Meredith > Recent Status Updates

Wait, now Ben Carver is the former chief of police of Grant County?!?

Does Karin Slaughter just like to put this name into every book, damn the continuity? Is it Georgia's version of "John Smith"? Are there several Ben Carvers in Lena's periphery, from a bad teenage hookup to a serial killer in prison to her former boss?

WHY IS THIS NAME EVERYWHERE??????

Ok crazy theory time: what if the old man from the prologue is a serial killer, and his shock is not that he just ran over a woman, but that she is one of his victims and escaped captivity?

Probably I am very wrong but I want this theory in writing on the slim chance I am correct.

Hang on. Teenage Lena slept with Ben Carver? As in, Ben Carver from Triptych and Pretty Girls? The serial killer? Who is notably not interested in women???

Unsure if Slaughter just likes the name (she has reused the name Huckabee/Huckleberry in other works, so it's plausible) or if Ben Carver's deviance goes beyond cutting off men's nipples.

This book is good and important and tough, and I am not in the headspace to read it all the way through. As I put this one in the DNF pile, I'm saying "it's not you, it's me."

This one is probably going to be a DNF, not because it's bad (it's good!), but because my loan is running out and I don't have the time to finish it.

This one is gonna go to the DNF pile. 2/5. I had high hopes as I love Preston's nonfiction, but this book is a major disappointment. Clumsy writing, messy plot, and a premise that's just a little too zany for my taste.

Picked this book because I miss the PNW. So far it's scratching that itch, but my disbelief is a little strained--I don't think there were ANY Mexican restaurants in Bremerton when I lived there, let alone one with multiple locations.

Ok this is NOT a book to read while 9 months pregnant. But the damage is done, and I am hooked.

At first I was like "oh a book about bikes, I could share that with my dad" but then Chapter 7 hit me, and nope. Can't do that.

(The bicycle as a sex object is definitely an interesting topic... but not one I can share with my Baptist Boomer father.)

I'm not ready to be finished with The Queens Thief so I'm taking a break with another gritty thriller

This book is pretty messy, but there are lots of good moments in the middle of the mess.

Like good hair analysis in a forensic investigation! Hair can exclude a suspect but cannot confirm one. Hair is "consistent with" a suspect but not a 100% match.

I love good forensics.

Ok the little detail of Richard grabbing his Liddell and Scott as he hurries to Greek class is just... SO perfectly accurate. This book makes me miss my Greek class, the tightly knit crew we formed.

Is Karin Slaughter inventing slurs? Or is there a whole lexicon of prejudice I just don't know about? These words sound dirty and wrong, but I've literally never heard them in context before.

OH GOOD someone corrected the guy who suggested ablative. Phew.

Ablative case? I hope they're talking about Latin because last time I checked, Greek doesn't have an ablative.

(As a former English major who minored in Greek, I may have a little too much knowledge to enjoy this book. That remains to be seen.)

At first I thought I would hate Da Shi and his stereotypical gruff cop schtick, but honestly? He's kind of the best. Who has time for an existential crisis when there's a mortgage to pay? Who cares about the nature of the universe when you should probably just go to bed? Da Shi doesn't have time for messages in the cosmic radiation.

I get why this book was so highly recommended to me, but I was not prepared for just how On my brain needs to be while reading.

Oh, thank God, there is a character with a rational brain who can parse out the difference between "murder" and "kill."

(I get that some of the tension here is Leigh's baggage and guilt, but... she's a lawyer!)

I can't get over Leigh being a grown ass attorney who continues to misuse the word "murder." What Leigh did was not murder. Manslaughter? Sure. But not murder.

(The same issue bothered me in Pieces of Her, but it's more frustrating when the protagonist is A LAWYER.)

Kathleen Early normally knocks it out of the park in these audiobooks, but she just pronounced Uga (the mascot of UGA) as "Ooga," and I just. Cannot.

It's "Ugga," right? I'm not crazy? I'm just a casual SEC follower, but even I know the teams that have cute dogs for mascots. (Reveille is best girl, change my mind.)

I can't get over that prologue. The reveal was so deftly done! It could have been clunky, but Slaughter pulls it off.

Alas, I don't love the modern setting and all the COVID stuff. Grisly rape and murder is fine, but apparently reliving 2020-21 is just too much for me.

KARIN SLAUGHTER I FEEL LIKE I JUST GOT SLAPPED

BRB, gonna go relisten to this entire prologue after that bombshell just got dropped

We're only 9 days into the year, and I'm about to DNF my 2nd book? Yikes. But this isn't intriguing enough to hold my interest, either in the "personal noir secrets" way or the "author is writing about a special interest" way. It's a shame because You Will Know Me had both of those.

This book could be spectacular, except it seems too preoccupied with explaining and justifying the protag's every action. It feels like Ruth Ware is aware people will try to pick out "plot holes " so she's preemptively overexplaining it all. That's an annoying habit for any writer, but crippling for someone who writes thrillers--books that live and die by pacing.

It feels like bad luck to start a new year by DNFing a book, but.... this isn't sparking joy. I find the writing stilted, the protag's voice insufferable, and the whole premise a bit stale.

Am I crying about Henrietta's children seeing her cells through a microscope? .... yeah. I am.

Don't mind me. I'm definitely not crying at 5am thinking about Henrietta Lacks and the history of modern gynecology.

"I thought this was the Will Trent series? Who tf is Michael? And John?" That was me for the first couple of hours of this book.

I had some suspicions. A few coincidental details lined up just the right way. And then Karin drops a bombshell that is SO SATISFYING TO READ, and I'm kind of shocked that the book is only 1/3 through?

I had some suspicions about where this book was going but OH MY GOD Karin Slaughter I see what you're doing you mad genius!!!! "Who tf is this Michael guy? I thought this was the Will Trent series?" But OH MY GOD OH MY GOD.