For example, Theon thought that Paul was about to push him off the roof when he was just trying to pull him in. Some parts felt like forced, deliberately put into the story to scare the readers. I also can’t help but realized almost every character has feelings for Alicia? She gives me the impression of a weak crazy female victim. My reaction is, is this really necessary? It’s so dramatic and does nothing for the plot. I am also annoyed with the dramatic bits like gouging the eye out of the woman who wrote slut on Alicia’s painting. Unless she was looking at the body for hours, or there were not a lot of evidence to clean up? Although Theon said he went back to the crime scene to clean up the evidence, it just doesn’t make sense because it seems like the police arrived very shortly after the murder because Alicia was found standing there looking at the body. For example, it was mentioned in a review that the crime scene didn’t make sense because obviously there were extra ropes and signs that point to the presence of another person. One review I read mentioned a few more points that I didn’t realize at the time I was reading the book. Although I think Theon deserves criminal punishment but if the author has to force the ending like this, I rather he leaves this part out. The biggest bug is how did Alicia has the strength to write a long entry in her diary AND hide it inside a hard canvas after getting injected by a lethal dose of morphine? I am no nurse but I assume the huge dose and the deep injection in the vain should mean that the effect would kick in very quickly? I can forgive many other unrealistic points in the story but not this part. What bugs me is the fact that there are actually quite a bit of unrealistic points in the story.
Their stories never really get resolved anyways.
Honestly didn’t have expectations for good character development because the way this book is set up is akin the set up of the old detective stories where a whole lot of characters show up just to be interrogated. I didn’t really care about the supporting characters. Personally, I don’t find that very irritating because my mind is focus on the plot twist. Some people are upset over the lack of character development. That’s like a mystery being explained by another mystery. For the same reason, I also don’t like events explained by supernatural activities. Now, that would take away all the fun because that really doesn’t explain anything. Generally what I don’t like is when the twist reveals the person behind the whole mystery does what he does because he is just insane. Although I prefer being able to solve a mystery myself with clues provided by the author, I’d say getting deceived is another type of thriller if it’s done in a clever way.
I also like unreliable narrators, and I think Theo, who tells this story from his perspective, is an example. Some people like me actually enjoy getting tricked by the author who intentionally deceives the readers. In response to people saying that the twist was a trick, I would say I agree but I think it’s a preference thing. A number of readers have mentioned this in their reviews. Why am I saying this? Apparently, this twist has been done many times before. Right after I put down the book, I took a deep breath and thought it had a really good twist, but after I read some reviews, I realized it might have to do with my lack of experience with psychological thrillers.