatic. If you're new to the genre though, this may be a fun place to start.
Okay so.... This book was just not for me. It seems like a lot of other people like this one, so take my review with a grain of salt.
It was a mystery about a girl named Vera who disappeared 6 months ago. Her family is falling apart without her, and her mother refuses to believe that Vera is dead. Weirdly, Vera's great great grandmother Alveira disappeared on the same day 110 years ago. Alveira was a suffragette who mysteriously disappeared only 3 months after having her first child. Is there any connection? Is the name Vera cursed?
Overall there were several things I really didn't enjoy about this title:
- The author was just trying SO HARD to make sure you know what timeframe it was. Making a million references to COVID or what's on TV. In sections of the book set in the past, she mentions American Idol and who the finalists were that season and the series finale of Gilmore girls about 100 times. Yes, we get it. It's the past!
-Similarly she was trying way too hard to make one of our main characters, Felicity, a "cool mom." She's always saying things like "that's sus. My daughter Vera taught me the slang." Please. You doing that is cringy.
-One of our main characters, Marin, is half white- half Black. The author is not Black and didn't seem to write Marin's Blackness or mixed race-ness very well. It made me uncomfortable to read some of the things Pamela wrote about Marin since she isn't Black. Specifically, there's a scene with Marin's racist boss who says a lot of supremely ugly racist and sexist comments about Marin. It just felt..... wrong?... to know that that had been written by a white woman.
-The story had so many twists and turns. Just for the sake of having twists and turns. Many of them didn't really make sense or were just SO coincidental that I found myself rolling my eyes and snorting at the absurdity.
-The "mystery" with Vera's disappearance is dumb. I won't spoil the mystery here, but just know that it was incredibly stupid, especially for a smart teenager like Vera. It felt completely out of character and unresolved.
-The mystery of what happened to Alveira wasn't anything at all. It never ties into anything and is just there for no reason. It could have been completely cut.
-The resolution to the other things that happen to the family (threatening phone calls; vehicular intimidation) was also ridiculous. When we got the answer to this, I literally laughed out loud.
-Felicity's narrator had really sibilant S's in her narration and it was distracting.
The narration for Marin and the other secondary voices was fine. Nothing special; nothing egregious. Like I mentioned before though, Felicity's narrator was really annoying to me-- and unfortunately, hers is the voice we hear most often.
I wouldn't recommend this book to any avid mystery readers as they would likely find this title over-the-top and melodramatic. If you're new to the genre though, this may be a fun place to start.