Unraveling Oliver by Liz NugentMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a psychological study instead of a psychological thriller but the marketing copy made it sound like a thriller so I feel like I was expecting one thing and got another. I liked this one but didn't love it. My experience was off a bit due to the disconnect between expectations and experience. All in all, it's a quite good psychological study ... I feel like the 'shock' of the story, however, didn't live up to its promise. It started as a thriller but never became a thriller. The story and pacing start strong but begin to go downward and never really recovers.
The idea of this novel is to dive deep into the psyche of Oliver and understand who he is and why he does the things he does but it just never came together. To be successful, this novel requires Oliver to be compelling and interesting but I never found him to be that way. He was just there ... but I never really found myself caring who he was and why he was the way he was. Which is really the point ... and so I don't think the novel was ultimately successful for me.
But, after reading reviews, it appears that many readers seem to like this one much more than I did. And so I recommend that you consider it but know, going in, that it is not a thriller ... it is a psychological study. If that appeals to you, then give it a shot!
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