Stopped reading this book after Page 75, the lack of quotation marks was too annoying for me haha. Also, you're very gorgeous :o

This was the first Lisa Jewell book I read. I loved it!! It kept me totally enthralled. I agree the part about Kaitlyn was unnecessary but that didn't bother me much that she included it. I was totally loving it, including the Netflix stuff. I did believe that Brook was killed by Roxie and her parents covered that up. I also believe that the Dad was a creepy pedofile. I think the whole family was crazy and imposed their craziness on others.

Can you please tell me the age rating?

Just want to say you're a hottie. Great book too, btw

"Weyward" is top on my reading list. I loved this book!! Totally captivating and engaging. I plan on buying a number of these books for Christmas gifts. Highly recommend. If you love historical fiction, you will utterly love this.

I haven’t read any WKK books. Which one would you recommend to read first? 🌺

It’s a disappointing read for me too. The narrative is chopped up into tiny pieces and as you said people don’t change that much and even so it couldn’t be happening to a whole group of people

I just started reading this and I believe I know who did it. It’s so obvious. I’ll probably finish it, but I’m disappointed.

Diary of Anne Frank. That is a good example of a game changer book of published diary entries. I’ll have to look into the one you just recommended!

Always upset the birds 😂

I HATED this book. The audiobook was so annoying because of the reader’s voice. Also, Joy Delaney was so annoying. No one would want to hear out some dumb bimbo on why she extorted money out of her actual son. It could have been interesting but the writer just failed. So bad.

I really enjoyed this read! I didn’t think it was _____ at all

The book was easy to read but it was edited and plotted terribly. A very unlikable main character- a pathological lying, drug using psychologist? My God and the story is so weak. And what about the second love interest? Where did that come from? Is this a middle school book? 3/10 and I'm being kind

I agree with the guessing who did it. I didn't find it too wordy. But in retrospect there were a ton of holes in the story and you can tell it was her first book. I loved her second one much more than this one

yo how did I end up here... good review tho.

I am a lisa jewell fan and everytime i start a book a book it comes very slow but she does a very job of getting me engaged and taking it to the finsih line Where i do feel file it can turn SOME readers off is taking so long with the character/story development

This whole review is facts

I have a short film script based on the magus, if i send it to you could you do a review on it?

Milllie ❤

I predicted it within the first few chapters. Everyone reading the book said they were on the edge of their seat...... I dont understand who else the dad would cover for.

Apples never fall far from the tree, metaphor 😢

Neighbourhood bookclub! Its christmas alright! <3 and its one of my favorite books of the year!

Overall it felt bloated. I liked the idea of Stan taking the fifth and not talking to the police, which caused a lot of the confusion. It felt like a realistic twist that could explain the cheesy return of Joy. If I just stopped reading when Joy was home it would have been a better book.

Completely agree re total of book & not knowing what direction it would take

I just finished reading this last night and liked it as well. I have read Alice Hoffman's Magic Lessons and have the rest of the related books on my bookshelf to read. I liked Magic Lessons but reading Weyward didnt make me think of it. I have to agree that if people like certain authors that they will like others as well. Sometimes there is just something about a way an author writes that makes people also gravitate towards other authors with a similar writing style.

I gave it five stars as well - easily one of my favorite books of 2023. The narrator was fantastic!!!!!!

This was a good nuanced review.

Honestly, really juvenile review. This is a political. Those of us who work on it know that, big time, and how important that is. It is really ridiculously amateur to criticize the politics and the insertion of a relevant and well-relayed personal story. Also, you didn't even know it was nonfiction in spits of the disclaimer? Stick to reviewing some mind candy if you can't consider the depth, societal, moral, personal, and policy implications of a nonfiction book.

I really enjoyed both books. Henry is such an interesting, strange and complex character. The 1st person perspective was genius because it puts us in his mind making us question his next moves.

lmao. what a stupid review. "the average reader would probably love it but I'm way too intellectual and better than everyone else" Cant stand people that are this full of themselves...

