I had a hard time getting through this book. It dragged on with nothing to keep your attention until the very end. I almost gave up a few times.
Lainey was ten when she was taken. She spent three horrible years in her kidnapper's basement, enduring horrible things. Lainey is supposed to be "lucky," since she escaped, but it's hard for her to see it that way sometimes. Her entire life has been formed by that awful period in her life. And now, another girl has gone missing. Olivia Shaw, who looks exactly like Lainey did thirteen years ago. Lainey's kidnapper was never found: the police say because she could never give strong enough evidence to identify him. So Lainey has spent these years afraid, living in a haze of pills and booze, and waiting for something bad to happen. Well, something bad has happened. How exactly is Lainey involved, and is she ever going to be safe again?
I definitely have some mixed feelings about this one. It certainly grabs you from the beginning and has some moments that make you go "what?!" Parts of the story are very unique--I enjoyed the plot of two young women/girls aligned by a potential kidnapper--but the story was marred somewhat by the focus on Lainey's drinking and drugs. She's presented as an unreliable narrator, which I understand, and as a flawed heroine. Some of the scenes with her nearly make you cringe: you feel a mix of such sympathy and frustration, because she's such a stressful protagonist. The trend toward these frustrating, unreliable narrators lately has grown a bit old for me.
My other issue was Lainey's strange dynamic with the detective investigating Olivia's disappearance, Sean: the same detective, coincidentally, who found Lainey thirteen years ago as she stumbled helplessly along the road after escaping her horrible fate in the basement. Their dynamic, frankly, is just odd, and I found it almost distracting from the main story. Romance? Just a side story? Is he involved? It was less a bit of intrigue though and, as I mentioned, a distraction. And honestly, a little confusing. After a while, I started to get a little bored with Lainey's helplessness, her interactions with Sean, and the overall lack of things moving forward.
That changed about 3/4 in, when things picked up and became interesting again. There are definitely some fascinating moments in the book, and I did find it engaging overall, despite some stumbles along the way. This is a first novel and I see room from improvement, for sure. I'm going for a 3-star rating -- this is based on a combination of 2.5 stars for some stilted/cheesy writing combined with 3.5 stars for some exciting plot twists, including one near the end that pretty much made it all worth it. I would certainly be intrigued to read Laurin's next book. Don't let my review scare you from this one: I read a lot of thrillers, so I get bit jaded reading some similar plot devices. There's still plenty of pieces to like here. More at http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com
I definitely have some mixed feelings about this one. It certainly grabs you from the beginning and has some moments that make you go "what?!" Parts of the story are very unique--I enjoyed the plot of two young women/girls aligned by a potential kidnapper--but the story was marred somewhat by the focus on Lainey's drinking and drugs. She's presented as an unreliable narrator, which I understand, and as a flawed heroine. Some of the scenes with her nearly make you cringe: you feel a mix of such sympathy and frustration, because she's such a stressful protagonist. The trend toward these frustrating, unreliable narrators lately has grown a bit old for me.
My other issue was Lainey's strange dynamic with the detective investigating Olivia's disappearance, Sean: the same detective, coincidentally, who found Lainey thirteen years ago as she stumbled helplessly along the road after escaping her horrible fate in the basement. Their dynamic, frankly, is just odd, and I found it almost distracting from the main story. Romance? Just a side story? Is he involved? It was less a bit of intrigue though and, as I mentioned, a distraction. And honestly, a little confusing. After a while, I started to get a little bored with Lainey's helplessness, her interactions with Sean, and the overall lack of things moving forward.
That changed about 3/4 in, when things picked up and became interesting again. There are definitely some fascinating moments in the book, and I did find it engaging overall, despite some stumbles along the way. This is a first novel and I see room from improvement, for sure. I'm going for a 3-star rating -- this is based on a combination of 2.5 stars for some stilted/cheesy writing combined with 3.5 stars for some exciting plot twists, including one near the end that pretty much made it all worth it. I would certainly be intrigued to read Laurin's next book. Don't let my review scare you from this one: I read a lot of thrillers, so I get bit jaded reading some similar plot devices. There's still plenty of pieces to like here. More at http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com
Usually when a book is compare to Gone Girl or Girl on a Train I will skip them, to me those were not as good as some reviews raved about, however, I did give this a try and I can only give it 3 stars, for me it just wasn't an edge of the seat thriller but for some it'll be a good book, I read so many books in this same genre that now a book has to grab me from the beginning and hold my attention to each and every page, this one did not do that and I skipped forward a lot just to get past some of the 'filler' pages of nothing.
I'll probably try another one from Laurin and see how or if her writing improves.
I'll probably try another one from Laurin and see how or if her writing improves.
"Girl Last Seen" has a pretty good premise. Two girls go missing, thirteen years apart and thought to be kidnapped by the same person. Already an interesting premise that gets more interesting as the story unfolds.
For me though, at first, it seemed like the story didn't flow fast enough, but that soon changed. Then it became difficult to put the book down. The original kidnapped girl, Ella Santas, now know as Laine is the middle of all the drama. She, along with Detective Ortiz are trying to find out who is responsible for the abduction of Olivia Shaw.
Once the pace picked up, it didn't slow down. Some very good character development as we get to see Laine grow. Her flaws make her vulnerable, but likeable, at least to me.
The story will keep you guessing to the very end. I would definitely recommend this one to my fellow readers.
For me though, at first, it seemed like the story didn't flow fast enough, but that soon changed. Then it became difficult to put the book down. The original kidnapped girl, Ella Santas, now know as Laine is the middle of all the drama. She, along with Detective Ortiz are trying to find out who is responsible for the abduction of Olivia Shaw.
Once the pace picked up, it didn't slow down. Some very good character development as we get to see Laine grow. Her flaws make her vulnerable, but likeable, at least to me.
The story will keep you guessing to the very end. I would definitely recommend this one to my fellow readers.
Hmmm...I think I liked it. The fact that two similar girls were taken ten years apart was fascinating. When you find out why the second girl was taken and then by whom, I think you'll be surprised! There were a lot of twists and turns throughout the story that kept me guessing. What I didn't like was it was almost hard to like the heroine of the story because of her constant self sabotage, drug use, selflessness, and so forth. I wanted to throw a bucket of cold water on her and tell her to get it together! There were some unbelievable situations within the story, and some story lines that needed further description, but overall I'm not disappointed that I read the book!
