Mediocre chick lit with a predictable "twist"

This book is touted by the publisher's PR as "Thrilling", "really clever" or "a classic whodunnit". It is none of that.

Instead, this is mediocre chick lit, full of stereotypes and cliches, riddled with massive plot holes, with some semblance of "suspense" kept up using some of the cheapest and oldest tricks out of the standard handbook on how (not) to write crime fiction. I'd say SPOILERS AHEAD, but I'm not sure there's anything to spoil here, really.

About 5-10 minutes into the book, it's pretty clear who's going to die: the groom who is portrayed as being too smooth, too handsome, too perfect – obviously, he's the one with dark secrets, etc. It's also quite clear early on "whodunnit": the only person with a voice that actually seems innocuous and doesn't seem to have a motive. The rest of the book is some women in their thirties rambling about their very insignificant issues (which almost always include something about their sex life) plus a view into the head of a very unlikeable 30something dude full of irritating self pity about how much of a failure he is. The only remotely interesting character could have been the obligatory teenage half sister, but she is portrayed so stereotypically that it borders on parody: a young, fairy-like, ephemeral, definitely nubile beauty with an emo-goth self hatred, cutting herself with razor blades (of all cliches), yet the object of erotic desire for half the other cast of characters, thrown into some pseudo-deep, pseudo-meaningful conversations with strong suggestions of (homo-)erotic tension. Not to forget the stereotypical dude crew from the fancy private school (dark "secret" here, of course) and the caricatures of posh members of society.

There is not a single realistic or remotely likeable character in the entire novel. In this book, all the women think about getting laid, or not getting laid enough, while all the guys think about getting laid and/or exerting power over other guys. Noone actually undergoes any development, although they all claim otherwise: at the end of the story, they're still the same pathetic bunch (minus the one guy who's dead, of course...), although they wordily claim to have been transformed by the entire experience. All of this is so flat, so cliche'd, so obvious and badly done, that it hurts.

Only the excellent speakers save the audiobook from being a total fiasco. Each character is done by a different speaker, and they really give them all unique voices and manage to elevate them at least a bit beyond the paper cut caricatures that the author had turned them into.

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7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Couldn't Put it Down

The voices are excellent and every character has a such an interesting and fleshed out personal story. One of the best mysteries I've gotten my hands on in a while. Very Harper's Island -esque in all the best ways.

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3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Gave up before anyone died

Why is everyone talking about Agatha Cristie? The Characters are awful, depressing and chliché. You want all of them to die, not just someone but it just wont happen. I figured that the most likeable character is probably the murder, so I gave up.

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1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Spannend

Spannende Geschichte, die durch den Aufbau (schrittweise erzählt aus verschiedenen Perspektiven) überzeugt. Es gab Momente, in denen man schon vorher 1+1 zusammenzählen konnte. Dennoch überraschendes Ende und daher spannend bis zum Schluss.
Die verschiedenen Dialekte und Sprecher machen es noch interessanter und formen die Atmosphäre.

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pretty good!

It was slow and building really well from the beginning to the middle, but the end just fell apart for me. It sort of ended sharply and all the buildup throughout didn't feel worthbit or make sense.

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Langatmig und teilweise verwirrend

Der Akzent ist teilweise sehr stark und für nicht Muttersprachler teilweise schwierig zu verstehen. Der häufige Wechsel der Charaktere macht es schwierig nach einer Pause wieder reinzukommen. Die weiblichen Charaktere haben mir nicht so gut gefallen. Überraschende Wendung am Ende.

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Ramping up the suspense until the end

If you are looking for a quick suspense whodunit, this will serve you just fine. Listened to it in one go and wasn't bored throughout. The characters are all interesting to listen to thanks to the great performances by the readers and the story keeps on revealing new secrets and twists until the end. Said ending also comes a bit abruptly and the story suffers a bit from unlikely coincidence syndrom in its central conflict - but if suspending your disbelieve on that doesn't bother you, you certainly will be entertained. One small gripe I have is that the overall playtime is padded with a large excerpt from another book, making the runtime look longer than it actually is.

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Agatha Christie's comeback

This novel is truly Agatha Christie's style, with a clearly delineated community, loads of people who might have a motive, the slow revelation of people's backgrounds, down to the improbability of so many people with a motive for revenge (and thus a connection) finding themselves in one place. What is not Christie, but the modern slant, is the telling of the story in several voices, which allows the reader to piece the puzzle together slowly. To be recommended!

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Absolutely great

SPOILER ALERT:



1. The picked characters are amazingly portraited and the story only gains by the change of perspective.
2. During the whole story I have been trying to find a reason why the choice had fallen exactly on those, but it OF COURSE makes absolute sense once I've figured out who is who.
3. I guess Charles made it in the book only for Hannah to be on that wedding.
4. It was spectacularly read and I know I will be reading it and listen it many times.
Thank you!

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What a great story it was!

I realy enjoyed it from the first page on. Liked the different characters and peace of the whol event, especialy when it came to the end. Wait for more like this!

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