Christopher Howard

Having originally picked up this book from the local library, I ultimately put it down because I found the writing to be amateurish and overly long-winded. A month later I was back at the library and decided I wanted to know how it ends, so I took the book out again and finished it the second time around. Overall the story is interesting and complex (and based on a true story), but the writing is poor. As previously mentioned, it feels very amateurish and every chapter seemed to end with a cringe-worthy quip of some kind. Imagine an ending sentence to the effect of “Every eye in the room was on her, but Julia’s eyes were on the prize.” Every chapter seems to end this way, inducing an eye roll before turning the page. SPOILER - though based on a true story the ending is super underwhelming as we never really find out “who dunnit.” For a long-winded book that’s 400+ pages, I wanted a more definitive, exciting conclusion, not one that fizzles out quickly at the end. Overall, I’d recommend skipping this book. There are many, many other well written books available to spend your time on.