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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Gabrielle Zevin
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Classic Literature from the United States
Gold: Finished 15 Main Quest books.
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The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
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The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
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Atmosphere
Taylor Jenkins Reid
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Atmosphere
Taylor Jenkins Reid
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I wanted to love this book, especially since I've been a huge fan of Grisham’s past novels, but this one just fell short for me. The biggest issue is definitely the pacing. The first half is an absolute crawl where almost nothing happens, and it feels like we spend forever listening to Simon complain about his failing marriage, his debts, and his gambling habits. The core theme of temptation is a great setup. An exhausted, broke lawyer sees a wealthy widow as his ticket to easy money, but the book takes way too long to get going. We get stuck reading about their repetitive lunch dates for half the novel when it easily could have been edited down.
On the other hand, the climax feels incredibly rushed. The courtroom scenes lack any real drama and end up being pretty boring, which is a letdown for a legal thriller. When the book finally scrambles to solve the mystery, the resolution completely breaks the rules of fair play. The real culprit comes totally out of left field and is someone who hadn't even been on the radar as a possibility. With zero clues or foreshadowing leading up to it, the final twist just feels thrown at the reader at the last second.
I did like that the story included a prominent red herring to throw us off the track, but the execution was way too heavy-handed. The natural suspicion surrounding this character was already enough to create a solid distraction, so adding extra, soap-opera-level subplots just felt forced and unnecessary. Ultimately, Simon makes for an interesting character study, and watching his own greed backfire on him is a cool psychological concept. But as a thriller, the combination of a bloated beginning and a rule-breaking ending really ruined what could have been a great book.
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The Widow
John Grisham
Post from the The Widow forum
So far this is very disappointing. Nothing is happening. There are hints that things are not what they seem with Eleanor, but things really need to get moving here.
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The Widow
John Grisham
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Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
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Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah