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A review by zu_reviews
The Six by Anni Taylor
3.0
I noticed this book because of the cover, and picked it up because of the description. It had vibes of the TV series "Lost" and contained one of my favourite tropes, plus I like the thriller genre. It was an alright read, but I debated if I would give it two stars or three stars. My review won't give away spoilers, but I will talk about them further on in my review and mark them before so those who don't want spoilers won't be spoiled.
Pros:
-It contains one of my favourite tropes, which is the whole "complete these tasks" thing. I'm a sucker for a good puzzle-challenge aspect to a book, and there's something about the format that gets me: guessing what the puzzle is, wondering whose going to win. This delivered on that front!
-It juggled the multiple narrators well. At times they sounded too similar, mostly near the end, but on the whole they felt distinct and I could picture the individuals.
-The mystery aspect in the beginning half of the book intrigued me and kept me going. It didn't spoon feed to much info in the beginning.
-The twists near the end I didn't see coming. They genuinely surprised me, but once revealed didn't feel completely out of left field, which I think a good thriller needs to do. For this reason, I gave the book three stars.
-It had several background characters (the 28 participants in particular) that were written well and stood out. That's hard to do, but I remembered and recognized each person and wasn't confused. Taylor trickled in their introductions well and placed them well.
-The ending wrapped up everything enough to leave me satisfied that the story was told (even if parts of the ending felt unbelievable)
The Cons:
-It starts with one if those vague one scene opens from later in the book, meant to show the darker twists to get you hooked off the bat, but without revealing anything. I personally hate any time that trick is used in thrillers, and it's used a lot, because they often spoil way more than they think they do, and are just completely unnecessary. This one was bo exception.If you hate them as much as me, just skip it. In fact, this one in particular I extra hated because by the time I got to the end of the book, I couldn't even place when and where that opening scene was supposed to be in the book, because it's never directly referenced and so vague it basically doesn't fit.
-The blurb doesn't do a good enough job setting up the B plot with the other Narrators. Only half the book is about Evie and the island, I wasn't expecting it to be that small of a chunk based on the back.
-Some aspects of the story were really unbelievable. To start, the very beginning has wife and Mother Evie leaving for the challenge, as described in the back blurb. But the way she chooses do it, in particular in how she tells her husband, was absolutely stupid. And I understand that humans can be stupid, and making bad choices propels a plot and reflects reality. Howver, my problem with the decision Evie made is that it completely contradicts the character we are presented with: Evie is supposed to be a smart woman with a gambling problem who loves her husband and really knows him, and loves her family. She may be an addict, but everything she is doing is in an attempt to right her wrongs, and keep them a secret. The story her husband gets just does not match the smart, loving woman we see and was a complete turnoff. It made many of the early scenes narrarated by her husband annoying to read because it was just so dumb.
-The ending was also the other really unbelievable part. After the big reveal, the final chapters become almost fantastical with how they deal with everything. It killed the read and the build up for me, and it felt like the story had changed genres with the shift.
-This book uses another trope that I hate, which is having a few short chapters narrated by the antagonist. It does nothing to add to the book for me, as in these type of books the narrators all sound the same and the thoughts are so vague that they don't reveal much about the plot. They're just cryptic, but the cryptic tone is already established in the book by the MC and they end up undermining that tone by showing us what's behind the curtain, and I've see it before. I could pull another book off the shelf with the same trope, swap the chapters and swap a few names and it would sound the same. To Taylor's credit, she does make them worth it by the end of the book, but it was a long book to get through for the pay off and it still had the negative effect of spoiling bits of the read for me. I can't help but feel that the book could have done without it and found another way to get some of that information in.
-The end had a lot of monologuing to get all the twist info out.
