Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
Paperback, 254 pages
Published 2006 by Broadway Paperbacks
Current Goodreads Rating: 3.94 Stars
I'm not sure exactly why this didn't click with me. It had a dark and sinister edge that I was hoping I'd love like my Karin Slaughter reads.
It read very dry and removed emotionally. I needed to be inside her mind at a deeper level. Someone who carves words into themselves so viciously then to just hear the words haphazardly thrown in at random times during the book was not enough for me. I wanted more. I wanted the stories behind each word and where she was at when each happened. I wanted to not just have a brief glimpse when she carved her first word, but be there in her mind and have her thoughts convince me to her logic and understand better. I used to cut myself and maybe I know I had so many more reasons than what were portrayed, but I was just disappointed.
I was upset at how good the ending reveal was because I really wanted to like it after that, but the meat of the story just didn't do the twist justice. I tried watching the show after and it still didn't capture me to fluff things up anymore where the book lacked. I just couldn't stay interested and ended up not finishing the TV series.
“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”
“Safer to be feared than loved.”
“Problems always start long before you really, really see them.”