Book Blog #372: Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

 

Title: Strange Sally Diamond

Author: Liz Nugent

# of Pages: 320 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Thriller, Mystery

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Synopsis: Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died. Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don't always mean what they say. But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally's life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .

Review: Is the thriller/mystery in the room with us?

This book aims to demonstrate how abuse can affect generations and trauma can be cyclical. It also gives the reader some insight on how dark minds justify their twisted agendas. But this book wasn't particular sinister; everything is recounted pretty clinically. It’s more of a crime book than a rollercoaster thriller/whodunnit page-turning mystery. 

I kept waiting for something to hook me in or some big mystery, but everything was hinted at very obviously. I reached the end of the book and still couldn’t figure out if any of what I read was supposed to surprise me. 

A comparison to a similar story: Although I haven’t read the books, the Netflix TV show You did a better job at showcasing the mental gymnastics a person goes through to justify actions that are otherwise blatantly messed up. People were even sympathizing with the main character, which made the horrors of what he was able to accomplish even freakier and more believable. Strange Sally Diamond tries to do something similar but less effectively and leaves the reader frustrated and disconnected from the characters. 

This book only further affirms that I don’t like POV switching. The first person narrative switches between Sally and Peter, each starting in two different places on the timeline. I could respect Sally for her logical thinking and honesty but never felt truly invested in her character growth. 

But is this book really about Sally (as the title suggests)? Peter’s story was actually more interesting; which made the POV switches back to Sally even more frustrating. Instead of switching throughout the story, there should have been a Sally prologue, and then the rest of the story could have been about Peter (might be a hot take, but it's my honest opinion). 

Maybe I’m just jaded from reading similar content, it really felt like this story could have been told more effectively in general. I wasn’t a fan of the mixed use of media (first person narrative, letters, transcripts of recordings, etc); felt like an amateur way to get out details of the story. 

The middle section of Peter’s narrative was almost a 4 star read for me; I really wanted to know what happened to this guy. But then everything fell into place rather quickly, and the conclusion of his story felt sloppy and rushed which would his overall narrative around a 3 star read. 

I wouldn't recommend this book unless it already sounds interesting to you. Go into this book expecting to read about crime rather than thriller/mystery, and you might enjoy it more than I did. 

Book Blog #371: The Long Game by Rachel Reid

 

Title: The Long Game

Author: Rachel Reid

# of Pages: 453 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Ten years. That’s how long Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other. How long they’ve been keeping their relationship a secret. From friends, from family…from the league. If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything? Ilya is sick of secrets. Shane has gotten so good at hiding his feelings, sometimes Ilya questions if they even exist. The closeness, the intimacy, even the risk that would come with being open about their relationship…Ilya wants it all. It’s time for them to decide what’s most important—hockey or love. It’s time to make a call.

Review: I honestly don't think this book is particularly better then the other books I enjoyed in this series (Heated Rivalry, Role Model, etc.) but SOME book in this series has to get the coveted 4 stars to show how addicted I am to these Game Changers books.

Here's my justification for the extra star; while ALL of the Game Changers book are DEEPLY hopecore, The Long Game has that underlying feeling of hopelessness and angst that makes the story even more irresistible. Shane and Ilya have already done the formula all the other books have gone through of becoming a couple, which allows this "sequel" to their love story concentrate on other relationship problems (long distance, compromises) as well as broader issues with themselves and those around them (mental health, systemic homophobia/bigotry).

As typical of romance books (and staying on the hopecore theme), The Long Game still has the typical happy ending and wraps up any lingering issues into some (too) easy resolution. But similarly (and actually more so than Heated Rivalry), I thought the ending actually had a good amount of tragedy too. This puts it a step above the endings for the other books in the series; it feels a bit more realistic because not EVERYTHING is just sunshines and roses.

Don't get me wrong; this book is far from perfect. The beginning 1/4-1/2 of the book dragged because of all the story "recap"/overlap with other books (I was worried Reid didn't know how to write an actual romantic sequel without focusing on new characters). It seemed like The Long Game was treated as a reunion episode where EVERY lead character from the previous books gets their time in the lime light. 

Since I read all of these books in rapid succession, all the sex scenes sound the same to me and was actually one of my least favorite parts of this book (they kept having sex instead of talking/doing something more plot relevant). All the dirty talk is about the same across all the lead characters of the book (they start slurring and speaking in the same sentence fragments), so it gets really old by book 6. 

Once again, shout out to the Heated Rivalry show for making it so easy to imagine and love these characters, even if we are a long ways from the second season.