Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

One Perfect Couple: Der New-York-Times-Bestseller | »Köstlich düster und absolut fesselnd.« LUCY FOLEY by Ruth Ware

3 reviews

ladyslipper22's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

It was a good book but the whole time I felt like it was missing something 
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gwenswoons's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

God this was so unrelentingly terrible. Terrible characters, terrible plot, terrible everything. And just terrible writing, somehow both repetitive and inconsistent, ugly and banal on a sentence level. Predictable, badly written, boring, meaningless. I honestly cannot believe that people can read this and tolerate it and that it got past editors in this state.

I listened to it on 2x speed while driving and doing errands and chores and I STILL wish I could get those 7 hours and 4 and a half minutes back. You could not pay me to read another book by Ruth Ware.
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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

As a long time fan of Ruth Ware I was excited to pick up her latest release.
“One Perfect Couple” follows Lyla and her boyfriend Nico as they venture to a remote island, Ever After Island, to participate in a new game show a lot like “Love Island”. Along with four other couples, Lyla and Nico think they are about to enjoy a few weeks in paradise, and the chance to win a massive prize. Unfortunately, nature has other plans, and the island is hit with a massive storm. Lyla was not initially interested in partaking in this endeavor, but she wanted to support Nico. Now, she has to fight for her life, because there might just be a killer on the island. 
The premise of this book did not initially catch my eye, and I 100% picked it up because I am a fan of  Ruth Ware. I am not a fan of dating reality shows, so I was apprehensive going into this story. I also am not super interested in reading stories that follow a group of characters in a high stakes competition. Nonetheless, I had a fun, okay time reading this story. The game show element is definitely a big part of the story, but there is a lot more going on behind the scenes that I was able to put more of my focus on.
This very much felt like a new age “Lord of the Flies”. A storm comes in and completely decimates the island, and the surviving characters have to work together to try and figure out a way off of the island. They have no means of transportation, and they have no way of communicating with the rest of the world. They also have to ration the remaining food and water. This aspect of the story was interesting to me because in high stress situations, people’s true colors start to come out. I really enjoyed watching the group dynamics shift and see just how far certain characters would go to survive. 
Lyla was an interesting point of view to read from because she was not even interested in participating in this show. She is a scientist, but her career has seemed to stagnate. She does love Nico, so when he asks her to come, do this show with him to help him, and his acting career, she agrees. This initial resistance really becomes evident, while she is interacting with the other characters, because she has every intention of trying to leave and does not want to win. 
Unfortunately, the overall story fell a little flat for me. The characters and their behavior were highly predictable, because they acted exactly as you would expect people to behave in this scenario. Although I did not see the overall mystery of who the true puppet master was, and what their sinister intentions were, I did not think it was a super unique plot line. Additionally, there is a twist, because the remaining characters take it upon themselves to shape the narrative in a different way, so this drastically changes, the impact of the big twist of the story. I really did not like that the author added this element. I felt like the characters had been through enough, and their rationale for making this decision that changed the course of the story, felt very unnecessary. The entire conversation between the characters at this point in the story made the novel feel very amateur. 
I will definitely continue to keep Ruth Ware on my TBR, and I do recommend this story to someone who enjoys competition based thrillers.
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