3 Mini Reviews: Island Murder, Dark Secrets, & Plot Twists

I recently finished a few audiobooks but I don’t have enough thoughts on each one to write a full individual review so I figured I’d just combine them all here. They’re all thrillers (I’m on a thriller kick with audiobooks right now). So, let’s get into it (this is going to be a quick post). Also…shout out to my library for having such an amazing audiobook collection!

THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides
⭐⭐.5

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word. (Read more on Goodreads)

Let be start by saying the narration was a bit confusing for me. Sometimes I couldn’t tell the difference between storylines and I would get a little lost. With that said, I enjoyed the twist at the end. However, the outcome made the rest of the story feel rather pointless. There was this slow build up with these somewhat side-issues that just never really resolved themselves. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling it – it just felt pointless once you got to the twist (which is easy to put together the closer you get to it).

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THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley
⭐⭐⭐

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. (Read more on Goodreads)

This wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t amazing. It’s a solid 50/50 because while I easily figured out who the victim was, I did not easily figure out who the killer was. I liked the variety of characters and how they each had their own issues. However, they were a little underdeveloped and seemed like their only purpose was to show the relationships and make you guess who murdered the person. This made the book a tad slow but overall, it was an enjoyable game of Clue in a book.

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THE BURNING GIRLS by C.J. Tudor
⭐⭐.5

Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself. (Read more on Goodreads)

I enjoyed this mostly, but the end bored me. I actually wish the twist happened earlier in the book and then some sort of story could have come from that twist. Instead, it was the end, which left me wanting more. Also, there was this side mystery with this side character that I don’t understand the purpose of. Is there going to be a book 2? I don’t know, I just didn’t understand the point of this person. If you’ve read this, do you know who I’m talking about?

Writing these reviews was kind of depressing because I neither loved or hated these books – so its just a lot of “it was ok”. I wouldn’t necessarily jump to recommending any of these but I also wouldn’t tell people to avoid them. Have you read these? Thoughts?