Are you on Goodreads? Can’t find you.

Love Hook too

Read 15 pages dnf💔😭

promo sm

I’ve been on the fence about this one. Put it in my TBR. Thank you 🌺

About a decade ago I read a book by Australian Tim Winton and I was irritated by the absence of quotation marks. But then I started reading a lot of works in translation, where quotation marks aren't used. Now I don't even notice it at all, including with Still Life. You too will get used to it, with exposure. Now I prefer it and find that quotation marks are intrusive. I also rated this as a 3 star read, which was a disappointment. Overall I found it boring. I expected it to be a 5 star read

Totally agree with you. The writing style was juvenile (she used more semicolons than anyone else I've ever read) and the characterization didn't go deep enough. Spoilers... We know nearly nothing about the 4 other girls killed in the past apart from their names. No reason why the killer had someone else do it this time instead of continuing himself. And the explanation for why he did it is just "there was no reason to stop" and "the darkness" when there could be so much more complexity there. I could come up with a whole psyche around the exact same plot points. Sigh. I wasn't disappointed that I could figure the whodunit out - that's actually not a bad thing, because it shows the author is laying out clues and the answer made logical sense. The writing style just brought the whole experience down. I wish I could just rewrite it entirely.

You were kinder than me. I only gave it a three. Easy read, enjoyable, predictable, but no attempt to build any type of connection between the reader and the characters.

😅I absolutely loved this book ... until the last part about Evelyn..pointless I felt

I liked this book, I kind of guessed the correct person but as it went on I was starting to think it might be someone else. It’s one of those “hidden in plain site” kind of things. Any other suggestions for murder mystery/thriller reads? I just started reading again recently and so far I read verity, the silent patient and the midnight library.

I wanted to watch but the background music is overbearing. :(

Just finished the audio book and loved it. I belive the audio version flows betters with the writing style. The overdesvriptives paints an amazing picture

The book was awful and the cover fools you.

Eh book didappointment is tough. Hopefully the next book will be better

Great list! I have only read two on your list (Malibu Rising and A Farewell to Arms) and I really liked both of them. For Malibu Rising, I loved the relationship between the siblings and how the book focused on their love as opposed to a traditional romance and I really liked the parents timeline as well. Overall it was a really good story. I really loved A Farewell to Arms, and it definitely had one of the most memorable endings of a book that I have ever read lol. My favorite books from 2022 were all the lonely people by Mike Gayle (amazing audio), Daisy Jones and the Six (also amazing audio lol), and The Woman in the Library 😊. I really got into audiobooks last year and for me personally they work so well because I can listen to them when I’m cleaning or doing stuff around the house which helps make the chores more fun lol, but if I’m really loving the book I will definitely buy a regular copy of it and sometimes reread it that way too. But audio really was a game changer for me in terms of being able to squeeze more books in which is really fun!

Omgosh, I am just like you with the multiple books going on at the same time lol. I usually have a audio book going, an ebook (I also just got the Paperwhite for Christmas and I LOVE it🎉) as well as a couple of physical books that I’m slowly working my way through. I can’t stop 😂. I’m also interested in reading everything that Agatha Christie has written and I am going off of a list of best to worst starting with the worst so I can save the best for last lol. I still need to start, but that will probably take me like 10 years to finish! I hope you enjoy the rest of your reading month!

I guessed it right away as well! It felt very generic to me and I haven’t even read a ton of thrillers. I just couldn’t connect with the main character either; her personality was so bland (but I read this as audio so maybe that would’ve been different if I had physically read it instead.) I also enjoyed the writing, but there was something off and you nailed it when you said that it had a lot of fillers scattered without the book. Great review!

DNF this book. The way the family felt indebted to Savanna was so dumb and unbelievable. Rolled my eyes and gave up

Love your style . I've been in the planner community for years and love watching how people journal and plan. Hope to see more similar content like this. I've never tried a dingbats but I may get one now. :)

I actually loved the writing style of this author. I also predicted The Who did it right away. I would give it a 4