How do you write a murder mystery without any suspense?
Ask Gillian Flynn.

This story was such a let down, I don't even know where to begin this review or make *it* interesting to read. Let's see...

The Plot
Honestly? I didn't care. There was nothing at risk here. No reason she'd have to solve the case or else lose her job. It was well established that despite the fact that she was a bad reporter, her boss loved her and wouldn't fire her. There was no threat that there would be another killing in the town if it wasn't solved soon.

The whole town seemed to not really care about the murder as soon as it happened. It wasn't like there was multiple suspects and rivaling factions or even that the whole town began turning on each other and revealing secrets. They were as bored with the murder investigation as I was.

The twist at the end was like “Oh. Whatever, fine.” It seemed very last minute and just thrown in

Spoiler

as a way to just capitalize on the fact that any decent reader would have caught onto the clues about the mother.

Also, none of the characters face any consequences for their actions? I mean there's one arguable exception, but come on.

The Characters
All characters are flat and static. No one experiences a change. No one shocks you with their actions. It was set in what was supposed to be a shallow small town full of secrets and infighting and intrigue--all of which I did not care about. I was as bored by the inhabitants as the main character seemed to be. I didn't distrust them. I didn't wonder about them. I didn't care about them one bit.

We have a mopey protagonists who is inexplicably beloved despite the fact that there is nothing interesting about her aside from her supposed beauty and "weird quirk". She’s not good at her job. She’s not friendly. She’s not funny or kind. She’s miserable. That’s it.

Her quirk is not fully explored. It's just something to fill pages. It makes little sense to the plot or her except for a few key things:

Spoiler

It's the reason her editor sends her home because he thinks it'll be healing (which was unnecessary because the "I want a good story" is believable enough). It draws her to Amma (which could have been done another way). And it is a reason for her not to get naked and have a very odd "non casual" tryst with John Keene (despite the fact that she hardly thinks about him after it happens and it just causes a rift between her and Willis and is something Amma taunts her about)

. It was as if Flynn was like "This character needs a quirk to make her more interesting and sympathetic" rather than it being something that naturally grew out of the character.

Amma was too precocious as to almost be unbelievable. I knew girls who were vicious and sexual in 7th/8th grade, but not to this extent.

The whole character of Adora bugged me.

Spoiler

She was built as an evil presence but was just suffering from munchausen's by proxy ? It would have been much more interesting if she actually cared for her daughters and killed them by accident because of the disease. OR if she drugged them on purpose because she was a psychopath. This middle ground was not it.

The Writing
Repetitive. Alright. Nothing to rave about positively or negatively.

I feel like I'm forgetting things to complain about, but it's whatever at this point. I'm just glad to be done this book.