The Party by Lisa Hall
| The Party by Lisa Hall | |
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| Category: Thrillers | |
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Reviewer: Sophie Diamond
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| Summary: A story you've heard before about someone who can't remember the night before. | |
| Buy? No | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 384 | Date: July 2018 |
| Publisher: HQ | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0008214999 | |
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Rachel wakes up in a strange bedroom, with the worst hangover she's ever had and no memory of the night before. And even though she has no memory, she knows at the core of her being that something very bad has happened to her at her neighbour's New Year's Eve party. But with everyone there appearing to be hiding something and no one giving her a straight answer to her questions, will Rachel ever find out what happened at the party?
I wasn't a fan of this book. I found the overall plot to be really far fetched and it was full of unlikeable characters. This wouldn't have necessarily been a problem but the characters also felt two-dimensional to me. I just struggled to care about anyone in the book, even the protagonist. I wanted to know what happened after a certain point, because I wanted to know if I was right, but even the grand reveal was flat.
The part of this book which had the most potential was that this is a locked room type of mystery in a really affluent area. The characters are people with lives which appear perfectly together, so something awful happening to one of their own by one of their own should have been much more jarring. I don't feel like the social aspect of this was ever explored enough. The town the author describes would be one simmering with jealousy and judgement behind bright smiles, but this is all pretty much glossed over and it's a shame because it would have added a much more interesting layer.
A part of me wonders if the amnesiac thriller genre is dying a slow death. This book felt like a weaker version of something I had read before. It didn't really surprise me or offer anything new. The writing style wasn't bad, but you have to be an excellent writer to pull off present tense and in my opinion this was a big problem for the writer. I also didn't feel like it created enough tension and when it did, it couldn't sustain it without slipping into melodrama. There are always supposed to be red herrings and multiple strands in a thriller but so many strands here were ultimately pointless, or appeared out of nowhere. I don't feel like anything was finished off properly.
This is certainly not the worst book I've ever read, but for a thriller it was very bland.
If you do like this genre, Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson and The Girl on the Train are both very gripping reads.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Party by Lisa Hall at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Party by Lisa Hall at Amazon.com.
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