Then I promptly devoured it over the course of a weekend.
Fractured - Catherine McKenzie
Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to the idyllic Mount Adams district of Cincinnati, hoping to evade the stalker who’s been terrorizing them ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Since Julie doesn’t know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.
After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of increasingly unsettling harassment. Has Julie’s stalker found her, or are her neighbors out to get her, too? As tension in the neighborhood rises, new friends turn into enemies, and the results are deadly.
I'm really having a hard time writing reviews for books I really enjoyed that don't contain spoilers, but leave you absolutely needing to read this book. The very cool thing about this book is that if you've read others by Catherine, this one feels totally different. Her other books are light and fun, and they have a little real life seriousness to it, but overall they are light reads, but this one is heavier. I mean, she has a stalker and is harassed throughout the book so right away we're in for a treat and it's nice to see an author go down another alley in their writing and not fall victim to basically being stuck in a rut with the same kind of story and characters. This isn't to say this is so different that if you're a fan of Catherine's you might be hesitant- don't be! The book has a great cast of characters, the story has some humorous parts mixed in and honestly? You can see this playing out as a Lifetime movie in your head, just please don't cast Tori Spelling as Julie because ugh.
The other thing I'm becoming a fan of even though I swore I wouldn't, the changing point of view. I'm always going to prefer one point of view for my stories but when done right it really works, and that's what we have here. It does switch from past to present, but we also have Julie and the neighbor across the street. And the book basically centers around The Event (which I can't tell you what it is because it ruins the story and just know that I am basically squirming in my seat to freaking spill all of the beans and then talk incredibly fast about how I didn't know WHAT was happening the entire time and oh-my-god what do you think about it?!) and you don't know if Julie is the cause of it or a victim. The town has run wild with gossip and honestly, there are so many twists to the story that you don't know what the heck is going on until the end.
And what an ending.
I also have to give props because I finished The Girl on the Train a week or so ago and that was such an epic let down of a story and this book totally turned psychological thriller around for me. It's not just that but it has the author's chick lit charm in it that made me love her writing to begin with so I feel like I can't plunk this book into a specific genre. It's a mix. It's a really great mix and honestly, if you have a friend who likes to read- consider Fractured for a Christmas gift. Seriously.
And in the meantime, you can follow or stalk (haha- see what I did there?!) Catherine on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
1 comment:
I'm glad that this one met - and exceeded - your high expectations! Thanks for being a part of the tour.
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