Jacqui's Reviews > One by One

Three couples, all with their own issues, head off to spend some time together at a luxurious hotel. On the way, the road to the hotel becomes difficult to navigate and the minivan they are in breaks down. Do they shelter for the night or carry on? With the decision to carry on made, they grab a few things and head off. But the hotel remains elusive and it seems a night out in the woods is inevitable.

Then, one by one, they start disappearing or dying. Who or what is after them and will any survive the woods?

When I read the title, it smacked of Agatha Christie and the premise sounded very interesting. I’d never read this author before, so was looking forward to it. But straight away, there is something just a little off about it.

Claire’s character comes across as whiny and selfish, which may have been intentional, so we keep on reading. Now we have three couples going off on a short vacation together, but some of the people don’t even like each other. This seems odd considering why would you want to spend time with someone you don’t like?

Anyway, so we have Claire and her husband Noah, who are unhappy in their marriage and Claire wants out. In fact, she is putting the cart before the horse and indulging in another too soon. This vacation for her is to muster up the courage to say no more as they have separate rooms and she just needs to do it. She loves her kids but the marriage is a sham. We also have Lindsay and her new surgeon boyfriend, Warner, who suggested the hotel they are about to stay at. Warner is good looking (as Claire constantly alludes to) but is very controlling over Lindsay. Red Flag indeed. Then there is Jack, who has long been friends with Noah and Jack’s wife Michelle. She is a high-ranked divorce lawyer and is only interested in work. Why she is there, who knows? Jack has a little secret of his own too.

So here are five adults relying on someone they just met who has a map on a piece of paper, and the road to the luxurious hotel is almost impassable. First implausible thing. Then the responses to the situations are very juvenile. Compass obviously leading you in a circle? Must be human error? Only two hours to the hotel on foot (on the road meant to go to the luxurious hotel that suddenly ends) and six hours later still in the woods? Sounds legit. The girls wanting to pee in the woods but not knowing how to and the guys having to instruct them? Really??? Things just got weirder and weirder as though someone had taken a list of plot points, a list of evidence, and a list of reasons to kill, and then jumbled them all up and said somehow they will connect. But they didn’t.

Mercifully, the story is not long and the writing enough to keep you reading. The writing... not the plot or characters. Although the interjection of the chapters by “anonymous” made for an interesting sideline. If the goal was to get rid of someone, why take so long in the story? All could have been accomplished within the first few hours of the car breaking down. The intimate moment at the end? The timing was rather off. There were other silly errors, too.

A psychological thriller? Nope. The plot of a B-grade movie of the horror in the woods? Maybe. Or maybe just some good base ideas that didn’t mesh well with each other and characters that were not formed enough for a reader to care about. Just an average read...

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.