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Book review: Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
Title: Rock Paper Scissors
Author: Alice Feeney
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Publisher: HQ
Publication date: 19th August 2021
My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Summary:
“Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.
Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts – paper, cotton, pottery, tin – and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.”My review:
If you are looking for a slow build and equally intense thriller, Alice Feeney’s books are for you and Rock Paper Scissors is no exception. Set in an eerie chapel in a small town in Scotland, it already seems promising before the main characters and background are introduced. Once Adam and Amelia’s relationship is revealed to be unstable, the mysterious setting seems even more fitting and I couldn’t wait to see how the plot would unravel.
The exchange of traditional gifts for the couple’s wedding anniversaries was unique and a nice touch that suited the storyline well. I enjoyed the flashbacks to the letters Amelia had written to Adam on each anniversary as this technique was a perfect way to show how their relationship developed and the reasons they chose to go on this trip. As characters they were both quite unlikeable and it was evident from the start that they were both hiding something important from each other. Although I don’t usually enjoy unlikeable characters in thrillers, I found that this trait made the plot even more intriguing and I was eager to discover why they no longer trusted each other.
Fans of Alice Feeney’s books will know how brilliant she is at incorporating unexpected plot twists to her books and I think that she left the best twists to Rock Paper Scissors. Without disclosing too much, I can only advise future readers to always keep the characters’ past in mind as all is not as it seems and the unexpected visitor they encounter is a true example of that.
Rock Paper Scissors is the type of thriller you can expect to dive into one evening and finish the same night. Although it starts off slowly, the first twist is enough to keep the reader hooked and wanting more. It delivers on both plot and setting and finishes with a huge revelation that explains everything that had happened at the chapel to date. I highly recommend this book to fans of the genre who crave a story told by an unreliable main character which takes place in a spooky setting.
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Book review: Friend Request by Laura Marshall
Title: Friend Request
Author: Laura Marshall
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Publisher: Sphere
Publication date: 27th July 2017
My rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Synopsis:
When Louise Williams receives a message from someone left long in the past, her heart nearly stops.
Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook.
Maria Weston has been missing for over twenty-five years. She was last seen the night of a school leavers’ party, and the world believes her to be dead. Particularly Louise, who has lived her adult life with a terrible secret.
As Maria’s messages start to escalate, Louise forces herself to reconnect with the old friends she once tried so hard to impress. Trying to piece together exactly what happened that night, she soon discovers there’s much she didn’t know. The only certainty is that Maria Weston disappeared that night, never to be heard from again – until now…My review:
I enjoyed this book and the unexpected turn of events at the very end. The author makes an excellent effort to continuously surprise us with the steady pace and the well developed characters. I liked the in-between chapters with the reveal of how each character has transformed from the horrid events at the school leavers’ party in 1989 to today. I found that I didn’t care much for any of the characters and was suspicious of nearly all of them, an easy mistake to make when the author exposes how each one was involved in the turmoil of that night. However, each character is unique enough to suggest that they could all be involved in the game played on Louise, creating a tense and uneasy atmosphere that only escalates with each chapter.
The author explores controversial current topics that surround society nowadays with ease and a lot of focus. I especially admired the discussion on bullying, fitting in and the notion of how we change (or not) as we grow up. However, the emphasis on Facebook was sometimes too overstated and I felt that the story was exciting enough even without it. I realise that it may be an unpopular opinion because many of us enjoy books where life on social media is analysed, but I personally did not find it as engaging as other readers may do.
Friend Request is a gripping read that kept me guessing until the very end. The final chapter was completely unexpected but very satisfactory and upon reflection makes a lot of sense when considering Maria’s character and the difficult events she lived through. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for an exciting psychological thriller, but perhaps not to those readers who do not enjoy the mean girl vibe that is prominent throughout this book.