The Stats
📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: The Other People
AUTHOR: C J Tudor @CJtudorauthor
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published: Jan 28th, 2020
The Review
Gabe drives up and down the british highways, living out of his camper van and service stations. His wife and daughter were murdered while he was AWOL. Only, at the exact same time that the murders were happening, he saw his daughter in the back of a stranger’s car…
The Title/Cover Draw
So I was doing a Wheel of TBR, randomly spinning prompts to see what book to read. My prompt was Ugly Cover, so that should tell you something.
What I liked:
The VW Camper Van. Seriously, I love those things. Perfect for road trips, hobo living, or zombie apocalypses. Get em an electric version, and I could vanish from the world.
I enjoyed this book. It telegraphed all its punches, but that wasn’t really the focus here. It wasn’t about a twisty turny plot. It was a thriller with a heart. I really felt for all these viewpoint characters. Their motivations were primal and human. Their pain relatable. Given that the situation could very likely happen in reality, and probably has, it only makes this book more powerful. This could happen. In fact, it could happen to you. And that’s the point.
What I didn’t like:
Most of the plot twists, except for the villain’s identity, were all pretty obvious. Early parts of the book were pretty slow because of this, but the action picked up about halfway through.
What kept me reading:
There is a paranormal aspect to this book that keeps getting poked and prodded at, but only partially explained at the end. It was an intriguing plot point that I feel was under-utilized. I wanted to see more of it, and I want it fully explained.
The Characters:
Gabe and Katie are solid characters with noble, natural motivations. They’re ordinary people in heart-rending and terrifying circumstances. The little secrets in their backstory keep them from getting boring. Alice is interesting, but her condition could have done more for the story. I’m fairly certain that if the condition hadn’t been present, we’d still have the same story.
I feel that the villain was pretty flat, and rather stock. Their motivations were rather petty, especially for the amount of death and destruction they caused to only partially achieve them.
The Ending:
With all the various chunks of the story in place, ending things with the villain we got felt like a throwaway. If the paranormal plot had taken more of a part and also gave us our villain, this would have been much more interesting. With the characters we got, however, the ending wrapped up most of the mystery, and put our characters on a path to happily ever after.
You can see more in my video review:
*****
Summary:
Driving home one night, stuck behind a rusty old car, Gabe sees a little girl’s face appear in the rear window. She mouths one word: ‘Daddy.’ It’s his five-year-old daughter, Izzy.
He never sees her again.
Three years later, Gabe spends his days and nights travelling up and down the motorway, searching for the car that took his daughter, refusing to give up hope, even though most people believe that Izzy is dead.
Fran and her daughter, Alice, also put in a lot of miles on the motorway. Not searching. But running. Trying to keep one step ahead of the people who want to hurt them. Because Fran knows the truth. She knows what really happened to Gabe’s daughter.
Then, the car that Gabe saw driving away that night is found, in a lake, with a body inside and Gabe is forced to confront events, not just from the night his daughter disappeared, but from far deeper in his past.
His search leads him to a group called The Other People.
If you have lost a loved one, The Other People want to help. Because they know what loss is like. They know what pain is like. They know what death is like.
There’s just one problem . . . they want other people to know it too.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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