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desiree930 's review for:
The Good Daughter
by Karin Slaughter
TW: Rape, graphic violence
3/4 of the way through this book I thought the rating was going to be a strong 4 stars. This is the first book I've read by Karin Slaughter and I was really enjoying it, as much as a person can enjoy a book about such dark and twisted topics.
Unfortunately, the end of this book let me down.
First, the things I liked:
1. The writing (Part One).
The author's ability to create tension and atmosphere was evident. I didn't want to stop listening. I had to know what was going on.
2. Interesting characters. I say interesting, not likable, because I don't think that anyone in this book was particularly likable. That being said, I found myself rooting for Charlie and Sam and wanted them to find a way to repair their relationship. I can't imagine not speaking to my sister for over a decade. These characters were interesting and flawed, which made this a very compelling narrative. There is a slight 'unreliable narrator' aspect to this story, but it doesn't feel cliche. The unreliability makes total sense in the context of the story.
3. The narrator for the audiobook.
A voice actor can make or ruin an audiobook experience for me. This narrator, Kathleen Early, did a fantastic job. She did a great job with the voice of the young girl Kelly, as well as Sam and Charlie's father Rusty. Some voice actors just read the book. She injected emotion. She actually ACTED the book, and I really appreciate that. It's probably what kept my interest going through to the end.
What I didn't like:
1. Predictability. I don't read many thrillers/suspense/mystery books. I am trying to get more into them, and I have heard wonderful things about Karin Slaughter. Now I'm not going to throw out any spoilers, but all of the twists were things I had suspected for a good chunk of the book. I told myself that it couldn't be what I suspected because it seemed so obvious. But in the end, my suspicions ended up being correct. I wanted to be shocked or at least surprised by the ending, but in reality it felt a little anti-climactic because I'd pieced it together over a hundred pages earlier.
2. The writing (Part Two)
While it seemed evident that the author did a lot of research creating these characters and tried to make them 3-dimensional and interesting, it ended up unnecessarily wordy in my opinion. It felt like the author wanted to fill the novel with all of the random trivia she'd come across. After awhile it stopped adding to the story and the idiosyncrasies of the characters and just turned into a pacing issue. This book did not need to be over 500 pages. It just didn't.
3.The ending felt rushed. There were a few times where the pacing was a little slow. Like I said, we would go off on some sort of tangent about some random thing that didn't actually have any bearing on the story, but then at the end everything was just wrapped up a little too quickly.
Other odds and ends:
1. There is a transgender character in this book. We learn about half way through the story that this character is transgender, through one of the characters also learning it. It was written in a clunky, awkward way. I felt like I'd missed a sentence or something because there isn't anything on the page that would suggest that the character is transgender except the other character randomly having a realization. We aren't told what the realization was in response to. I was listening to this on audio book and I had to go back three different times and listen to that passage to see if I'd missed something. I read one review that said it felt like this character was made transgender after the fact and I kind of agree.
2. How in the heck does Kelly, a girl who is obviously of below-average intelligence, get several years in jail for her part in what happened? And the characters in the book act like that's great news. She was raped (it was rape. This man was in a position of power and knew that she was not mentally fit to consent) by someone who she should've been able to trust, then manipulated by another person in a position of power who was actually planning on killing her...and she has to make a plea deal?! Even after the 'deathbed confession' by the real killer? WHAT?!
I will read another Karin Slaughter book in the future, because I have one more on my shelf. I'm hoping the next one delivers more as a thriller than a straight up mystery.
3/4 of the way through this book I thought the rating was going to be a strong 4 stars. This is the first book I've read by Karin Slaughter and I was really enjoying it, as much as a person can enjoy a book about such dark and twisted topics.
Unfortunately, the end of this book let me down.
First, the things I liked:
1. The writing (Part One).
The author's ability to create tension and atmosphere was evident. I didn't want to stop listening. I had to know what was going on.
2. Interesting characters. I say interesting, not likable, because I don't think that anyone in this book was particularly likable. That being said, I found myself rooting for Charlie and Sam and wanted them to find a way to repair their relationship. I can't imagine not speaking to my sister for over a decade. These characters were interesting and flawed, which made this a very compelling narrative. There is a slight 'unreliable narrator' aspect to this story, but it doesn't feel cliche. The unreliability makes total sense in the context of the story.
3. The narrator for the audiobook.
A voice actor can make or ruin an audiobook experience for me. This narrator, Kathleen Early, did a fantastic job. She did a great job with the voice of the young girl Kelly, as well as Sam and Charlie's father Rusty. Some voice actors just read the book. She injected emotion. She actually ACTED the book, and I really appreciate that. It's probably what kept my interest going through to the end.
What I didn't like:
1. Predictability. I don't read many thrillers/suspense/mystery books. I am trying to get more into them, and I have heard wonderful things about Karin Slaughter. Now I'm not going to throw out any spoilers, but all of the twists were things I had suspected for a good chunk of the book. I told myself that it couldn't be what I suspected because it seemed so obvious. But in the end, my suspicions ended up being correct. I wanted to be shocked or at least surprised by the ending, but in reality it felt a little anti-climactic because I'd pieced it together over a hundred pages earlier.
2. The writing (Part Two)
While it seemed evident that the author did a lot of research creating these characters and tried to make them 3-dimensional and interesting, it ended up unnecessarily wordy in my opinion. It felt like the author wanted to fill the novel with all of the random trivia she'd come across. After awhile it stopped adding to the story and the idiosyncrasies of the characters and just turned into a pacing issue. This book did not need to be over 500 pages. It just didn't.
3.The ending felt rushed. There were a few times where the pacing was a little slow. Like I said, we would go off on some sort of tangent about some random thing that didn't actually have any bearing on the story, but then at the end everything was just wrapped up a little too quickly.
Other odds and ends:
1. There is a transgender character in this book. We learn about half way through the story that this character is transgender, through one of the characters also learning it. It was written in a clunky, awkward way. I felt like I'd missed a sentence or something because there isn't anything on the page that would suggest that the character is transgender except the other character randomly having a realization. We aren't told what the realization was in response to. I was listening to this on audio book and I had to go back three different times and listen to that passage to see if I'd missed something. I read one review that said it felt like this character was made transgender after the fact and I kind of agree.
2.
I will read another Karin Slaughter book in the future, because I have one more on my shelf. I'm hoping the next one delivers more as a thriller than a straight up mystery.