Thursday, June 18, 2015

Kind of Cruel by Sophia Hannah


My Ratings:
Vocabulary:  *****
Ingredients: *****
Satisfaction: *****
Lexile Level: N/A but I would say about 980HL
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Mystery
My Opinions: Here is my definition of a cliche mystery book: something is stolen or someone is kidnapped, bring in the detective who is the main character, sniff out the clues and red herrings, and detective is victorious and finds the perpetrator. Here is the mystery behind this novel: Amber, who suffers from chronic insomnia, is arrested for the murder of a woman she knows nothing about two hours after visiting a hypnotherapist, the detective is a side character who does not believe she is the criminal, and a surprising discovery at the end puts the reader in awe as Sophie Hannah was able to concoct this elaborate tale. Never have I ever encountered a mystery book which makes memories the most important clues in a case. 

At first, it was extremely confusing. It is crazy how all the loose ends she leaves for the reader end up connecting at the end to provide an extraordinary end to the book.  At the hypnotherapist, Amber was put under hypnosis. During this treatment, she hears herself saying "kind, cruel, kind of cruel." The words awaken a vague memory, but she dismisses the whole episode as nonsense. Two hours later, she is arrested for the murder of a woman she has never heard of and the only way to clear her name was to remember exactly where she had seen those words before.

As a side story, married detectives Charlotte "Charlie" Zailer and Simon Waterhouse tackle both the case and their relationship as the investigation unexpectedly reveals a shocking insight into Simon's psyche. 

The reason I gave this book a four out of five was primarily because I felt like Hannah was ruining the plot by adding too many unnecessary characters and dragging the details on. The book over-analyzed every new detail and Hannah was simply just squeezing the goodness and excitement of the details dry. If I had a suspenseful and amazing book to read, I would be up all night wanting to finish it; however, in this case, I felt like I had to force myself to turn to the next page at a few parts. Nonetheless, if these issues were not existent, it could've gone into "My Hall of Famers" list.

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