Review: Closer to 4.5 stars, really
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 5, 2012
I wont bother with a plot synopsis since there are plenty of those.I devoured this book in a few hours (it's about 300 pages), and I couldnt put it down. I mean that literally - when I went to get a drink, I read it walking down the hall and while fumbling in the fridge for a soda. If you've ever read Dean Koontz's "Intensity", that's the 'feel' of this book. Every single page leaves you on the edge of your seat, trying to read faster so you can find out what happens next.Now, the half star deductions:1) The plot follows two characters, Inga and Anthony. Inga's part (which starts the book) begins right in with the edge-of-your-seat-ness and builds fairly fast. Anthony's part (which starts about chapter 4-ish) begins with the more normal character development. The problem is that by the time you meet Anthony, youre so involved with Inga that the crash from intensity to character reflecting about his life leaves you really frustrated. Fortunately, you can skip Anthony's initial part (which I did). Yes, you lose some of the why-he-feels-what-he-feels but it's really not enough to matter .. IMHO :)2) Inga was a very nice girl. Maybe too nice. After the horrible, horrible things she'd been put through, she still agonized about hurting anyone. In the begining .. ***SPOILER*** .. after she's rescued from the house of terror by the nice young man who takes her home, then makes excuses every day not to take to the police, she keeps telling herself she's being demanding, she should be grateful for his help, even if he wont take her the police today because it's raining and the roads might be bad. Seriously? She's been kidnapped and held for 3 weeks. When he tells her "One more day isnt going to hurt, right?" I thought to myself, Uhhhhhhhhhh, yeah it will! Hello, freedom, so close and yet so far away? It's only about 3/4th of the way through the book that the author explains Inga's pretty much a timid hothouse flower who's pretty freaking traumatized. So I forgave her. She couldnt help having moments of being a doormat; and like another reviewer mentioned, she does get "harder". The only problem is it's all in her head, when she acts out she's crying and trembling and fainting. But again, the situation is really seriously f'ed up, so you forgive her.3) I'm one of those people who yell at the TV when the group of people decide to break up "to go faster" when investigating the scary Serial-Killers R Us-mart, so there were a few minutes when I thought to myself "NO you idiot, you dont try to take on the gang of killers yourself, you get backup, lots and lots of people with guns!" But that's just me, and I realize that if people did what's logical, the plot wouldnt be as thrilling. YMMV