elle’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

Go to previous year

2023

69,238

pages read

182

books read

elle

Shortest Book

pages

Longest Book

988

pages

Average book length in 2023

380

pages

Most Shelved

5,144,731

people also shelved

Least Shelved

1,572

people also shelved

elle’s average rating for 2023

3.5

Highest Rated on Goodreads

4.79 average

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

elle’s first review of the year

liked it

I enjoyed the second half much more than the first half!

ELLE’S 2023 BOOKS

it was amazing

Want to Know a Secret? by Freida McFadden

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg

it was amazing

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

really liked it

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

it was amazing

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden

it was amazing

The House at the End of the World by Dean Koontz

it was amazing

These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

it was amazing

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

it was amazing

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

it was amazing

it was amazing

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

it was amazing

The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea

elle’s last review of the year

it was ok

The more I read, the less I liked this book.

As others have already mentioned, there were story discrepancies such as the dog changing from a Rottweiler to a Pitbull.

I hated the flashbacks. I didn't see much of a relevance to them at all as a lot of it was just highlighting teen drama that I didn't think added sustenance to the story.

I thought it was weird that the author kept mentioning Steinman and the weird noises in his house that would leave The more I read, the less I liked this book.

As others have already mentioned, there were story discrepancies such as the dog changing from a Rottweiler to a Pitbull.

I hated the flashbacks. I didn't see much of a relevance to them at all as a lot of it was just highlighting teen drama that I didn't think added sustenance to the story.

I thought it was weird that the author kept mentioning Steinman and the weird noises in his house that would leave him to immediately kick Livia out of his house. He was almost being framed as a suspect, but for no actual reason. Along those lines.. I couldn't figure out what the point of the Ketamine being related to veterinarians and Dr. Colt was. He lead us down this rabbit hole only to have it not pan out in the slightest and then that whole line of thinking was almost immediately dropped and replaced with Megan's father being the culprit. Not only that, but knowing that the culprit was a part of the police, why would you call the police and not assume that Terry would catch wind of that? I found it extremely predictable that they'd call the police and then *surprise* the responding officer was Terry himself there to clean up the mess. I thought the whole story was clunky.

It was also driving me insane that the book starts with Megan's "escape" but yet we had 0 details of her abduction/escape from the very start of the book. There was also almost no detail of Nicole's disappearance either until the middle to end of the book which left the reader confused and in my case, annoyed with the lack of detail and background.

And the ending of this book.. terrible in my opinion. It seemed like a huge cop out to leave the story of Nicole completely unanswered. Charlie gave us false hope towards the end that we would either find Nicole alive or find her dead.. and we received neither of those conclusions. Instead, she disappeared off of the face of the earth and its unknown whether she was Terry's favorite captive that started having feelings for him and therefore Nicole survived.. or if he did in fact dispose of her, but then we never had the resolution of her body being found. There was only the open-ended discovery of a young adult/teen's body found at the end and it was up to the reader to decide if it was Nicole's body or not.

This story seemed lazy and poorly written. And not everything added up or made sense to me. I would probably give this book 1.5 stars/5 if I could leave half ratings and I'm glad I only read this book through Kindle unlimited and didn't have to actually pay for it. ...more

2023 READING
CHALLENGE

elle read 182 out of 170 books.

107%

What did you read this year?