Posts Tagged: ARC

I received this book for free from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

On her way to a writer’s conference, a bestselling teenage author takes a detour that has been deliberately set up by her biggest fans—a mother and daughter who kidnap her.

Livvy Flynn is a big deal—she’s a New York Times-bestselling author whose YA fiction has sold all over the world. She’s rich, she’s famous, she’s gorgeous, and she’s full of herself.

When she’s invited to an A-list writer’s conference, she decides to accept so she can have some time to herself. She’s on a tight deadline for her next book, and she has no intention of socializing with the other industry people at the conference.

And then she hits the detour. Before she knows it, her brand new car is wrecked, she’s hurt, and she’s tied to a bed in a nondescript shack in the middle of nowhere. A woman and her apparently manic daughter have kidnapped her. And they have no intention of letting her go.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. I find that if I don’t like a book, I always have more to say about it. This is one of those. It was super predictable for one. For two, the main character is awful and I was actually hoping that bad things would happen to her. (That is so awful, I know. But I know it’s not real and I would never wish harm on anyone in real life.) And third, I couldn’t help but keep thinking of Misery by Stephen King and how this was a total failed attempt at trying to make a variation of that type of story. That sounds harsh, but this book drove me crazy. Some might enjoy it, but it didn’t have many elements that I found entertaining or even held much of my interest. The only reason I finished it was because it was a quick book I could read in a few hours.

So let me tell you about Livvy, the main character. She was a total brat. She feels like she is better than everyone and she could do no wrong. I instantly didn’t like her. She is going to a writers retreat when she gets detoured and ends up having a horrible accident. She is only going to the retreat because she is getting paid well and she thinks all the nobody want to be best selling authors will fawn over her. Then, when she gets kidnapped, she automatically assumes it’s about money. She’s pretty smart, and has some good escape plans, but she was just so unlikable that I couldn’t cheer for her or hope that someone would find her. I do understand a little bit why she is the way she is after we get some background on her, but still. She’s just a jerk and I didn’t like her.

Now the kidnapper is quite a character. I actually wish that we got a bit more of her. She’s a bit on the crazy side, which I suppose one has to be in order to kidnap someone. She is a smart cookie though and she is brutal and out for blood. I mean, not literally, but she has her reasons for doing what she did. We don’t find out until the end of course. I mean, it was pretty obvious from almost the start for me, but maybe I’m just to intuitive or something. I don’t think that’s the case though. What is even better is how absolutely bat shit crazy the woman’s daughter is. Now that was entertaining and a bit scary. I mean really, she’s like a sociopath. Anyways, the kidnappers were much more interesting than Livvy.

This story was very predictable from early on. That made it hard to enjoy. It was pretty easy to put the pieces together. I can see how Livvy totally missed the clues since she is so self absorbed. I get that she has been kidnapped, but she really is a pretty horrible person. Her past is no excuse. I always feel kind of bad writing a negative review for a book, but there isn’t much good that I can say about this except for it was short so it wasn’t a whole lot of time wasted. If you are looking for a book with a horrible main character, predictable storyline, and an ending that makes you think “I really hope there isn’t a sequel”, this may be the book for you.

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