Carries Book Reviews

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Joe Goldberg is back in this sequel to Caroline Kepnes’ YOU. Hidden Bodies picks up right where YOU left off with Joe still working in the bookstore and having just met and started a relationship with Amy. Joe again thinks that he’s found the perfect girl for him in Amy, that is until Amy robs his store and runs off across the country. Joe still being the stalker that he is he tracks down Amy in L.A. and decides to follow her.

I honestly found the first book in this series to be one of the creepiest things I’d read but it was so mesmerizing living inside of Joe the psychopath’s head. I honestly thought the book should be handed out as a manual for safety on just how easy it is in today’s society to learn everything about someone and track them down. How a “normal” looking person could be capable of having such disturbing thoughts and horrid actions.

With Hidden Bodies I had that same feeling of oh my, how in the world does he get away with these actions and thoughts with people having no clue when they interact with him. But somewhere in this story I began to be one of those people that almost wants to root for Joe, for him to find his happy ending and can almost see how he comes up with his logic that he’s doing the world a favor. He’s turned into this misunderstood but still mesmerizing character that in a way leaves me with even more of a creepy feeling because I actually started to like him!

All I can say when done with this book is read it, read it now. It’s captivating, horrific, but oddly enjoyable living inside of Joe’s head for a few hours. He’s witty, he’s disturbed, and he’s almost intoxicating, and I highly recommend this series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Where I Lost Her by T. Greenwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While visiting friends in her hometown Tess volunteers to run into town to pick up another bottle of wine. On the way back from the store she hits a pothole in the road causing the bottle of wine to fall and break taking her attention off the road for a brief moment. When Tess looks up there is a young child standing in the middle of the road. Tess stops and tries to comfort the little girl but she gets scared and runs off into the woods.

The police are called and immediately get suspicious of how much Tess had to drink and if she really saw a child or animal. With no missing person reports and the police and volunteers not finding anything the search comes to a halt but Tess is determined she knows what she saw and there’s a little girl out there in trouble.

As it’s probably pretty obvious with a five star rating there’s really nothing negative at all I have to say about this book. I was completely hooked from the start and didn’t want to put it down until I found out whether there even was a little girl out there that night. So many scenarios going through my mind and I still never saw the ending coming at all.

Great writing, great characters and an intriguing plot. The story has flashbacks explaining how Tess and her husband had many failed attempts with fertility, a failed adoption and now are struggling with their marriage. With all that Tess is dealing with she is one complex character that you can’t help but become attached to but is her sighting all in her mind as most believe or will she be able to save the little girl this time?

Definitely a book that I’d recommend to the thriller fans, one that will pull you in from the start and not be able to put down.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Waterfall by Amber Garr
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Zach and Vivienne have been living in a protected community with their families trying to be normal teenagers while the world outside has started to fall apart. The water has been contaminated and the world has gone to war. Those living in the protected areas have to rely on the government to provide rations to the communities. When the bombs start dropping in their area Zach, Vivienne and their parents go on the run to survive.

Waterfall is one of those books that I really thought I’d love when I first saw it. A dystopian world caused by the poisoning of the water supplies really sounds like something that could happen in real life, especially seeing on the news how a city in the US are dealing with contaminated water. Unfortunately though this book fell really short for me.

First, I don’t know if it was my review copy or if all copies of this book have this problem but I almost gave up even trying to read this just a few pages in. It was as if the space bar was acting up for whoever typed up the final copy and trying to read around things like ‘dowe’ and figure out that it meant ‘do we’ was more than a tad irritating as it happens over and over, sometimes several times in the same paragraph.

As for the story itself, I was left with more questions than I prefer when I’m finished. I know that there’s the lack of clean drinking water in the world but why the bombings? Why do so many distrust the government? What is really happening with the draft? I could really go on and on with so many things left unsaid.

The characters in the story seemed to be a bit clueless as to what is happening in the rest of the world. That was fine to start the story, but at one point it jumps ahead a few months and they still seem to be completely out of it. I would have preferred much more world building to know what they are on the run from and some character growth by the end to show me how and why they are still surviving.

Overall, unfortunately, this is one that I don’t see myself even being remotely interested in continuing. Not even depth to the world or characters.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nowhere Girl: A Novel by Susan Strecker

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

At sixteen Cady felt connected to her twin sister Savannah so when Savannah was late meeting up one afternoon Cady just knew something was wrong. She called the police but soon felt as if she couldn’t breathe and by the time help arrived she knew she had been too late. Somehow through her link to her twin she was able to direct the officers to where they found Savannah’s body, she had been strangled.

As an adult Cady and her family still have not learned to live with the pain of losing Savannah. Cady became an author writing thrillers about innocent victims being murdered as a way of dealing with the loss of her sister. With working on her latest book she finds herself again dreaming of Savannah and thinks she is being given clues to finding her murderer which leads her to the local prison where she thinks she will finally find her answers she has been searching for.

What I enjoyed most with Nowhere Girl was it was easy to get caught up in Cady’s story from the very beginning of the book and feel her pain from the loss of her sister. The writing was wonderful and had an easy flow to it as you learn about Cady in the present and also get glimpses into the past to learn about Savannah and what had happened to her. It was also interesting and unique having a bit of a psychic connection going on between the twins added into the story.

However, as much as I enjoyed reading this story there was a couple of things that kept me from giving it a five star rating. First, I found it easy for me to guess pretty much the entire outcome of the story fairly early on. I don’t think it was too easy and most should be surprised but since I did have most figured out I took a bit off my rating.

Also, I would have preferred the author didn’t continuously have Cady fat shaming herself the entire story. She wasn’t even that overweight by her descriptions and everyone kept telling her as much but she was constantly calling herself the fat twin. Just a tad irritating to be repeated quite so much as we know she has low self esteem fairly early on so I just wish the author could’ve trusted the readers to remember it and not keep repeating that fact.

Overall, 3.5 stars for Nowhere Girl. A good read that I would recommend checking out and I’d definitely pick up another book by Susan Strecker in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.