I will start this review by saying that I probably wouldn’t have chosen this book for myself but my mother bought it for herself, read the first page and then realized it wasn’t her kind of thing and I simply couldn’t leave it sitting unread on the shelf…
Overall, I guess I enjoyed it. However, that judgment probably comes from the last fifty pages or so. I think that’s the major problem with the novel… the first three quarters or so sets up the situation but you have very little action or even tension. Of course, the final scene couldn’t work without the build-up but there could have been a lot more going on.
The characters seem bland. Juliet herself was two dimensional and, when she reads a letter in the hospital and her moment of development comes, she remains just as two dimensional but stops whining quite so much. Her friends don’t feature enough to really become full characters and instead serve to allow her to voice her concerns and whine a bit. Okay, maybe I don’t get on with characters who moan about the hand fate has dealt them but refuse to do anything or let go. Max seemed similarly black and white while the more interesting characters, such as August, hardly get any ‘page time’. The characters are probably the main problem because, no matter if the most awful happenings went on, the most terrifying, the most psychologically grueling happenings, they aren’t going to matter if the characters don’t inspire any feelings other than mild annoyance.
However, I have given this book three stars and, in the heat of the moment, having just finished it, I would almost consider giving it four. Why? The final scene in the apartment. The pacing of this scene, the concepts in it are dark and therefore, no matter who the characters are, it is an exciting moment. Playing on base fears and emphasizing the survival instinct that is embedded in humanity this part of the book is possible to identify with. Sadly, it just seems to emphasise what the rest of the book could have been…
Ultimately, I don’t feel that I wasted my time reading “The Resident”, and quite enjoyed it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to a friend.