If I had to summarise this book in one word it would be “underdeveloped.”
Underdeveloped characters, underdeveloped MC, underdeveloped plot, underdeveloped relationships, underdeveloped mystery, thriller and fantasy elements.
There wasn’t a single character in this book that was fleshed out enough to establish an emotional connection. The info for the backstories was there, but it failed to be delivered in a convincing, emotive way. Iris had an addiction issue, can we explore that a little bit? Iris lost her brother, can we explore the effects of that a bit more in depth? Iris can see literal ghosts!! Can we have more of that please! I was fuming at how little attention this got. Like was that just there for plot convenience? Bc it doesn’t seem like it had any other purpose bc it just wasn’t explored or given the book time it deserved. Iris as a whole was quite a selfish character with a disregard for others and regularly made stupid decisions. This would be fine if she ended up having some development towards the end, but no, she was just as unlikable at the end as at the start.
The romance (if you can even call it that) was so weak and unconvincing. I didn’t buy the rather sloppy love triangle going on and Iris’s feelings towards both of them were so surface level that I just did not care about her love interests or romantic dilemmas as I wasn’t emotionally invested whatsoever.
The plot didn’t know where it wanted to go half the time, and the sudden interest in Norlene had such a poor introduction that I genuinely didn’t realise until much later that the plot would now be revolving around her disappearance entirely. I still thought we were there to investigate the Franky mystery to be honest, not this random girl who has no connection to Iris.
Also can we PLEASE, for the love of god, talk about Andy and the rape? Like Iris gets all hot and bothered, flying off the handle (rightly so) when she discovers Andy was one of the men in the hotel room when Norlene was raped, and then he’s all like “oh no I promise I didn’t do anything, I was actually passed out from drinking too much” and she gets annoyed and doesn’t speak to him for a bit but that’s it? She doesn’t investigate, there’s no conversation to try and ascertain the truth, there’s no inner monologue where she’s at war with herself bc she wants to believe him. Honestly that pissed me off to no end! Like darling, you’re a literal lawyer, figure out the truth!
Lola was quite a nice character, but again, relationship with Iris could’ve done with more fleshing out.
I thought the writing was quite basic and wasn’t really captivating, and the story didn’t flow very naturally. The shadow man also wasn’t written in a way that provoked fear for me personally.
Ending didn’t make sense at all; bit anticlimactic. Also Iris being in a literal vehicle with the car keys and instead making the active decision to exit said vehicle to run away on foot from a murderer was the last straw for me. Thankfully for the author, or not depending on how you look at it,that was at the end bc it would’ve been an instant DNF as the stupidity is ridiculous.
In conclusion, I don’t understand the hype. The book was just bad, I’m sorry.