Friday, March 31, 2017

Book review: "The Woman in Cabin 10" by Ruth Ware

I've read 2 super-hyped thrillers in a week, and they are both very different, and interesting for their diverse settings. Woman in Cabin 10 was one of them.

Here's the Goodreads synopsis:


In this tightly wound story, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

With surprising twists and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another intense read.


Honestly I don't know if I would have picked up this book if it was in a different setting. A lot of the action takes place on an itty bitty luxury yacht, which made me think back fondly on mine and Quinn's time on our European River Cruise. That was a small boat, but it held 92 people as oppose to the book's boat - 20 people.

Here's the few things that made me like this book a little bit less:
-Felt like the ending was really rushed. Sloooooow beginning, good middle, super rushed end.

-Plot holes: there were some things that felt like significant events that just got brushed away with little or no information and I think that might also tie into the rushed end. 

-Unreliable Narrator: This is strictly a person preference but I am always wary of unreliable narrators. Our main character maaay have a drinking problem, and is on some medication to address some depression so when she tells people that she's witnessed something terrifying they don't quite believe her as much as when she told the story before they new about the booze and the pills.
  
Here's what I liked:
-The setting: as I said before, the boat intrigued me

-It had some epistolary moments which I always think add some texture to a book.

If you like mysteries and need a good vacation read you could certainly do worse than this one!


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3 comments:

  1. I am listening to this book this week! So far am liking it. Good to meet another Midwestern Book Blogger - I am in MN.
    readinginwbl.com

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  2. Wow, despite the cover, I never made the connection that this story is set on a yacht, haha. I always thought the title was reference to a cabin in the woods!

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