sophia's Reviews > Things We Do in the Dark

oh. my. gosh...!!!!!!!!

wow, wow, wow!!!

(yes, those exclamation marks were absolutely necessary.)

this was the best book i've read in a looong time, like actually. and it's one of the best thrillers/mysteries i've read, but i will admit i haven't read that many, but still. i really enjoyed this. i have a hard time wrapping my head around this story, not because there's some amazing, unthinkable twist, but because it was just really good and it's >b?hard for me to process all my emotions/thoughts to write my review.

“Because while you can reinvent yourself, you can’t outrun yourself. As a woman once reminded her a long time ago, the common denominator in all the terrible things that have happened to you is you.”

ok i guess i'll just start with my predictions. (view spoiler)[so by page 112 (yes, i wrote this down... i know, i'm weird.) i was absolutely sure betty was paris. i was like 100% sure. i mean how could she not be? all the evidence was leading to this, and i thought hillier was definitely pointing us in this direction. but that was the exact point. she was luring us into believing smth false. betty was in fact NOT paris, paris was JOEY and betty was DEAD, not MISSING. and my second prediction was that betty (or paris, in my mind) obviously killed joey. wrong. completely wrong. (hide spoiler)] so as you can see (or maybe you didn't click on the spoiler and didn't see, but anyhow...), i was completely wrong in my guesses. i was shocked to learn truth after truth that didn't align with my predictions. it definitely kept me flipping the pages. i guess i do need to read more mysteries because wow i'm bad at predicting stuff, i feel like i should've been able to see that coming because it wasn't too far-fetched, it was right under my nose but i missed it. and yes, mysteries/thrillers are amazing, so you can bet i'll be reading more of that genre.

i read the last ~50% in one sitting, it was that addicting. i couldn't stop. i knew i had other work that i should've been doing, but i was like "i won't be able to do my work well because i'll just keep thinking about when i can next read the book." this was addictingggg, but so so satisfying.

i thought hillier was extremely talented in regards to switching time periods. switching scenes from past to present to middle-of-past-and-present with grace really takes some skill. the transitions were beautiful and seamless, not at all forced. i loved how the flashbacks caught us up on present events and made things make sense. it kept you going like "ohhhhh, i understand... but now i want to know more" and thus i kept flipping the pages!! there were also kind of two-three perspectives depending on how you look at it, and hillier mastered all of them.

something else i really enjoyed: the characters. oh wow, i loved the characters. i loved joey, i could feel her emotions right through the pages and i squirmed and felt her pain. her yearning for confirmation, affirmation, and love was so palpable, almost as solid as the paper i was holding. like i could feel her, i really felt for her. this was definitely a hugely character-driven story. we learned everyone's motives, backstories, and inner thoughts. you get attached to some characters. you immensely despise others. but there's also this grey area, this morally grey area that keeps you questioning whether they are good or bad... this really drove the story forward.

this book dealt with a lot of heavy topics and i'm pretty happy with the way they were portrayed. it really dove into the feeling of being a victim and explored how victims are so strong and resilient. it showcases a lot of issues that are very prevalent today and demonstrates the dark sides of our world. necessary warning: some scenes are pretty graphic, so if you're not okay with that, then probably stay away from this book because there are quite a few trigger warnings.

anyhow, this was beautiful. a through and through masterpiece. side note: i've seen so many reviews saying that they didn't like this as much as hillier's other books, so i will definitely be checking her other books out!!

loved this book and definitely a 5-star read. glad i picked up such a gem (you could almost say, i picked up a ruby- ifykyk). actually only got this because another book i wanted wasn't available at the library and so this was the first thing on my want-to-read list that i saw and was available at the library.

>> i picked up a ruby (ifykyk) and it turned into 5.0 stars