[Review] The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker

Summary: August 30, 1975: the day fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan is glimpsed fleeing through the woods, never to be heard from again; the day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence.

Thirty-three years later, Marcus Goldman, a successful young novelist, visits Somerset to see his mentor, Harry Quebert, one of the country's most respected writers, and to find a cure for his writer's block as his publisher's deadline looms. But Marcus's plans are violently upended when Harry is suddenly and sensationally implicated in the cold-case murder of Nola Kellergan - with whom, he admits, he had an affair.

As the national media convicts Harry, Marcus launches his own investigation, following a trail of clues through his mentor's books, the backwoods and isolated beaches of New Hampshire, and the hidden history of Somerset's citizens and the man they hold most dear. To save Harry, his own writing career, and eventually even himself, Marcus must answer three questions, all of which are mysteriously connected: Who killed Nola Kellerg

I think this was a 2.5, but the plot twists do keep you interested despite all the awkwardness.

 I think most people give it one stars because of how it romanticizes the relationship between a 34-yo man with a 15-yo girl, who to make things worse had lots of issues, and this man knew enough of these issues to know better.

But the problem with it isn't only that. The dialogs are very weird, they just develop in a weird way and then change course all of a sudden, the characters sound like an essay from Middle School. Another issue is how repetitive everything is, to a point I was skipping whole pages, because they were repeating word by word what I've already read, others they just paraphrased entire scenes instead of just the key points to refresh our memories. No wonder the book is so long. And the conclusion trusted on so many coincidences and uncharacteristic behavior of characters, it doesn't give you that satisfied feeling of getting to the end of a well-planned plot. There was probably a lot of planning, but it wasn't good.
 
The strong point is how many plot twists we run into. The book was maybe planned on twists over anything else. You will be curious about the ending, so you will go through the awkward dialogs, the terrible "romance", the lukewarm explanations, just to know what the hell happened. And somehow, there's so much going on, but it all gets explained in the end.

I expected better from such a famous book, but it's average good at least, unless you're bothered by the romance with a minor, then I'll tell you stay away because it gets a lot of the highlight and though most of the characters position themselves against it, the overall verdict is in favor of this "love", if you can call it that.

I don't think I'm reading number 2 of this series, though...

 

Rating: 3 out of 5.