From Goodreads: A thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath
A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?
On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.
Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.
Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?
There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?
Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.
But who can she trust?
SPOILER FREE REVIEW To be completely honest, I picked up this book after listening to the commercial for the upcoming movie that ran on last week's episode of Crime Junkie. I don't know what it is about the idea of being trapped in a blizzard that feels so creepy to me, but I just had to give it a try. Darby is on her way home to say her goodbyes to her estranged mother after finding out she is dying of stage IV cancer. On her perilous drive from Colorado to Utah, she is caught in a treacherous blizzard and is forced to pull over to a rest area to wait it out. Also caught in the same storm are four other strangers: Ed, Sandi, Ashley, and Lars. However, after heading outside in hopes of finding a WiFi signal, Darby soon discovers that one of these people has a secret in their van, and it instantly becomes clear that she is in grave danger. Overall, the best thing about this book was the pacing. I found myself absolutely devouring it. It was a very quick read for me, partly because I just had to know what was really going on. While the twists and turns definitely were on the predictable side, the Taylor Adams really paced the writing and plot very well to keep the reader engaged. The writing style overall was well done. Many of the scenes definitely had a very visceral feel, and the descriptions were definitely cinematic and vivid. However, there was a lot of repetition. "Ratface" "Strength in Chinese" "Coco" for example were little jokes that just kept getting thrown in over and over until they honestly became annoying. Definitely something I was able to look past, and I still was able to enjoy the book, but noticeable enough to pull me out of the narrative. SPOILERS AHEAD As I read through this, I couldn't help but be a little surprised as I realized just how much was left. After all...how much else really could happen in this setting. The answer is, not really a lot. While the pacing kept the book moving, a lot of this book felt repetitive. For example, there was an awful lot of men's restroom shenanigans, to a point where even one of the main characters made a mention of just how much use that window was getting. The whole Sandi "plot twist" really honestly annoyed me. It felt thrown in and was seeded through really poorly. Whereas the Ashley plot twist felt much more thought out and was therefore much more effective. The ending was over the top, and honestly fit the genre well. It definitely took out any shred of realism left in the book, but to be honest, the slasher genre (which this book definitely dips it's toe - or should we say pinky finger sorry, not sorry - into) is known for nothing if not unkillable, resurrecting villains. Much of the backstory of the brothers also was very well done, and to be honest, the sections written from Ashley's perspective were the most engaging sections. Very dark and well done. Overall, while I definitely had criticism for this book, I definitely did enjoy reading it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, quick, gory read. ~ Charlotte |
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