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‘Nothing in the world is hidden forever’
Wilkie Collins, No Name.
It has been a long time (read: 27 days) since I read something that made me jump out of my chair. This was a slow burn but a great payoff.
The Stranger Diaries is about a woman, Clare, who works at a school that used to be the estate of famed horror writer H.M Holland. Her friend and co-worker, Ella, dies and everyone is shocked by this murder in this small sleepy town.
I picked this up back in June and kept putting it off because there was always something newer and more pressing to read. But Tuesday, I finally picked it up and I mean, it was a wild ride. The writing style was interesting because Griffiths took us back through the narrative from three differing perspectives. It didn’t feel repetitive. It felt like The Perfect Liar by Thomas Christopher Greene. The only issue I had with it is that because it was “diaries” a lot of the story was told and not shown. Over explication for the sake of character development. I’m not mad at it; It’s just part of it.
There was a big mystery that needed to be solved and the urgency was there interwoven with the mundane. This book is not just a murder mystery, intermingling with the basic narrative are excerpts from The Stranger. This made it feel more real; I wanted to see if this short story author was a real person. It does a great job of including diversity, even including racial microaggressions made by the characters.
The only LGBT character was the detective and it’s not treated as a twist, which is nice, but it feels added to add nuance to an already complex character.
When I finished the book, I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to write a review about it. This book is so underhyped and it’s so incredibly good. I figured out the mystery pretty much right away but it was gratifying to see the detective figure it out and also for the suspense to build as you try to figure out where the motivation lies.
I think the reason why I liked this book so much was that there was no hype to live up to. It was just simply a book about a scary story and it pushed my boundaries a little bit. I think that’s the point of the books we read. We try to find something that makes us learn something or make us uncomfortable or take us to that part of ourselves that we revel in but never dare experience in the real world.
Maybe next time I won’t wait so long to open the next book on my TBR.
5 stars.
Reading Reckless : Rants and Raves 