One By One by Ruth Ware
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
This is my final book review for 2020.
This was the 95th book I read this year….I’m honestly surprised I got thru that many considering how unfocused my pandemic brain was the majority of these past 10 looooooong, difficult months.
I wanted to get thru 100 books this year….and DANG I was SO CLOSE….maybe next year I’ll make it.
Fingers crossed that my brain will be at full capacity soon, that healing occurs all over our nation and world, and that things settle in to a new type of wonderful normalcy.
Anyway….this book was my last reading hurrah of the entire year…
Selected by my monthly book club.
This one was a psychological thriller…DEFINITELY not in my typical and preferred list of genres… I have mixed feelings when it comes to psychological thrillers/who done its….every now and then I get pulled in against my will and have a good time… but the circumstances and story have to be JUST RIGHT.
This one didn’t quite make it for me…..
This book stressed me out BIG TIME….. but it did for sure keep me on the edge of my seat.
Here is the official summary:
“Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.
When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.
As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further…one by one.”
Okay…if yall been around awhile reading my reviews, you know already that psychological thrillers can FOR REALS stress me the hell out….my anxiety can get all stirred up and I get to where I can NOT relax while I am reading the story.
Not my idea of fun.
So I don’t partake in them most of the time because I am NOT the kind of person who enjoys triggering high stress levels in myself and I never know if they will set me off or not.
But…. yall also know I LOVE my monthly book club peeps whole heartedly and am willing to take one for the team every now and then when they pick a book like this.
I will take the risk for them ladies EVERY TIME.
I mean sometimes I DO surprise myself and enjoy one of their “creepy” picks 🤣
This was not one of those times.
Not only was it stressful to read, but it was also depressing too.
I mean, people DIE. That isn’t fun to read about.
There is an unknown murderer amongst the characters for most of the book and you NEVER know who is about to go next…. PLUS there is ALSO this crazy avalanche that happens too.
Basic human survival in catastrophic weather conditions mixed with a murderer on the loose…..grrrreeeaaaatttttttt.
Some of the characters back stories deal with years of unresolved and undealt with trauma…and there are some pretty heavy and heartbreaking things in their histories….so all of that just brings an air of such extra weight and sadness to the storyline too.
I also figured out who the murderer was and would continue to be SUPER early on in the book (I am doing that more and more lately….I’m thinking it may be my super power or something…) so I just kept waiting for everyone else to figure out what was SO DANG OBVIOUS to me.
Later in the book once the murderer’s identity is revealed to the reader, the ending drags on FOREVVVVEERRRRR….I looked down at my audiobook at that part and was like “WHAT?!? Almost 4 hours left?!? What ELSE of a mess is gonna happen?”
Like I said….STRESSFUL, yall.
The author writes from two character’s points of view for the entire book…it was interesting and I understand why she wrote it that way…but I kept waiting for other character’s voices to pop in too. I think that would have put a very cool spin on the story if that would have happened.
And ugggghhhhhhhhhhhh………
Something that was a VERY annoying bit in the book was how the author identified who the narrator was for each chapter.
Every chapter started off with the character’s name and then something like this:
Snoop ID=Erin Listening to=The Pixies Snoop Scribers= 10
Yall….there are 90 chapters. It got REALLLY irritating hearing that crap over and over and over again. It really had nothing to do with the story unfolding in my opinion AT ALL.
Speaking of Snoop, I do think the music listening app the author creates in the book is super creative and extremely relatable….and believable too. Especially in this weird pandemic virtual world we are living in these days where our only outlets for connection happen to be thru screens and most of the time social media platforms.
I will say that I find the author is a wonderful writer and is very good at her craft….so if you love some psychological thrillers you will absolutely enjoy this book.
Even though this book wasn’t for me, I can recognize that she is very good at what she does…
I admit that I was drawn into this story but not in an enjoyable way…more like in a tense “I gotta see how this ends up so I can be DONE with this stressful shit” kinda way🤣
Those are my final book thoughts for 2020, yall.
Damn.
What a weirdo year.
And what a great reminder to us all how much we need books in our life.
See yall in 2021 with more books, more random thoughts, and excessive amounts of glitter.