It has been a long time since I have had the opportunity to read a book that starts as strongly as The Writer by Miranda Smith. Instantly gripping, it was impossible not to flip through pages to find out as much as I could about the main character, Becca, and the series of events that led to a stalker, a killer, and a writing group. It was an interesting dynamic to not only meet other characters, but also get a glimpse of who they are through their writing. Both what they chose to write and the method in which they all chose to share led to a thorough stream of information when the characters were together.
Unfortunately, the middle of the book lagged a bit, which was surprising, given the incredibly strong start of the novel. There was a darkness in the topic at hand that was difficult to see past to get to the storyline of the novel. Becca was so influenced by the darkness of her past that she lost sight of anything else in her life. That is completely understandable once the circumstances are uncovered, but it takes a long time to get to that point. There is a great deal of theorizing without anything actually happening to drive the plot forward.
The story tries to dive into the different ways that people handle grief and trauma while still trying to maintain the story line. It was interesting to see how the different side characters handled the difficulties of their life in relation to how our main character handled her own trauma. These explorations into the characters helped bring back to life characters that would have otherwise been very two dimensional. Despite these insights, many of the characters still remained rather dull for a majority of the novel.
The end of the story once again brought back the thrilling, high-stakes nature of the beginning of the novel. It was exciting to finally get to see who was really behind so many of the traumatizing events of Becca’s life. That being said, the connections felt forced, despite the little hints that I picked up on once I looked back. Despite it all, I still loved the ending and just sat there at the very end staring at my kindle while I processed everything.
⅗ stars for a quick, thrilling read.
This book deals with many heavy topics, please check trigger warnings if needed.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bookoture for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Novel Llama 