The It Girl by Ruth Ware

October 3, 2022

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

When Hannah Jones was a student at Oxford, her glamorous uber-rich roommate April was murdered. Hannah found her body. The college porter was arrested and convicted and received a life sentence in prison. Ten years later, the ex-porter dies in prison and instead of being relieved that a really bad person is gone, Hannah decides to have a lot of drama over it. Then it comes out that the porter may not have been guilty after all.

For the last 10 years, there have been a bunch of suspense/psychological fiction books with "girl" or "woman" in the title, featuring unreliable narrators who drank a lot and had bad habits (which were at least fun). Now they all have mommies or about to be mommies as the main character, which is a trend I'm not loving. Too much time is spent focusing on being a mommy and not on the mystery. One of Ware's previous novels, The Lying Game, was about four school friends who did something bad while they were in school - one of them has a baby now and a lot of time is spent feeding the baby, changing the baby, walking the baby, looking for the baby's stuff, etc. Maybe the author is fascinated with being a mommy. Me, not so much.

Nothing new here - the storyline was predictable except for the ending. I skimmed the last half of the book. Lotsa drama. I don't recommend this one. I think I'm done with Ruth Ware.

The set-up also reminds me of The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a much better book, about a group of brainy wealthy college students who adopt a scholarship kid into their group, and one of them ends up dead. Same situation but more interesting.

April is THIS kind of girl

One by One by Ruth Ware

November 9, 2021

One by One by Ruth Ware

A corporate retreat goes horribly wrong when a mixed group of co-workers and stockholders find themselves stranded at a luxurious mountain chalet after an avalanche. Normally, it wouldn't be too awful to be stuck at a luxury resort, but the power goes out, the heat goes off, and the food supply is dwindling. Most of the participants already hate each other, and the news that a corporate takeover is in the works doesn't help their feelings for each other. One by one, the group members are being killed off.

I find Ruth Ware's books to be hit or miss - sometimes they're great, and other times they suck. This is not her best. It's yet another riff on Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None," except the characters are stuck on a mountain rather than an island. It's also too long - don't publishing houses have editors any more? I know she's a high grossing author but someone should have helped her whack out 50-100 pages of drivel. I also didn't care about any of the characters - most of them are whiny and entitled, and the others are totally weak.

Ruth Ware has a new book that just came out. I'm going to give her one more try. If the next book sucks as bad as this one, I'm done with her and we'll be breaking up.

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

July 15, 2019

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

The first time that I realized that my iPhone and iPad “talk” to each other (usually when I’m not around), I was totally creeped out.  Ruth Ware takes that uneasy feeling to its highest level in her latest novel, The Turn of the Key.

When Rowan Cain comes across a job posting for a live-in nanny at an incredible salary, she thinks it must be too good to be true but applies anyway.  She gets the job and at first, it seems like a perfect situation in a beautiful house in the Scottish Highlands.  The parents are both architects, and their house is a “smart” house designed to test out various kinds of technologies, including touchpad controls, surveillance cameras in most of the rooms, and a super-stove that cooks meals by itself.

But the children that Rowan met at her interview turn out to be far different from who they actually are, and the house’s remote location and sinister history unnerve Rowan as they have the four previous nannies (there is even a poison garden on the grounds).  However, Rowan is hiding her own secrets, and when disaster strikes, finds herself accused of murder.

Gothic and creepy.  The title and the story are both a play on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, set in a “smart” house instead of a haunted house.  This would be a great spooky read for the Halloween season.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.