Middle of the Night in Play Book Tag

Oct 13, 2024 Liz Alb rated it liked it

Shelves: 52-books-challenge-2024, major-arcana-challenge

This was my first introduction to Riley Sager's novels and I’m a little ambivalent about it.

I liked the overall premise: A young boy, Billy, disappears without a trace from his friend's backyard, where they spent the night camping in a tent. His friend, Ethan, remembers nothing of that night. The only clues left behind are the boy's shoes and a hole sliced through the tent canvas.

In reading this story, I saw similarities with Harlan Coben's works, where interesting twists and turns keep the read ...more

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Jul 21, 2024 Kristin Katsuye rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobooked

This is not a good one of his. I’m an in the middle fan. There’s some I gave 5 stars to & others that got lower ratings. Most of this book I kept it at a 3 star, but lowered it to a 2 star at the end.

The longer I sit with this book, the more I just find that I didn’t enjoy it. It was never really awful to read. I wanted to know what happen, but in no part of the book was I really at any excitement. In fact, I felt that while it was being read to me (I listened to the audiobook) I kept guessing This is not a good one of his. I’m an in the middle fan. There’s some I gave 5 stars to & others that got lower ratings. Most of this book I kept it at a 3 star, but lowered it to a 2 star at the end.

The longer I sit with this book, the more I just find that I didn’t enjoy it. It was never really awful to read. I wanted to know what happen, but in no part of the book was I really at any excitement. In fact, I felt that while it was being read to me (I listened to the audiobook) I kept guessing the reveal of every chapter. I’m not saying that I guessed them from a mile away, but every single time before it was read aloud, I already knew where it was going. Not a single reveal was very overwhelming for me.

One part that kind of bored me, which isn’t a fault of the book necessarily, was the reveal about the spouse. I had just read The Woman In The Window, so having the same exact reveal back to back from each other just felt redundant. It happen recently with these two other books I read where both killers were the brother. I was just like I can’t get a break right now.

I also feel that some of this chasing for answers to reveal everyone’s lives in the culdesac just didn’t actually add up to Billy’s murder. Like the whole cult thing with the mom being a part of it doesn’t even matter in the long run of his murder. The whole thing just feels like a wild goose chase to unveil everyone’s lives even when they had nothing to do with anything. It’s more neighborhood gossip than a thriller. I felt nothing added up to some of these scenes that were happening. I only made it sound more interesting, the mom wasn’t even a part of the cult, she just worked there & was fired soon after. Then we were led to believe to be fearful of the dude boss involved with the cult, when in reality that also came out to be nothing. Like that whole part of the book was just filler to lead us through a rabbit hole.

I tend to enjoy unreliable narrators, but this one I didn’t care for as much. Nothing gravitated me to any of these characters or stories involved with them. The ending to me was so neatly tied up as well. Nothing wrong with that, but just left me even more anticlimactically unsatisfied. ...more

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