Alright I have read a few books by Jennifer McMahon and they are normally pretty good books, but I was disappointed in this one. Out of her books it was the one I liked the least.
The main character of the book is a woman named Reggie. She is a world famous architect who has a problem being in any sort of relationship because of how she was raised. The book goes back and forth between Reggie at age 13 and Reggie as an adult. The reason the book jumps back and forth like this is because the book circles around the story of the "Neptune" killer and how it affects Reggie. A few chapters of the book are also excerpts from "Neptune's hands", which is a book within the book about the Neptune killings. These chapters seemed very pointless to me. They didn't move the story along at all and did nothing for the plot. They just seemed unnecessary and the book would have been the same without them.
The book starts with Reggie getting a call from her aunt, Lorraine, telling Reggie that her mom, who had been missing for 25 years, had been found. Reggie is reluctant to go home because of bad memories from her childhood, but knows she must. When she gets home, her mom, Vera, is mentally gone. She remembers some names and some faces, but mostly just repeats the same few lines over and over again. It's in this chapter that we learn that Vera was Neptune's last victim. Neptune's normal MO was to kidnap the victim, cut off her right hand, leave that at the police station, the. Due days later leave the naked body out in public for everyone to find. Vera's body, however, was never found; she had just disappeared.
Alright sorry everyone but I can't do this.. ha I just did not care for this book at all. In a nutshell, Reggie can't sustain a relationship because her mom, Vera, slept around a lot. Reggie never knew her father and when Vera was kidnapped, Reggie was raised by her bitter aunt, Lorraine, and Lorraine's significant other, George. George holds a candle to Vera and takes care of Reggie as if she were his own. Reggie was also a cutter as a child and never told anyone and never for help for it... however as an adult she is totally fine and basically got over it. Is that even possible? How does someone get over something like that without professional help?
So 25 years later, Vera is found and the Neptune killer returns. Reggie returns back home to help her mom and once the Neptune killer targets Reggie's old best friend, Tara, Reggie decides to find the killer on her own (of course because she knows way more then the cops). She looks through old clues and talks to people who were involved in the previous case and thinks she has solved it. There is, of course, a twist ending. After telling, George her theory, we discover that George is the Neptune killer by such a mundane detail that he had carved a trident into a wooden duck he had made. We also find out that George is Reggie's real father. Once again, of course he is. I knew that once the author started talking about him and about how nice he was to Reggie. Of course he was. Why else would be speak sweet nothings to Vera and try to get her attention. He also paid a lot of attention to Reggie; more so than an uncle would normally pay to his niece. In the end, Reggie saves the day and uses her architect super powers to get her and her friend Tara out of the clutches of Neptune. Yes... architect super powers...
All in all it was just a very predictable story. The characters have no growth and Reggie seems to get better after this new set of tragedies. It was just so strange that all this happened and she was all of a sudden "I can totally have a relationship now! I'm an adult!"
So I would recommend Jennifer McMahon's other books (promise not to tell, island of the lost girls) but this one was def meh compared to those.
2 mehs
Up next! "The coldest girl in cold town" by Holly Black or "Dr. Sleep" by Stephen King (squeeeeee!!!!) Whichever one I finish first!
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