Convoluted, convenient, cliché…Yet I finished it. Why? My sunk cost fallacy. Fun intrigue in the first 25% and then I had to Know Why.

Energy: Perplexing. Assertive. Calculating. 

 

🐺 Growls 
Ridiculous plot points. Puzzle/trivia fatigue. Unsatisfying ending. Outdated, stereotypical, propaganda Villain.

Being Russian was their whole personality.

. The entire premise was flawed

…watching what happened would be boring unless you could hear their thoughts, never mind paying billionaire bucks for the privilege. I could watch better reality TV for free on YouTube rn

.

 

🐕 Howls
Hitting us over the head with Nina’s contradictory Father-Daughter relationship

…Dad would never try to kill me, but he totally is

. Stay out of _____= immediately enters  _____. Cliché escape scenes. Silliness, surviving the impossible, cringy action star abilities wrapped in a slow burn mystery that takes itself too seriously. Awkward pacing of action scenes (it’s hard to pull off ‘we have seconds until death, now let’s do math.’ Especially when it’s entirely focused on the kind that requires the ability to remember that ‘one time with Dad’). Super flat characters and romance (I felt nothing for Nina). 

 

🐩 Tail Wags
The first 25%. 

 

Scene: 🇻🇬 Set in the British Virgin Islands.

Perspectives: An English Professor whose father recently passed inherits a luxurious home in the British Virgin Islands they never knew about. A student working as a nanny to the rich to save for med school. An electrician working on a house has a bad feeling about it. 

Timeline: Current (2020s) or the not-too-distant future

🔥 Fuel: Escalating stakes puzzle trivia. Race against time. What is up with the basement? Will the occupants survive? Who is behind the puzzles? 

📖 Cred: Far-fetched over the top

Marble flooring. Cliffside stairs. Peach pink sunset. Marina. Blueprints. Sunglasses. CCTV. Alarm blaring. Chignon. Light classical music. Escape rooms. 

 

Content Heads-Up: Loss of parent (as baby; as child; as adult). Confinement/trapped. Voyeurism. Refugee, death, starvation (brief recall). Starvation, dehydration (on page). PTSD. Murder. Violence, attack, self defense. Torture. Terminal illness (brief mention). Gun violence. Organized crime.

 

Rep: British. Korean-British Virgin Islander. Russian-British Virgin Islander. Venezuelan refugee descended from Armenian refugees. Cisgender. Heterosexual. Pale and ambiguous skin tones. 

 

📚 Format: Library Audio