TW/CW: abduction, physical/psychological abuse, suicide
Okay, so this might be a bit of a meandering review but here we go. I finished this book a few days ago and have given it a lot of thought. I'm still not sure how thoroughly I can explain my opinions without spoilers but I'll do my best. I really enjoyed the first 1/3-ish of this book and then it sort of went downhill from there and upon reflection, I think part of that is due to my own expectations and preferences not being met and there's a good chance that someone who has a different reading history won't have the same issues I did. Prior to picking this book up, I saw a number of positive reviews on Instagram simply raving about this book. My reading schedule for this month was a little tight, but those reviews encouraged me to make some space for this story. And I think this book had a lot I liked in it, but the times that it missed, for me, outweighed the positives. As of writing this review, the book has an average rating of 4.3 on Goodreads (with 186 ratings) so a good number of people obviously really like this book. I did take a skim through some of the positive reviews just to see what people were liking so much about it and many of the reviews specifically listed out aspects that were a negative for me so this might just be a very subjective reading experience. In any case, here are my thoughts.
This book does not shy away from the physical or mental abuse and torture that Alfred is putting these kids through. I've seen some reviews liken this to an episode of Criminal Minds and I would agree with that comparison (specifically, S6 E8 Reflection of Desire and S8 E10 The Lesson). However, I personally felt that as the book progressed, a lot of the abuse was done just for shock value and thus is was less impactful as the story progressed. Initially, we got an interesting back and forth between the abuse by Alfred and then his accomplice Jennifer caring for them almost like a mother would (making them dinner, making sure they did their school work, etc). This dichotomy was really interesting and even Angel at times had little moments where she was almost enjoying this new 'family' that she had. I would have liked if we continued that sort of back and forth but instead, as the book progressed, we really lost the Jennifer side of the equation and we got so much of Alfred torturing that those brutal scenes lost some of their impact for me. I almost became desensitized to the violence because the last three chapters had been along similar lines. I think if we had gotten less of the actual violence and more of a 'relax' period between those brutal scenes then it would be much more impactful overall.
The first part I enjoyed was the POV switching. We get a good number of POVs in the story but Angel is by far our protagonist and I'd say the majority (70%ish) of the book is told from her perspective. Some of the other perspectives are Alfred, Jennifer, Peter, and a high school guidance counselor named Edward. I do, generally, like a multi-POV thriller because it usually allows the reader to see more layers to the plot and really up the tension. However, in this case, it is not immediately apparent how all these POVs are related to the main plot line and that was frustrating for me. I trusted that they would come together in the end (and they do), but while I was in the middle of the book I ended up being bored and confused why we were focusing on these other characters instead of following Angel. These other POVs didn't have their own arcs and I didn't find the characters very compelling to follow. Looking back, I can see how the events in these other chapters are important to the overall plot, but when it wasn't clear in the moment I just found myself not caring and sort of skimming those chapters. Ennis did a really good job with the timing of when these other chapters would come in and interrupt the main narrative. I think since the main plot with Angel is so brutal that these other chapters did serve as little breaks for the reader which is a nice aspect and was really needed in some cases. I think the chapter POV choices were really smart and did lead to an overall good flow to the narrative so I can't complain too much.
I'm a character-focused reader and these characters were just not fleshed out enough for my liking. The best way I can describe my issues is that I can list of facts about the characters but I never got a good sense of how those facts impacted the characters or their interactions with the world around them. For example, Angel and Bud's father was recently sentenced to jailtime for attempting to rob a bank but I didn't really get any good sense of how they feel about that or how that impacted their lives. Did it make their relationship stronger? Did they have conflicting feelings and maybe one thinks the punishment was too harsh and the other disagrees? Did this change their relationship with their friends or other people in town? I felt like a lot of the emotional and psychological impact of the story would have been so much stronger if we saw the physical or relational outcomes to the facts we know about the characters. Also, the first 25% or so of this story introduces us to the various other POV characters that we'll be following - one of which is Peter who uses his money and connections as a respected journalist to help families of missing children (I felt this was an obvious comparison to John Walsh). He also has a friendship with the FBI agent who worked on his daughter's case a year ago. Since we're introduced to Peter as POV character and he is interacting with Angel and Bud's case, I thought for sure we would follow both his investigation as well as the events taking place in the Dollhouse. This was not the case. In fact, we only get 3 main chapters with Peter and one of them is the climax of the whole book. This was a point that many reviews listed out as a positive - they liked that the police/FBI investigation was missing because they find detective thrillers boring. I am of the complete opposite opinion and thus wanted us to see Peter's investigation and how close (or not) he/the FBI were to finding Angel and Bud.
From a purely plot perspective, I did enjoy how the story unfolded all the way until the end. For me, a good psychological thriller has the main character overcome a mental block of some sort and, in this case, it is Angel trying to figure out how to escape while knowing that if she gets caught, it would mean possible death. As discussed previously, I think the physical torture ramifications of disobedience are well established in the story, and I do think we get a good amount of Angel's internal monologue and her fears of what will happen if she fails. There were moments where she would try something, fail, and face the consequences so both her and the reader know very well what is at stake when she tries again a few chapters later. I think Alfred is a compelling villain and I enjoyed how the reveals surrounding his weird stuff with the photographs were done. I was also intrigued by Jennifer and wanted to know more about her and Alfred's relationship and how they came to be partners. So while I did have my issues with the character work and the balance of torture to other plot, I was overall liking the plot and found the book interesting. The ending twist is one that was unexpected and surprising but it has been done many times before and I just don't like it. I can't give away too much but I will mention that it is mental-health related and it is a twist that I've come to learn is harmful and stereotypical and I'm just not a fan of it. I did like how we get a good amount of resolution after the climax and we follow our characters to see how they are dealing with the aftermath. As a note, there is a sequel to this book coming later in 2021 that follows one of the characters from this book into a whole new situation (the plot arc of this book is complete and it feels like a standalone with a little bit of an open ending).
Overall, I feel this just boiled down to a 'not for me' type of book. My main gripe is the way the book gave me information early on gave me expectations that, when they weren't met, I was disappointed. I found the characters a little flat and the ending twist put me off a bit. It isn't a bad book, by any means, but I think this author just might not be a good mesh for my reading preferences. I might pick up the second book because it might give me some of the character development I was looking for and (hopefully) it won't have the same twist at the end.
Thanks to BookSirens and the author for an ARC in exchange for review
Publication date: June 1, 2021
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