by Trang @mydarktheories

A Stranger In The House by Shari Lapena

MY RATING:★★/5

Oh my god, another suspense-thriller-in-fashion-trend that I didn’t like? How surprising.

What’s wrong with this new novel? Originality. Let’s look at the blurb.

img_2280The novel starts with Karen running off from a restaurant, got into an accident and bam she forgets everything (* HRMM* Can you please not make another amnesia type of story in Girl On The Train Style, because that book was bad enough.) Coincidentally *gasp* there was a body in the restaurant where she left. From the other side of the city, her husband, Tom, comes home to the most unexpected turn of events. Now he’s wondering if he knows his wife at all. So the whole plot resolved around the murder and the mysterious accident that got Karen into this whole mess.Do I care? Not at all.

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I was reading the whole novel not giving a single f*ck in the world  getting interested in the characters or whatsoever.Because they lack dimensions, big time. Karen, lacking a lot of emotions as if she was made with ice and Tom a husband who’s just the most uninspiring and boring in the world. Maybe that’s why they go so well together.

The author gives us a lot of details to make the plot richer in actions and events but completely forget to add a little bit of spark in her characters. And since, the plot resolves AROUND them..well…better make them interesting right?

I got to give one of the stars for the nice plot twist in the end 😉 

The book is released on August 14, 2017, did you read it? Are you planning to ? 😀

Thank you to Penguin Books Canada for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! 

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14 thoughts on “A Stranger In The House by Shari Lapena”

  3. So glad I found this review! So I recently finished The Couple Next Door, also by Shari Lapena and similarly thought that it could have used a lot more depth and originality. However, I gave it a decent review because of the twist ending and I actually liked how the story jumped RIGHT into the crime.

    I literally laughed out loud reading the opening of this post though, “Oh my god, another suspense-thriller-in-fashion-trend that I didn’t like? How surprising.” I am going to ban psychological thrillers from my repertoire soon if they don’t stop producing female-protagonist psychological thrillers where everyone thinks the girls are ACTUALLY INSANE. Usually a violent issue from the past comes back to bite them, am I right? Can’t they be strong capable individuals? Perhaps the husband is the one with mental health issues? Ugh. THANK YOU for the warning on this cookie cutter “thriller”.

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    1. Omg I heard about the popularity of The Couple Next Door :O Glad to see I’m not being delusional or picky about the characters LOL And I know right O_O It seems like all the recent psychological thrillers are focused of female protagonist who had a frkn violent issue or amnesia -.- I need more original ones here. What is your favourite psychological thriller so far? :O

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  4. Oh I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this book Trang. I don’t read many thrillers, fantasy is my preferred genre which I feel most people are probably well aware of, but even I know how important character development is in thriller novels (in all books, let’s be honest).
    Still this is a great review, and I hope the next book you pick up is a better read for you! 🙂

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