I am back with another book review: The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda. Thanks so much to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
The story follows Leah Stevens, a Boston journalist turned rural Pennsylvania high school teacher after publishing a controversial story in the news. Leah needed to get away - luckily, so did her friend from college, Emmy Grey - and the two set off to the small town as roommates. Soon after she starts teaching, a woman's body is found down by the river. The attempted murder shakes the entire town, but especially Leah, because the woman looks just like her. Then, when Emmy doesn't come home for days, Leah reports her missing. Upon investigating, she soon finds out that there is no trace of Emmy anywhere, and that she may not even exist.
I'll leave the plot at that because there is a lot more to the story but I don't want to spoil it.
This book had all the makings of a great thriller. Small town cops, shady gym teacher that everyone thought was great until he was questioned, etc. The storyline is so complex that it reels you in, you want to know ever detail and figure out what is really going on. But I think that is where this story starts to fall apart for me.
The plot is just too complex.
Usually, I can handle something like that because, in the end, everything is explained. But I just felt like, in this book, you never knew what was going on even as things were being explained. And I don' think that's Miranda's fault in writing style or anything, I just think the plot was so ambitious it was extremely difficult for anyone to pull off.
I think another part of the problem I had with this book was there was literally no one to trust. In most cases, that's not a big deal and doesn't matter with the story, but I feel like in this book, there was no one to verify information and you never knew what was true.
Part of me feels like I didn't like this book because I am comparing it to ATMG, and maybe I shouldn't - after all, they are two very different thrillers. But I think my larger issue with this book is the over-ambitious plot that just doesn't wrap up well.
Overall, as much as I wanted to love this book, I just don't think it worked for me.