this took so many unexpected turns that I genuinely didnt know where it was going to end up

main reason that this is 4 stars for me and not 5, is that im not sure how much of the more supernatural elements im supposed to believe are actually supernatural or if it stems more from delusion/mental illness on Sophia's part

edit: forgot to add that I find it extremely unrealistic that it would be raining in ithaca in November. it would 100% be snowing, source, i lived there and it would start snowing in October and I saw it snow as late as may 🙃

this was not what I was expecting it to be, and not in a good way. there were moments where I found myself wishing that the book was more focused on something that only got a little bit of page time. like the actual court case, I wished more time would have been spent on that.

I think one of the disappointments of this book is that its based on true events. there is a point made within the book to only call him the defendant and never by name, which i get, but by writing a book based on his crimes and referencing a real movie made about it as well, seems to defeat the purpose of not giving him the attention/spotlight that using his name would. dont know if that makes sense to anyone else. I think a much stronger point could have been made if this whole thing was ficionalized.

additionally, I was not a fan of the style. I didnt like how Pamela as a narrator interjected in her own story with a tidbit or story about the future. as a stylistic choice, I wasnt a fan.

I did like Ruth's story, how we as a reader know whats going to happen and see it get closer and closer as the time goes on.

the audiobook wasnt bad, but the narrators voices annoyed me a little bit

if you are looking for a character driven story where there seems to be a point to the story, look elsewhere.

I knew that this was character driven and there wasnt going to be much in terms of a clear plot, but even with that in mind, I have no idea what i was supposed to take away from reading this. the characters dont seem to grow or change or reflect in any meaningful way. also, there doesn't seem to be any exploration of theme or anything along those lines. it all just falls flat.

I also think the author was trying to do too much. the time line jumps around and so does point of view, and while thats not an issue itself, how it is executed is an issue for me. it doesn't feel like enough time is given to any one character or time to feel like the scenes and sequences are fully fleshed out.

I think this story would have benefited from having a smaller scope and focusing on one, maybe two, characters and told that story instead of trying to balance multiple different stories. sometimes less is more, and I think thats the case here.