SPOILERS NEXT
Okay, so another one of the things I did not like about this book that I couldn't point out without spoiling it is the Kara and Cormac relationship. It made ZERO sense to any rational human being. Kara may have essentially become a "good guy" but she was still FULL of all kinds of psychological problems, was definitely a serial killer, and I don't care HOW cute she is, I don't see Cormac pursuing a romantic relationship with her. He knew her for less than a week for pity's sake! Forgiving her? Maybe. Thanking her for her help that savard their lives? Sure. Wanting to stay on her good side if even for your own self-preservation? You bet! But the sudden protective urge and powerful romantic feelings... like no. Absolutely ruined a favourite character for me. Even if it was some kind of addict Stockholm syndrome thing that he latched onto her, there is no way that's healthy and the book treats it like a happy every after. There is not one person alive in love with a serial killer that is not in serious need of help. Redeem Kara, get her counseling and help if you want, but the romance was just bizarre and almost disgusting. Kara was definitely abused, but she also was messed up, like, properly before that. I'm not saying people with issues can't find help and love. I'm saying people whose issues involve murdering people need to get proper help before romance, and sane human beings do not pursue romantic relationships with them before they do get help, especially if they just met them like four days ago.
And I bring up Evie's note to Gray again, and what she told her friend Marla when she watched the girls. Even if she WASN'T going to a murder island and everything about the proposition was true, how on earth was that not super suspicious and cruel??? To a man she loved???? "We've been fighting and I'm leaving, might be back in a week or so, I've taken the children from you and won't tell you where they are". Like, that's a recipe for disaster. She basically stole the kids from him too, on top of that. It did NOT match her personality at all for the rest of the book, and I can think of a hundred ways she could have done it better, that fit the character better. Say you got called away on some remote week long thing for your restaurant job. Say an old friend is getting married or lost a parent and you have to go to the event and it's got no cell service. Like, I know she wasn't supposed to say where she was going but she didnt have to. There were just so many better ways to leave, and Gray still could have found out about the lies some other way and followed the same trail that he did without much change. Have the bank call about the credit carss and have Gray answer it, send him looking through her computer and find the escort site, etc. But leaving him the way she did in the beginning felt irrational and out of character for someone who was supposed to be loving and smart. Addicts make bigger lies, not stupid lies. Even if she had written almost the same note, but made a more solid promise that she did still love him and was indeed coming back, let him know where his KIDS were, that I could buy. Instead all I could think was how stupid it was.
And the end...Taylor built up the cult to a point of just pure fantasy and it lost its believability. She also made them so strong and powerful that I think it made it even a problem for her. Now the only way to defeat them had to be even more fantastical and out of nowhere, and if just compounded the problem...the mines felt contrived and convenient, the coast guard coming up... very deus ex machina.
Pros:
-It contains one of my favourite tropes, which is the whole "complete these tasks" thing. I'm a sucker for a good puzzle-challenge aspect to a book, and there's something about the format that gets me: guessing what the puzzle is, wondering whose going to win. This delivered on that front!
-It juggled the multiple narrators well. At times they sounded too similar, mostly near the end, but on the whole they felt distinct and I could picture the individuals.
-The mystery aspect in the beginning half of the book intrigued me and kept me going. It didn't spoon feed to much info in the beginning.
-The twists near the end I didn't see coming. They genuinely surprised me, but once revealed didn't feel completely out of left field, which I think a good thriller needs to do. For this reason, I gave the book three stars.
-It had several background characters (the 28 participants in particular) that were written well and stood out. That's hard to do, but I remembered and recognized each person and wasn't confused. Taylor trickled in their introductions well and placed them well.
-The ending wrapped up everything enough to leave me satisfied that the story was told (even if parts of the ending felt unbelievable)
The Cons:
-It starts with one if those vague one scene opens from later in the book, meant to show the darker twists to get you hooked off the bat, but without revealing anything. I personally hate any time that trick is used in thrillers, and it's used a lot, because they often spoil way more than they think they do, and are just completely unnecessary. This one was bo exception.If you hate them as much as me, just skip it. In fact, this one in particular I extra hated because by the time I got to the end of the book, I couldn't even place when and where that opening scene was supposed to be in the book, because it's never directly referenced and so vague it basically doesn't fit.
-The blurb doesn't do a good enough job setting up the B plot with the other Narrators. Only half the book is about Evie and the island, I wasn't expecting it to be that small of a chunk based on the back.
