booking_along's Reviews (1.97k)

This was the weakest of all the stories in this collection for me, mostly because it was dark in a way that was unnecessary and in my opinion not well done? 

Why would any women want to may a known rapist especially if the man raped your best friend?

This could have been a good story with just a different kind of twist to it, but as much as I wished it would go into that direction it never did. 

Killing the rapist would have been a nice twist, for example?

As it is, I can’t say I enjoyed any of it. Party because it was unnecessarily sexualized in moments where it was unnecessary to even mention sex at all, the story was too slow and top of fast at the same time and the characters not only completely unlikable but also just horrible and thankfully fictional..

Not a story for me!

This had an incredible amount of potential to be fantastic - but for me it didn’t mange tor each it because this slow creepy build up the story could have had and would have made it fantastic couldn’t build bedusle of its short format. 

For me for this to be great, this would have needed a bigger story format, a bigger build and overall just more, which with the writing presents here would have been great. 

Ad it is? It’s good but could have been fantastic in a longer format.

Not for me.

This short story wasn’t for me. from the writing style to how it told the story, the characters and everything else… just didn’t work for me at all. 

It happens, thankfully it was only a short story and I know this author isn’t for me. Oh well not everything is for everyone. 

Twisty story with an ending that you won’t see coming!

This was a very twisty and fast paced story that took me on a bit of a wild ride and o]is a great reminder just how crazy humans can be! 

Shot story in the style of “the only one left” by Riley sager.

Especially the first half a bit of this book feels extremely similar to the Sager book, which can be a pro or a con (personally I felt it didn’t work too well for this short story style since the creeping build o]up of the Sager book worked because of the slow pacing this short story just didn’t get to hold up towards so for me it was a con, but it can definitely be a pro for other readers)

I don’t think this book was unpredictable or had twist that wasn’t easily foreseeable, but it tried a little to hard to appear that way to me. 

Overall it was okay, but didn’t work for me personally.
While the writing wasn’t bad, the characters okay and the story itself while predictable not badly done overall, the was overall just something missing for me to enjoy it as a whole (or maybe between the easy comparison with the Sager book and the predictability of the story it was just a mix that didn’t work for me)


I think this can be a great rest, especially if you are not as well read in the thriller genre. 

The writing was good and it was intriguing but the end was a bit of a let down for me, since I expected more from how the build up appeared to be bigger to me this the ending turned out to be. 

Overall okay and good enough if you enjoy a bit of a less thrilling mystery.

i didn’t know what to expect from this going in but this was defiantly a trip. 

i don’t know if it’s strictly a horror in the typical horror writing senses -no jump scares no slowly creeping monsters of the supernatural or human kind - but rather a story that follows a horrific event and the character very slowly discovering the horror of what happened. 

it’s well written and the perfect length for how it’s written and what it’s telling. 

and while i would have loved to learn more about the details of what was going on around - the actual investigation, what the wife thought and all of that- as it’s told it carries it’s quiet horror of being left behind and while not necessarily forgotten, certainly the urgency of trying to be someone worthy if being missed and remembered well. 


it’s a very well done little story. 

After the disappointing read that was network effect, I have to say I went into this with extremely low expectations.

So I don’t know if that was what made this one of the better books in this series or if the author needed to come back to novellas and that worked. 

The plot in this was different and interesting and unpredictable (especially compared to the previous books) and I enjoyed that s lot. 

Also murderbot was back to its snarky ways in this one, so that was fun too.

I don’t know if the pacing in this was actually better than in network effect or if the noticeable lack of length (160 pages compared to the 350 pages of network effect) just made the pacing better, but this didn’t drag, had a nice fast pacing and a good mixture of investigation and action. 

This was fun and entertaining and made me enjoy the series again, which yes repeating myself again, I didn’t expect after that last book at all. 

Well done, Martha wells! Let’s hope the next one will be a bit different and a similar pacing ad well, so that it is kept interesting and more unique and makes this sierra worth while to read just like this novella did!

i want to love this series, and i really enjoyed the first one and was so excited to get more murderbot which was the character i enjoyed the most. 

but it just keeps going down hill for me and this series and this particular installment? too long and just felt not just reusing what was already done similarly previous lot only in the series but  also in this book itself. 

the novellas are okay even if sadly i didn’t love the last one of that either BUT they are short and get to the point and it’s done. 

this just kept going and kept having the same stuff happen -action, murderbot getting hurt, some  downtime, once again action, murderbot hurt again, some slower pages and it starts all over again. 

and normally that’s okay i don’t mind predictable storytelling and i don’t even mind it particularly much in the novellas - but this was too long and too repetitive in what would happen. 


there is different plot and different AI and bad guys and robots popping up but it just felt all „been there done that“ to me. sadly. 


that all being said it wasn’t horrible or „the worst“. and i know this series has its big fans with is fantastic. 

sadly i just seemed unable to become one as well no matter how much i wish i could.