2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Book Review: The Little Tragedy by Jeff Haws

WOW. Talk about your worst nightmare… In this new and wholly original thriller by Jeff Haws, every child falls into an irreversible coma on their tenth birthday. Until one doesn’t – and one doesn’t stay there. The resultant media circus, drama, and mystery will pull you in and refuse to let you go.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, even though it stopped rather than ended – which is usually a deal-breaker for me… That tells you how engaging I found the story. The writing is crisp, the pacing spot-on for the narrative, the plot original and horribly compelling, and the characters heart-breaking in their attempts to deal with an absolutely unbelievably difficult set of circumstances.

The only thing keeping this from a five-star review was the ending – there were WAY too many unanswered questions. I don’t mind a good cliff-hanger, but there’s no indication that a sequel is coming, and even if there were, this didn’t really end with a cliff so much as a cloud… Things that were alluded to and that underpinned the entire story simply faded out of focus when the pages ended, with no significant attempt to give them any explanation or clarification. It was an unusual choice for a book that did such an otherwise excellent job at scene-setting and well-timed revelations.

Still, even with that, this was a heck of a ride and I quite enjoyed it. Haws is definitely on my radar now!

Thanks to BookSirens for my review copy.

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