Genre: thriller. Stars from Goodreads: 3.89. Stars from me: 4.5<\/p>\n
I saw a unicorn! A literary one. I mean I\u2019ve just found something as beautiful and presumably nonexistent. I\u2019ve found a good thriller!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Force of Nature<\/a><\/em> by Jane Harper. It\u2019s the second book in the series but you don\u2019t need the first book to understand the second one.<\/p>\n The book is promising from the very beginning. The writing doesn\u2019t make you cringe. It\u2019s not clumsy or artificial. It sounds original and natural.<\/p>\n The action takes place in Australian wilderness, which is a factor in my subjective perception of the book. I know similar places, I love them, and from time to time I swoosh through such places myself. That\u2019s why I giggled at some reviewers\u2019 disbelief that a group of unprepared hikers was so easily sent to the wild. I don\u2019t know about Australia but trust me there are places in the world where nobody would care if you are prepared or not, or if you ever returned from your hike at all.<\/p>\n I gave in to the suspense of the story immediately so I promptly enlisted all possible villains and plot lines. When the book kept going but I was still no closer to cracking the plot I knew I had finally found it. I have discovered a thriller that actually thrills! I then eased myself into blissful not-guessing and just enjoyed the book.<\/p>\n The characters are full and multidimensional. They open up through the story so you get to know them gradually. It feels like meeting new people. Nothing about the characters feels forced or made up for the sole purpose of the plot, and yet all the details play a role at some part of the story.<\/p>\n I found a few dialogues overstretched, especially when they happened at crucial moments and delayed important revelations. I also don\u2019t like it when an author frustrates readers by halting such revelations but doesn’t provide anything as exciting in exchange. I understand that this trick is demanded by the genre but I will keep believing in unicorns and hoping for even better ways to keep the reader engrossed in the story.<\/p>\n I\u2019m very thankful\u00a0to Jane Harper<\/a>, the author of the book, and I\u2019m also thankful to Umut<\/a> who reacted to my desperate Tweet<\/a> about the lack of good thrillers I’d been experiencing and suggested\u00a0Force of Nature<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to me.<\/p>\n The book gets 4.5 stars from me and I\u2019d happily suggest it to anybody who\u2019s looking for a good thriller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"