A review by happyreadings
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

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

3.0

This story follows Ciara and Oliver who meet up right before the Covid-19 quarantine happened in Ireland. The whole situation was interesting. They both just moved into town and had gone on a couple dates and once quarantine hits, Oliver invites her to stay with him for the 2 weeks so they can get to know each other better.

However, 56 days later, a dead body is found in his apartment.

I found this story really interesting in the beginning just because both characters had their own suspicions and paranoia about who they were seeing and I thought that was reasonable considering they barely knew each other before moving in together. However, the Garda characters I found to be awkward and I was left kind of confused on how they were handling the case, since this book had multiple timelines.

The ending was a let down for me, because, even though, I didn't guess the ending correctly 100%, I got the gist of what was going to happen. The last bit, I really felt bad for Oliver and what had happened but then he suddenly changed and he was apparently the bad guy? I felt that twist was unreasonable and unneeded. 

Overall, I felt this story could have had a little bit more suspense but I did like the premise of the story, I just felt like it had too many twists and turns at the end that were unnecessary.

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