The book is okay. I like the idea behind it and that the author built several scenes of a radio show in between the chapters.
But that's where my positive points end.
The characters feel flat. They're not necessarily cliché, but I just couldn't feel a connection to any of them. Sure, I don't want Diego to die, but that's more because the whole social system was awful (which was intended by the author, not that I want to criticise that aspect), not because I cared so much for him as a character.
Tixier never really goes in depth with the characters and there isn't much to reveal about them later on. Everything is known and said, almost the minute they appear on screen. Sure, there is Diego's past with alcohol and drugs that gets revealed in the later middle of the book, but that's it. We don't get to know the cause of that, we don't get to know how he got into the situation or anything else.
It's even worse with the other characters. There is no question in the scene under the bridge if Vic will help or betray him, even if Diego wonders for a second. She won't betray him, she won't have some hidden motives, because no one in this book has.
Another thing is, that as an author, you usually get told that every scene has to serve a certain purpose. As a writer myself, of course I know there'll always be some scenes you just want to write for fun and that's okay. To a certain extent. I talked about the radio sequences before, right? Those sequences appear also in form of a interrogation and, after, a court hearing. And while I get the interrogation part, that was necessary for the plot, why the court hearing? I don't get it.
The information we get about his life before, the fact he lied etc are just repeated. Sure, we hear the lawyer of the family being unprofessional and talking a bit about fault here and there... but these are also no new information. We're literally at the end of the story, we know how Mona's family thinks about him and how he feels even more guilty for it.
The last thing I noticed is the writing style, and here I can't say for sure if it's the author's fault because I've read the German version.
It's one thing to have your story in present tense. That's excusable if the writing is good nonetheless and all in all very subjective if you like it or not (which I don't).
But the sentences. Sure, long sentences are torture for the eyes, but sentences that are too short, repetitive and use similar words over and over again aren't better either.
All in all, it could've been a really good thriller with a good storyline, if the author took more time to explore the characters and the themes he talks about. The plot has potential, but with all the points I've talked about, plus the very few, very unfinished side plots (Gun_27 for example, what happened with this woman?) it just felt rushed and flat.