A Slow Fire Burning
Ratings63
Average rating3.3
I don't think the book had any redeeming qualities. The story wasn't interesting, and neither were the characters or the writing. it was a pot of depressing people all being horrid to each other. and the book within the book added nothing to the story - it just made my eyes glaze over. there wasn't even a good twist. I just didn't have a good time.
A generous 4 stars. Utterly bonkers but great fun and I think I enjoyed this more than Girl On a Train. At the end of the day it is what it is, no better and no worse than the thousand of other thrillers out there, full of the usual twists turns and bits that “you didn't see coming”. There are stories within stories and, at times, it gets a little confusing AND the ending is... strange. Laura is a great character and should be played by Diane Morgan if this ever gets made into a tv series or film.
A bit of a strange one this. The overall plot was simple; what complicated it was the continual messing around with the timeline and the dipping into the two different narratives of the past events which made it difficult at times to keep a line on who was still alive at the time of a particular perspective.
There were some lighter moments when the author seemed to poke fun directly at herself (character writes a novel with a disjointed narrative and worries if people might find this confusing – in a novel with a confusingly disjointed narrative). Mix with this some poorly written side characters (the spotty copper who is willing to spill the beans on the ongoing investigation to a man who clearly should have been a suspect), I can't help wondering if this could have been better if she had gone all out to write it as a comedy farce. Or perhaps she did and I just missed it..?
Between 4-5 stars, loved this one almost as much as The girl on the train, but it was a bit more sparse and fragmented. However I really liked the different stories and the way they interlaced, and the particularities of each of the characters. A great read!
This story is all over the place, and not in a good way. I just couldn't continue reading it.
Good story. It was a basic whodunit. Although I liked the story, I wasn't overly impressed.
Decent thriller, I liked the structure. Irene was definitely the star of this, I would definitely read about her solving more murders!
One more solid evidence of the famous quotation “all happy families are similarly happy but the unhappy are unhappy their own way”, if you pardon my poor paraphrase.
Muy bueno, pero siento que dio mucho vueltas a la hora de llegar al final. Me gusto mas el primer libro de la autora
Very zigzag-y with a cast of unreliable and/or untrustworthy narrators and a lot of reveals that keep you guessing. I liked the novel-within-a-novel approach and all the sly meta winks and nods at the criticisms of Hawkins' brand of storytelling. I can see this being as divisive as her other works, but I liked it a lot! Also, in this house we love and support Irene 5ever.
3.5 houseboats out of 5, rounded up because I was reading it every spare chance I had and I think that counts for something!
4.5 stars. The long awaited new Paula Hawkins has arrived, and it really is what it says on the tin. A slow burn. If you expect twists and turns and jump scares on every page, you will be disappointed. This story takes its time to build characters, relationships and backstory - and if you have the patience, it all comes together in the end and I think it has a decent payoff.
I loved how one of the strongest characters was a usually disregarded woman in her 80's. Life for a woman doesn't begin and end in her twenties, and Hawkins included a range of female protagonists in all stages of life who had agency and motives.
Despite the lukewarm reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this audiobook. It helped that it was narrated by the sublime Rosamund Pike.