Friday, July 10, 2015

2015 book 164

A.J. Rich's The Hand That Feeds You
Look, I admire the backstory to this book, but this book is . . . not great. It centers on a young woman, a grad student, whose boyfriend dies (apparently mauled by her dogs), at which point she realizes everything she knows about him is a lie--and that the other women in his life are being murdered. The thing is, she is an amazingly stupid person, so you don't really sympathize with her for being fooled by a charismatic sociopath. I mean, really, she does all the dumb things amateur detectives in mysteries do, and then some. Plus there is way too much other stuff going on--romantic drama, etc. OK, there are some great dogs in this, but the heroine is a real idiot about everything, so it's a very frustrating read. The writing is also a little awkward at times, and there's a rape plot that I'm not sure is necessary, especially when her therapist characterizes it as part of a pattern of self-destructive behavior! I almost didn't finish this b/c it annoyed me so much, but then it was like, I'd already sunk so much time in, I might as well make sure I'm right about everything. And I was.  C-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

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