Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Trap by Melanie Raabe- Book Review

The more you follow this blog, the more you will learn I am a sucker for an unreliable narrator. The unreliable narrator who has the reader second guessing him/herself, questioning ones own values, and just wondering what is truth. 

Linda Conrad in The Trap by Melanie Raabe is the unreliable narrator of my dreams!*

Linda is convinced she knows who murdered her sister, so she begins to set a trap for the killer- she will write a book about the murder, lead the killer to her home, get him to confess, and then she will prevail.

There is a problem though. Linda hasn't left the house in 11 years, doesn't trust people except possibly a small circle of people who help her around the house, has panic attacks, freaks out during Beatles songs, and believes the murderer is the local anchor man on her television. Her plan is flawless, otherwise, including the multiple cameras she has set up and the mics all around her house. She just has to write another bestseller and get the news anchor into her house. The question is- did the local news anchor kill her sister or is Linda slowly going mad?

This is a book that will completely mess with your brain and I loved it! The entire story is narrated by Linda and we are in her head the entire time. She will argue with herself, question herself, doubt her thoughts, and as a reader you will see that you cannot always trust Linda as she doesn't always trust herself. One running thought she has is- I am going crazy. No, you're not. Yes, I am. If you were crazy, would you question if you were crazy? She is the perfect unreliable narrator. 

Within the book itself is another book- Linda's book. Each chapter ends with a chapter of Linda's book about the murder of her sister. The fun part is that many of the missing pieces of her story are contained within her novel, but because it too is fiction, one has to question how much of it is true?

Raabe's writing is a big draw. I was immediately sucked into the story and the pacing kept up, for the most part. There were just a few slower moments, but they rev back up again to have the reader questioning Linda's truth. Linda is a well developed character as we see her really wrestling with madness. Some of the side characters are not developed as well, but that is excusable since the entire narration is from Linda's brain, so maybe Linda doesn't know her trust circle all that well, which may be why she doesn't really trust them either.

This was a nice quick read and I loved it due to Linda. While not a perfect book, it is a great pick up and read for fun book. 

I gave this one 4 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- The Trap by Melanie Raabe

*I received this ebook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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