acidman reviewed Behind her eyes by Sarah Pinborough
Review of 'Behind her eyes' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
It's always incredibly frustrating to watch characters take the obviously wrong turn, trip into the obvious trap, tumble down obvious stairs. It has been used to charming effect in some horror titles but it's never failed to be frustrating for me. This book, for the most part, alternates between a chapter of the villain scheming, all but documenting, their evil plans is followed by a chapter of the victim failing for it. And it's not even like the victim's being unrealistically stupid or anything. It's just that the author had to rely on explaining the oh-so-wicked scheme beforehand as an attempt to make them interesting because their drab prose would have failed to make it any kind of engaging otherwise.
Also, the oh-so-big twist was made so damned obvious half a dozen chapters before it's revealed. It's obvious from the get go that the book was relying on it's one …
It's always incredibly frustrating to watch characters take the obviously wrong turn, trip into the obvious trap, tumble down obvious stairs. It has been used to charming effect in some horror titles but it's never failed to be frustrating for me. This book, for the most part, alternates between a chapter of the villain scheming, all but documenting, their evil plans is followed by a chapter of the victim failing for it. And it's not even like the victim's being unrealistically stupid or anything. It's just that the author had to rely on explaining the oh-so-wicked scheme beforehand as an attempt to make them interesting because their drab prose would have failed to make it any kind of engaging otherwise.
Also, the oh-so-big twist was made so damned obvious half a dozen chapters before it's revealed. It's obvious from the get go that the book was relying on it's one pony trick to sell, all things contrived and bent around it, which's not always a terrible idea but it's almost as if the author gave up after having the major plot points in place cause the characters are so fucking cardboard and the prose so fucking beige. (So much so that halfway through, I was suspecting that Louise and Dan were some figments of Adele's psychotic imagination, character a twisted mind came up with to deal and escape or whatever idk)
Edit: I think what makes this book's take on "Schmuck Bait" (according to TvTropes) frustrating might be because it's ever present robbing the book of any appreciable conflict. We're never made to guess if the victim could possibly overcome anything because no...they wont. There's like a chapter or two in there where the villain's monologue isn't dictating how the book goes that made me hope that the final twist might actually be a twist but it was futile by that point. Maybe one could use oppressive amounts of "Schmuck Bait" to interesting effects but I'm afraid this's not it.
