I received this novel as an advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely loved the cover art for this novel; it is what drew me to it in the first place. I was also excited to read a thriller from a male perspective, as that has been quite rare in this genre! I’ve never read anything by this author but considering that his previous 2 novels were bestsellers, I definitely had high expectations!
It’s been little more than a year after the tragic death of Bill’s wife. Things have been rough for him and his 15-year-old daughter, Summer. Bill has tried to give his daughter space but she grows more and more rebellious each day. One night, Summer and her best friend, Haley disappear. Then, days later, the girls are discovered in a city park. Haley is found dead at the scene, while Summer is left beaten beyond recognition, barely alive. As Bill stays by Summer’s side, the only sound he hears from the girl is one word: No. And the more time Bill spends with Summer, the more he wonders what happened to her. When troubling information about Summer’s life surfaces, Bill is not ready to handle the aftershocks. He’s about to discover that both the living and the dead have secrets…. one that can haunt you forever.
This is one of those scenarios where the cover deceived me. This was definitely not the highly enjoyable read I was anticipating.
The premise was interesting enough: father finds badly beaten daughter and wants to find out what happened to her. Perfectly reasonable, perfectly intriguing. But then, the story actually begins and I stopped caring almost immediately. And the major reason is Bill. He is an absolutely terrible character. I don’t even know where to start by describing him. His thought process makes no sense, as he flits from one thing to another in his pursuit for the “truth”… and he was absolutely terrible at it. He stays dogged about one thing and really never shifts from that perspective until the very end. I don’t like his impulsive and violent nature; it seemed almost comical because of how ridiculously it was portrayed. He was also constantly repeating everything that everyone says, to the point where I got super annoyed. The “clues” just happened to fall in his lap; everyone was just SO eager to confess and tell him their dirty little secrets. It was all just such a mess. I really thought that this novel would hit it home for me but in the end, it just didn’t work for me in any way whatsoever. Only 1.5/5 stars from me!
Happy reading ~