-Some aspects of the story were really unbelievable. To start, the very beginning has wife and Mother Evie leaving for the challenge, as described in the back blurb. But the way she chooses do it, in particular in how she tells her husband, was absolutely stupid. And I understand that humans can be stupid, and making bad choices propels a plot and reflects reality. Howver, my problem with the decision Evie made is that it completely contradicts the character we are presented with: Evie is supposed to be a smart woman with a gambling problem who loves her husband and really knows him, and loves her family. She may be an addict, but everything she is doing is in an attempt to right her wrongs, and keep them a secret. The story her husband gets just does not match the smart, loving woman we see and was a complete turnoff. It made many of the early scenes narrarated by her husband annoying to read because it was just so dumb.
-The ending was also the other really unbelievable part. After the big reveal, the final chapters become almost fantastical with how they deal with everything. It killed the read and the build up for me, and it felt like the story had changed genres with the shift.
-This book uses another trope that I hate, which is having a few short chapters narrated by the antagonist. It does nothing to add to the book for me, as in these type of books the narrators all sound the same and the thoughts are so vague that they don't reveal much about the plot. They're just cryptic, but the cryptic tone is already established in the book by the MC and they end up undermining that tone by showing us what's behind the curtain, and I've see it before. I could pull another book off the shelf with the same trope, swap the chapters and swap a few names and it would sound the same. To Taylor's credit, she does make them worth it by the end of the book, but it was a long book to get through for the pay off and it still had the negative effect of spoiling bits of the read for me. I can't help but feel that the book could have done without it and found another way to get some of that information in.
-The end had a lot of monologuing to get all the twist info out.
SPOILERS NEXT
Okay, so another one of the things I did not like about this book that I couldn't point out without spoiling it is the Kara and Cormac relationship. It made ZERO sense to any rational human being. Kara may have essentially become a "good guy" but she was still FULL of all kinds of psychological problems, was definitely a serial killer, and I don't care HOW cute she is, I don't see Cormac pursuing a romantic relationship with her. He knew her for less than a week for pity's sake! Forgiving her? Maybe. Thanking her for her help that savard their lives? Sure. Wanting to stay on her good side if even for your own self-preservation? You bet! But the sudden protective urge and powerful romantic feelings... like no. Absolutely ruined a favourite character for me. Even if it was some kind of addict Stockholm syndrome thing that he latched onto her, there is no way that's healthy and the book treats it like a happy every after. There is not one person alive in love with a serial killer that is not in serious need of help. Redeem Kara, get her counseling and help if you want, but the romance was just bizarre and almost disgusting. Kara was definitely abused, but she also was messed up, like, properly before that. I'm not saying people with issues can't find help and love. I'm saying people whose issues involve murdering people need to get proper help before romance, and sane human beings do not pursue romantic relationships with them before they do get help, especially if they just met them like four days ago.
And I bring up Evie's note to Gray again, and what she told her friend Marla when she watched the girls. Even if she WASN'T going to a murder island and everything about the proposition was true, how on earth was that not super suspicious and cruel??? To a man she loved???? "We've been fighting and I'm leaving, might be back in a week or so, I've taken the children from you and won't tell you where they are". Like, that's a recipe for disaster. She basically stole the kids from him too, on top of that. It did NOT match her personality at all for the rest of the book, and I can think of a hundred ways she could have done it better, that fit the character better. Say you got called away on some remote week long thing for your restaurant job. Say an old friend is getting married or lost a parent and you have to go to the event and it's got no cell service. Like, I know she wasn't supposed to say where she was going but she didnt have to. There were just so many better ways to leave, and Gray still could have found out about the lies some other way and followed the same trail that he did without much change. Have the bank call about the credit carss and have Gray answer it, send him looking through her computer and find the escort site, etc. But leaving him the way she did in the beginning felt irrational and out of character for someone who was supposed to be loving and smart. Addicts make bigger lies, not stupid lies. Even if she had written almost the same note, but made a more solid promise that she did still love him and was indeed coming back, let him know where his KIDS were, that I could buy. Instead all I could think was how stupid it was.
And the end...Taylor built up the cult to a point of just pure fantasy and it lost its believability. She also made them so strong and powerful that I think it made it even a problem for her. Now the only way to defeat them had to be even more fantastical and out of nowhere, and if just compounded the problem...the mines felt contrived and convenient, the coast guard coming up... very deus ex machina.