High Hopes

I finished this yesterday and right now the title says it all. I had such High Hopes. I am a bit unsure exactly why I couldn't fall in love with this one. Plot is very complicated and it was a stretch for me to believe so much happened to this girl leading up to the actual plot and conclusion of the book. Also felt like the first 70% of the book is the set-up and only the last 30% was a page-turner for me. I did like that 30%. Not so sure I will read the next in the series. Don't think I can read through such an elaborate set-up again for such a short-lived reward. That all said, the ending was real; it was an actual ending and not a cliff-hanger...good for Rice on that point. The writing was technically good.... just seems like nothing much happened except lots of detailed rehash of memories and character introductions for the first 70%. I wanted to love this I really did it just fell short for me. ( )

This book surprised me - mostly because I probably only read "girl raised by serial killers" and then bought it. At first, I didn't think I was going to like the twist but I grew into it.
Also, the writing is solid. I guess that happens growing up with a major author as your mom :)
I think the thing I liked most is that it seemed fairly pro-woman taking control and kicking ass. ( )

This was a really pleasant surprise!

At the start, I got a bad feeling about the direction the story was going to take, but it turned out it wasn't as cliched as I feared. Some serious suspension of disbelief was required, but that wasn't an issue for me, here.

When it came to the characters, I actually liked Marty the most. The main characters weren't annoying to me or anything, but somehow they lacked enough personality to really make an impact one way or the other. Let's cast them as showing promise, at this juncture.

The one thing I could have done without were the "romance" subplots, both past and present. The references to Cole being fucked six ways from Sunday by our dear little sociopath were so unnecessary and random that they tipped over to being funny for me. Charlotte and Luke's storyline wasn't much better, considering Charlotte just forgave what sounded like years worth of bullying in the blink of an eye, and Luke magically realized he'd been in love with her all this time. Like what? And why? This is a series, so it would have been completely sufficient to build up tension between both these "couples" without opting for the brick to the face route. No one reads a book like this for the romance, so nothing would have been lacking if the relationship would have stayed at the laying groundwork stage here, and only started developing further on (if at all).

In any case, this was like a really solid burger meal at the end of a long day. Really hits the spot and is tasty, but you know you can get something very similar from most other burger joints 24/7 and the nutritional value isn't exactly optimal. Very enjoyable still, one way or the other. Will definitely read the sequel(s) as well. ( )

What a great start to a series! I love this book. ( )

After reading a bunch of positive reviews on Goodreads, I chose this as my "free" Audible book for the month. What a waste of my points!! Totally disappointed in this book! From the description it sounds like this is the story of a girl who was raised by serial killers and how she overcomes that emotional obstacle as well the fact that a crazy fan of her "parents" is stalking her and a governmental agency is trying to use her for experimentation based on her experiences. Sounds like a great premise for a story. But bring in the evil Dr. with the magic pills that give her superhuman strength and the story just gets plain weird from there. Kind of a cross between Jessica Jones and Frankenstein, but not in a good way. I LIKE Jessica Jones' attitude. But this chick was way too annoying and unbelievable for me! And I don't even know what genre category this book fits in! It's not exactly crime fiction, or Scifi and it definitely was not Thrilling. Its just some strange hybrid of a bunch of stuff that didn't all fit together very well. Totally not my thing. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I only made it halfway through before throwing in the towel. I wish was there was an Audible return policy. (Note to self: Read more than just the first 4-5 reviews because there were several more farther down the page that would have warned me not to bother with this book. Ugh!) ( )