DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME

Only Daughter: A bland and overly-aggressive emotionally-unstable story with a predictable and overdone resolution. Where to begin. This is an embarrassment. A waste of time. DO NOT BOTHER. This novel is melodramatic and unrealistic with a delusional and heavily annoying protagonist who can't seem to stop playing the victim. The entire novel is the protagonist whining to the reader for attention. As for the "jaw-dropping twist" ...laughable. The novel loses interest hours before the twist comes, and when it does; it is not in the least surprising, given the circumstance. I was constantly disappointed and sadly did not enjoy any one part of listening to this novel. The narrator was fine for the main character, but the rest of the character voices are awful. The writer also comes across as desperate to please the millennials, with constant pop culture references, talking about social media, influencers, clothing designers and specific songs. The novel comes across dated by these references practically before release. As a millennial, I found it increasingly embarrassing to read. Another gripe is the continuously unreliable timing of the novel. One moment there will be no drama, the next, without leadup, everything has escalated to a high degree. It seems the author has not wanted to put in the work to escalate the situations naturally. Likewise, there is an overload of "tell not show", where again, the author either does not know how to 'show' the story, or is simply too uninterested to do so. The bulk of the story is the protagonist TELLING the reader (and other characters) what is happening, what has happened, and how to feel. Additionally, the author always follows up these episodes of lazy writing with the protagonist excusing either her irrational actions (due to a lack of natural escalation of situations) or her explanations, by saying it is 'because she has a mental illness'. Frustrating, to say the least. I lost count of the amount of times the protagonist boasts, "you don't know who I am," "I am not like the others," "I am more dangerous than you know," which comes across as insanely arrogant as well as delusional. Not to mention the fact that she does not act on these threats at all, making her appear both shallow and dishonest. Perhaps the author realises this toward the end of the novel, so using her sole skill of *using a character to explain instead of writing it into the story*, she has another character tell the protagonist that she is "all bark and no bite." An eye roll for sure. To cover over the "jaw-dropping twist" (said with a lot of sarcasm), the author gets to it, and makes EVERYBODY a suspect. It makes me wonder if the author has ever read a novel in this genre. My understanding is that intriguing your reader is far better than confusing your reader. The novel also has an overload of predictability. Everything has 'shock' value. Nasty text messages from unknown numbers. Car chases. House fires. Drugs. Sex. Pregnancy. It's like the author read a bunch of blurbs from books in this genre, made dot points, and then used all of these things in her book. It's too much, and too obvious. The reader very quickly expects the 'shock value' occurrences to happen. There is also so much unpleasantness in this novel. Nobody is likable, which I think is the biggest blunder of all. Nobody. The entire novel is filled to the brim with so much bitterness, so much anger. There is no balance, only full-force anger. Reading this felt like dealing with an angry teenager, but for 11 hours. Exhausting. I also felt like the anger/bitterness did not connect fully with the protagonist. Makes me wonder if the author feels these things and simply tried to push it out through this novel. Regardless, it's bad. Again to the unbelievable happenings. The story revolves around a set of upper-class characters, mostly mothers and teenagers, and so that is what we are dealing with. And yet somehow all of them are A) trained fighters and B) have no conscience. Hearing about the skilled physical fight of two of the characters is humorous. It simply does not line up for a believable character or story. The end of the novel: "If you were COMPLETELY GRIPPED by Only Daughter, sign up....to be the first to know when the next HEART STOPPING book ...is released." Absolutely laughable. Overall, I honestly found this novel terrible. I read a lot in this genre, and while I can appreciate different styles, I genuinely just found this to lack skill and finesse. The entire work felt like a stream of angry consciousness from the writer about a mental condition. The same facts over and over with no understanding or regard for a fluid storyline. It felt like this novel was written for the accomplishment, and not because the author loves (or cares about) literature. May I suggest a professional editor and some writing classes.

3 people found this helpful

A good thriller

This was a good psychological thriller. I did find it dragged on a bit but I couldn't stop listening to it. It kept you guessing until the end.

1 person found this helpful

annoying

language around suicide and ASPD was annoying and outdated. unbelievable in parts. nearly asked for refund!

2 people found this helpful

Fantastic stoty

This book was thrilling to listen to. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend.

a good book to pass the time.

in parts great, in parts a little unbelievable. It is well written and spoken. I found this enjoyable and pretty addictive.

Good, but not as good her last one.

Slow to start and a bit to much of the characters repetitive thoughts. Story improves as you preserve into it.

easy to listen

an easy read ,enjoyable good narration. enjoyed the story line. worth a listen had me hooked till the end

Great reading

Really got involved with this little gem. Full of interesting twists and turns. I had no idea until the very end how the story would unfold. Well read and so cleverly written. I’m disappointed it’s finished! Might be a bit upsetting for some people but not for me!

Only Daughter

Thoroughly enjoyable listen. Keeps you interested & invested in characters. Find yourself wondering how a parent knew so little about who their daughter really was. But in the end, there’s the big surprise

Real life

Suspenseful from the beginning, a heart wrenching thriller, can't wait til the next momentous story.