I enjoyed this up until the ending even if I did call Spencer being involved in this.
I really enjoyed the setting. I know absolutely nothing about Sri Lanka or Sri Lankan culture, so it was interesting to learn more about it through the breakdown of social norms and how those norms affected the relationships between the characters as well as the events of the book.
I liked Amaya's characterization a lot. The book did a good job showing the ugly side of her trauma, as well as how it had changed her. I liked Kaavis character as well once we got her perspective. Both women seemed very fallible and realistic in that regard, but I do wish we had seen more of the good parts of their characters.
We heard a lot about who Amaya was before Spencer, but I wish we had seen her, or at least seen glimpses of her beneath the surface in the present. We also didn't really see much about how Kaavi had changed. I think the book would've been better with that.
So this sounds pretty positive so far right? I fully expected to finish this book with a positive impression, but I actually was mad when I finished it. The last ~50 pages really soured my outlook on the book.
One major problem is that while this book needed Kaavis perspective and we were given it, we were given it far too late. It would've been better to weave her perspective in with the narrative from the beginning. Maybe start with her thoughts about Amaya abandoning her and the account shenanigans. Her perspective only coming at the end of the novel meant that 1) we spent the entire book with an unreliable narrator who spent the majority of the time reacting to her trauma rather than taking any kind of initiative, and 2) everything on her side felt like an asspull to write the ending the author wanted rather than the one that was earned.
Another problem is that Nadia feels like a plot hole. It's not a surprise that she's Amaya and Spencer's kid, that makes sense and is earned, but what doesn't make sense is Amaya, in her own personal narration talking like she has no idea who she is. Amaya spends the ending claiming she did this for her because Spencer couldn't have just been a lying, abusive shit, he had to be a pedophile too.
Which leads to my next problem, the book doesn't seem to believe that Spencer was terrible enough without being a pedophile, and there aren't really any hints about this early on, and while that could fly if this was a book about Amaya overcoming what's happened to her, it doesn't work in a thriller. There are several ways this could've been done, such as an odd way to phrase a compliment to Nadia, or his arm around one of the Pink Diamond girls waist.
Nadia doesn't really even need to be in this book, this entire thing could've just been Amaya worried that her former best friend was about to marry an abuser. Pedophiles are one of the most despised groups in society, as they should be, but that doesn't mean that every terrible person also has to be a pedophile. The abuse was enough on its own. Nadia was either written in to make Spencer an even worse person, or because the author didn't believe Amaya wanting to protect her former best friend, who she misses so much that she essentially cyberstalks her on multiple accounts, was a good enough reason. That this woman, who seemingly has no interest in having children, had to have her maternal instinct kick in enough to defend her from a pedophile essentially.
This feels a bit tone deaf when the book seems adamant in asserting how feminist these 2 women are. Female friendship would've been a perfectly reasonable reason for Amayas actions.
And my final issue, Fiona. Nothing with Fiona feels earned. Kaavis potential to betray Amaya could've been done well if we'd gotten more of Kaavi in the book, but Fiona was not done well at all. That entire last chapter where her Mom started talking about how she's always covered up for her and how she's murdered before and was stealing money wasn't earned. Why was she stealing from Kaavi's charity? The reason she killed that guy was explained well enough, and it makes sense why she'd help Kaavi handle Spencer, but I think there needed to be more hints about her being as terrible as she is in the last chapter. Much like the fired accountant, all of her actions seem like they came out of nowhere. She was set up to be a mother who would do anything to protect her reputation, yet we don't get any explanation as to why she does things that have the potential to damage it, and why she doesn't do anything to try and repair or protect Tehani's reputation.
Tldr: the characterization of the 2 main leads in this book was decent, but could've been better. This thriller was a decent read, but it feels like the author wanted a specific ending, but didn't want to do the work to earn that ending and/or give the reader the opportunity to put the pieces together themselves. This wanted to be an M. Night Shyamalan twist ending, but it didn't differentiate between his good twists and his bad twist endings.