book review~ the list by carys jones

greetings bloggers and the world beyond!

it’s tuesday!! and what does that mean? well, nothing, except me posting another post because it is tuesday.

today i’ll be reviewing ‘the list’ by carys jones. here we goooo

Ultimately will we all be reduced to just one sentence? To a spattering of words upon a neglected headstone?

a quote from the book, which was in the first couple of chapters and REALLY made me think

name: the list
author: carys jones

blurb: Five names on a list. The first two are dead. The third one is yours.

Beth Belmont runs every day, hard and fast on the trail near home. She knows every turn, every bump in the road. So when she spots something out of place – a slip of white paper at the base of a tree – she’s drawn to it.

On the paper are five names. The third is her own.

Beth can’t shake off the unease the list brings. Why is she on it? And what ties her to the other four strangers?

Curiosity getting the better of her, Beth looks up the first two names, only to find that they’re both dead.

Is she next?

Delving into the past of the two dead strangers, the truth Beth finds will lead her headlong into her darkest and most dangerous nightmares… 

my review:

i was in my ‘mystery, thriller’ phase for the past two weeks and it definitely ended with this book. while, it had a good plotline to work on, this book wasn’t for me.

first of all, it speaks in 3 povs. out of which, two are in present time and one is in the past. two are thir person and one is first person. i. do. not. like. multiple povs. because they confuse me a lot. so, i know, it’s not the authors fault but yeah. heheheheh.

second, the book relied a LOT on this one particular incident, which happened in the past. and we get to know the incident after going through half the book. there was a lot of information which was not revealed at the start, which i think was to keep up with the thriller theme. however, there were so many hidden identities, motives, incidents and reasons that at one point, I felt overloaded with too much.

i felt like, not revealing so many things did not work in favor for the book.

all in all, i’m not so glad that i picked this book up, i could’ve found something better to read. maybe fate wished me to read this, so I’d finally break my obsession with mystery thrillers?

things i LOVED-
*the identity of both the povs, they were SO not who I expected them to be.
*the final, epilogue chapter- literally made me have goose bumps and a mad hatter smile
*how this book was not from the victim pov, I really liked seeing how we do terrible things, and no amount of repenting makes them right, and there’s only so many excuses you can give.
*connect with characters. one thing this book did well, was beth’s character. I felt for her, which is very rare in thriller books, especially for the ones who carry out a crime.

things i did not like so much-
*multiple povs
*so much focus on nightmares
*somethings which went unexplored and unexplained
*the underwhelming point of the list

rating-
⭐⭐⭐/5

perfect for-
*newbie psychological adult thriller readers
*readers looking to break a slump
*looking for that *little* spark that’ll get you through a bad reading phase readers

some favorite quotes

For in dreams there is escape, and those moments when you first awaken, blinking at the light of a new day, you’re disorientated, confused, and for a few precious seconds – truly free. Then reality slams into the serenity with the force of a freight train, memories bubble to the surface of the tar pit of the mind.

There had been a time when sleep meant freedom. But the nightmares soon found her, reached beneath her skin and hooked with talons to her soul, refusing to let go.

‘You’re supposed to love me,’ she yelled at the space around her as she unclenched her hands to grab the microwave, not even bothering to disconnect it from the wall. Beth threw it at the floor and it connected with the tiles with a crunch of broken glass and plastic. ‘Why would you hurt me?’ she demanded as she flung the plastic drainer off the sink before chucking a carton of eggs at the far wall. She paused to hear the soft cracking of shells.

link to goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52889568-the-list

see you again on thursday!!