Intriguing to start, but became boring fast. 

 

Energy: Condemnatory. Grumpy. Toiling. 

Scene: 🇺🇸 A luxury cliffside cabin in the Sierras, California

Perspective: A senior high school student who narrowly escaped a deadly incident at a party. Twenty years later and now an FBI agent, they accept a journalist's invitation to meet others connected to the case for interviews. We also get snippets from the nine others in between the main chapters. 

 

🐺 Growls: Took too long to get a sense of the characters even with notes (not well-anchored). Simplistic storyline lacking suspense. Weak dialogue. Meandering spinning wheels pacing. Characters that felt a little stereotypical. Male body shaming that felt ick. Clunky action-interrupting writing style. 

🐕 Howls: Nothing-really-happens-but-keeps-hinting-something-will filler plot between beginning and end. Awkward pacing. All the characters felt one-dimensional.

🐩 Tail Wags: This way this kicks off. 

 

🤔 Random Thoughts:

This was about as fun as actually being stuck in a room with your arrogant, homophobic neighbour nobody likes and a bunch of adults acting like toddlers. 

 

Weak dialogue which sucks because this is heavy on chit-chatty dialogue. Lots of repetitive philosophizing about the same topics. Therese having revelations then forgetting what they are just as she's about to tell us...

 

How many times did I read about people going into areas that are dangerous just to prove they can’t be ‘bossed around’? Too many. 

 

Speculating and theorizing in the middle of high stakes action, instead of running or fighting. That stuff really breaks it for me. 

 

🤓 Reader Role: Overhearing conversations while following Therese around and hearing her musings. Getting snippets of others thoughts and theories. 

🗺️ World-Building: Lackluster. Lacking atmosphere (I forgot there was a storm half the time). Lots of “the library”, “the kitchen”, “the storm”. 

🔥 Fuel: Quests and managing difficult people. Who is the journalist that invited everyone together? How are they all connected to the case? Murder, suicide, or accident? Should they leave to seek help or stay put until the roads clear? 

📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief

 

Eucalyptus. Scotch. Foosball cheers. Mud. Rain. Ozone. Lightning flashes. Distant shouting. Rain. 

-Isolated-ish strangers stuck together death mysteries and whodunnits

-FBI agent amateur sleuthing 

-Group dissent arguing and disobeying 

-Storylines dominated by musing, discussing clues, and scheming 

-Lots of unlikeable characters

-Stuck with whiny, defiant adults and jerks making jerky comments

-Chit chatty dialogue, puzzling and speculating

-Manageable number of clues with dialogue leading the reader through them

-Touch of deus ex machina storylines

 

Content Heads-Up: Explosion, death. Suicide (off page recall; potential on page). Murder. Blood. Homophobic characters. Bullying (frenemies). Body shaming (brief). Addiction (maintenance). Gun violence. 

 

Rep: Chinese, Black, Mexican, and White Americans. Diverse body sizes. Gay. Heterosexual. Cisgender.

 

📚 Format: Library Digital