Kate Racculia

Reading this book was an eerie experience for me, because I recognized the setting from the blurb. I went to this same festival, at the same creepy hotel, about ten years earlier than the author did. No murders, when I was there; but it was definitely a Thing.

In real life, it was the Concord Resort Hotel, fading sibling of Grossingers (you know Grossingers as the inspiration for the hotel resort in "Dirty Dancing"). I remember rehearsing in a giant ballroom under a dim chandelier. One of the boys in the group "picked" a few glass crystals from the chandelier and gave them out to girls. I kept that crystal in my window for years until it fell one day and shattered while I was studying.… (mer)

*Actual rating 2.5/5*

Well, this was... messy? I don't even know anymore... Tuesday Mooney Wore Black started from a great premise: billionaire treasure hunt with a quirky and mismatched groups of people? I was sold! Unfortunately, the more I read the less I enjoyed it, and by the time I got to the end I was speechless and not in a good way.

The idea for this was absolutely brilliant, and I loved the initial set up and mystery. As the story progressed, however, it started to get more and more complicated. I usually enjoy a good complex mystery, and even mixing up elements from various genres in one story, making it more original and avoiding the usual tropes. Here, though, it felt like the book was trying to do too many things at the same time, and didn't leave itself space to do any one of them fully.

Character development was also hit-and-miss for me. Tuesday and her neighbour Dorry were definitely my favourite characters and they both grow loads throughout the book, which I loved to see. The rest of the cast... meh. There were way too many characters, some of which really felt like little more than placeholders, so much so that I could hardly remember their names let alone why they were there in the first place. And even with the most important supporting characters, by the time we finally got to the ending they fell completely flat.

Like, I'm sorry but HOW did no one do anything when Nathaniel attacked Tuesday?? I would have been waaaay more upset at my so-called friends if they'd reacted the way Dex, Archie or any of the other finalists had than Tuesday seemed to be.

Overall, I was really sad not to have liked this more, but there were too many inconsistencies for me to fully enjoy it. I definitely seem to be in the minority here though, so if the blurb intrigues you give it a go and see what you think!

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.… (mer)