You're Invited

I flew through this pretty quick - so, pacing and tension are great. I picked it up after DNFing a different thriller that was trying to establish its boring characters way too long for my taste. I prefer a thriller that knows what it is and jumps into some tension right away.

I also enjoyed all the secondary commentary on Sri Lankan conservative culture and class. That was all largely news to me and contributed to the decisions people made in the story.

I was a little worried this would feel too much like a domestic thriller, but I needn't have worried. It doesn't feel like that. The story is much more focused on Amaya and Kaavi - their friendship and how it fell apart.

There were multiple reveals in this book that I guessed, but that's bound to happen, so I'm not necessarily mad about that. There were some reveals I had not guessed and also felt kind of tacked on, which was a shame. There was one in particular that I'd have loved to see hinted at a bit better earlier.

My main complaint is the way the first person narration withheld information. I think you can kind of be sneaky about it and hide by omission - I'll give that a pass. That was really well done when it came to Dr. Dunn in this story. But there were times when I felt misled by Amaya's narration in a way that felt unnatural. She would say she was doing things for a reason, and it wasn't true (not in a "she's deceiving herself" way - it just wasn't the real reason because the author wanted to hide the real reason from the reader). This is a story that would work much better in movie form - where what the protagonist is thinking is hidden by default.

Overall, though, it delivered what I wanted from a thriller. Engaging and suspenseful with decent writing. Who Kaavi and Amaya are revealed to be (meaning, the kind of people they are) was a highlight.