Marta asked:

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4 years ago
9 answers

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Ruth And if there's a serial killer around, why did she continue to go to private locations and drink too much? Just annoyed me and seemed foolish.

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Rhinnan The only purpose the men in the book served was to fill the story with a bunch of male red herrings. Oh, and to remind us of how beautiful Mariana is, because of course she is.

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Cande ♡ OMG YES!! I wrote my review before reading your question but I could not believe nobody had noticed this. It was so annoying to me and unrealistic. I don't know, maybe Alex Michaelides thinks that's what us women experience on a regular basis, random men throwing themselves at us. At least it's not my case.

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Janie Frank I agree, I didn't understand the point. When Fosca kissed her?!?! wtf was that?? Made no sense in the plot or anything.

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Susan

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Amanda up North I felt that the men in the book served as an assortment of possible suspects / possible voices of the killer's narrative. It wouldn't have been very interesting without them. Red herrings (like Henry) are a classic part of mystery writing. But I also got a bigger message out of it - there are a lot of abused children in the world, and suffering adults because of it. The psychology was central here. According to the CDC and the U.S. Department of Justice, one in four girls and one in six boys will be abused by the time they’re 18. I think the author, by using the voice of the killer, was showing us that childhood trauma and abuse are more common than people want to think - through the multiple possibilities of who the voice belonged to.
It was clear to me that Mariana was exceptionally beautiful but didn't see herself that way (perhaps because she was never shown attention and love by her father.. and who knows what went on with Sebastian). She was also damaged, and maybe these damaged men were drawn to that.

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Mary Matus I was more annoyed that every time she met a new man, he seemed to gaze at her menacingly while he was walking away. I didn't know if she REALLY had issues or if the author was trying too hard to have a lot of red herrings.

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