Member Reviews
3 for the story, 4 for the read (I listened to the audiobook) so 3.5 rounded up.
Premise - an abused woman hides out with her little girl on a remote island, working as a maid. No one can know the little girl is there, so when a hurricane hits the island and all staff must evacuate, things get tricky fast. Then the murders start. Oh, and our heroine - who came to an island on purpose and is facing the possibility of hurricane-related flooding - can't swim.
I expected to like this more than I did, but I still enjoyed it. I liked the unreliable narrator elements, but was able to predict almost all of the twists quite early on, including the one about the abuse. I also think the story would have worked better for me if the narrator was a teenager. As it stands, with her as an adult, her age/Luanne's age kind of felt like a plot hole with the twist. Teenage pregnancy exists, so aging them down would have made the story work a lot better (and I think could have fixed some of the dreary voice stuff too, if Hollinger had added some typical teenage recalcitrance to our main character). Overall, however, the story never lost my attention.
I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Kelly Burke. Burke did a great job with the read, really capturing the mood of the story, so I can definitely recommend enjoying this story in that format! I think I might have liked the book a bit less if I were reading it directly and not being read to.
Thanks, NetGalley and Bookouture Audio, for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.