The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I was given this ARC by the publisher in return for an honest review.
In late spring I was in the mood for contemporary thriller/mystery stories and from the synopsis The High Tide Club seemed to be the right fit to satisfy my reading craving. Sadly, and I know I’m in the minority here, the story did not offer what it promised.
I found all the characters underdeveloped and uninteresting. And the further I read the book the more annoying the protagonist became. I understand that the author intended to create a complex character to carry the story, but at some point the protagonist must become at least slightly relatable to the reader and be able to open up, otherwise the reader will stop caring. In addition, the few characters that seemed highly interesting were kept at arm’s length and taken away as soon as the reader gets excited about the story.
The plot(s) of the story were all over the place and with that the actual genre of the story itself. There were so many elements from different genres mixed together in a careless and haphazard way that I caught myself multiple times wondering more about the nature of the story instead of paying attention to the events described.
The writing, as mentioned above, was all over the place. Not only with respect to the nature and intent of the story as a whole, but also the process of creating the written work appeared unpolished. There were numerous time-jumps that confused me, details didn’t seem to add up properly and I found spelling and grammar mistakes throughout.
Overall, I understand that I received an ARC and that those spelling/grammar mistakes could have been corrected before the final copy went into print; however, I doubt that the story would undergo major revisions in order to rectify the time-jumps and focus more precisely on one genre (mystery, perhaps, as the synopsis greatly hints towards) over the others attempted in the story. I was greatly disappointed in this story and wouldn’t recommend it.
