Wednesday, July 10, 2024
The Disappearing by Lori Roy
In many ways this is a standard-issue thriller novel: The main character who moved back home not entirely willingly; the creepy stalker-type who works as a groundskeeper; the daughters under threat; the family secrets; the past they don't talk about and barely understand. In other ways, it's not so standard-issue: The groundskeeper/creep is arguably not the biggest threat in the novel, among other things. It's even mostly a well-executed novel: The prose is well-executed and the story moves and grabs even with some weird non-linearity and most of the characters are pretty well-drawn and easily understood and mostly consistent (certainly consistent enough to be people); but the climax feels undercut by the twists going on, and what's going on with the downbeat ending--after the twists--isn't really clear.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
I read this in a coffeeshop this morning. I was not entirely overwhelmed by it, but it was not horrible or anything. Things of note that c...

-
A beautiful novel about life as a mobster (in 1940s Tampa) and all the contradictions and complications of it. Lehane clearly has an ear f...
-
This is early Vachss, all taut and violent, more than a little murky to my mind. It is not good to be a sexual offender in a Vachss novel....
-
A beautiful novel of violence, vengeance and pain, set against a backdrop of small-town bigotry. If you see this, or *Razorblade Tears*, t...
No comments:
Post a Comment