The Doll's House by Lisa Unger

The Doll's House by Lisa Unger

This popped up for me on Kindle Unlimited and, since I've read a few Lisa Unger novels, I decided to give it a try. I love flash fiction and short stories, so the idea of finishing this in one sitting was really appealing.

It ended up taking me... four weeks? Not of constant reading, mind you, but more like picking it up, not getting into it, and putting it back down. I was determined to finish it though, and in a way, I'm glad I did, but not because it was an amazing work of fiction.

My biggest issue with this story is that it should have been a novel. At least, with everything contained in it now, it should be a novel to do each point justice.

Possible spoilers below.

Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica

 Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica

I’ve been hit or miss on Kubica’s books (two with one star and one each of two, three, and four stars), but I keep coming back for more, so I feel like that says something. (However, I do the same with Ruth Ware but overall dislike her books so maybe I’m not the best judge.) My feelings on this book were a bit conflicted… 

First, some pettiness: I’m so sick of titles about women/girls/wives/couples. The Perfect Couple, The Golden Couple, The Couple Next Door, One Perfect Couple.

Also somewhat petty: I’m tired of prologues. Some can be well done, but many in thrillers just throw you into a random scene with no context. I understand it’s supposed to grab you and pull you in, but I often skim or skip them because they do nothing for me. This prologue was especially worthless to the story, in my opinion. I went back to it after I finished the book and pieced it together to figure out where it went in the book, and it was still meh. It didn’t add anything. So… why have it? To meet a word count? Because every suspense book seems to have them these days? Who knows.

The writing style was also a bit lacking and felt like Kubica was saying the same thing in many ways to meet a word count. I know there needs to be some rise and fall in suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat, but this was a LOT of slowness that made me want to skim ahead to see what the point was. Lots of mundane details that didn’t matter to the story except to bring it to a halt.

Begin the spoilers: