Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Elyse: Well that was 1000% an Elyse book right there. 
 RHG: That was - 1000% an RHG book. I wanted to give it a try because I like the subject, but the style was just not me at ALL. I can see why someone would like it, but I did not. 
 Elyse: Okay, so what specifically didn't work for you? Characters? Plot? Voice? 
 A think a lot of psychological thrillers have a really frenzied feel to them that reflects the element of "am I going crazy here?" and that doesn't work for everyone. 
 RHG: I was into it until the staccato writing style just got to be exhausting. The way that Abbott would just have little sections that were a page to two pages long and was just like, snippets of what was going on, and how everyone talked with double meaning and PORTENT just got annoying and tiring. And since I was annoyed at the start-and-stop-and-start-and-not-even-start style, I didn't care about any of these awful people. 
 And I can't even say it was BAD writing, it just wasn't for me. 
 Elyse: I think that the author was trying to create this atmosphere of being surrounded by untrustworthy people and in order to do that you had to get deeply into Katie's head and that can be really complicated. She didn't do a bad job, but I think her style is more suited to literary fiction than thrillers, to be honest. 
 The reason we were both drawn to this book was the gymnastics element. What did you think of that? 
 RHG: There wasn't enough of it! I think the point was that Devon (the gymnast daughter) was barely IN the book, but like, everyone's every thought was ABOUT her. If Devon does well, then the gym makes money, the other gymnasts get better coaching and facilities, so everyone is counting on her, even people who are just sort of peripherally involved. 
 As to what Devon thinks about much of anything - who knows? No one seems to care that much, even her mom is caught in this "what's best for my kid" and "but we've invested so much" trap. 
 So in that sense, it worked. You? 
 Elyse: I think the thing that disappointed me a little was that you could insert-any-sport here. Yeah we got some details about the vault, etc but I wanted competence porn about gymnastics. I wanted that part to be really immersive and it wasn't. 
 You're right, though: you don't get a sense of who Devon is or what she thinks - which was clearly intentional. Devon is arguably the most important person in the book and the person we know the least about. 
 I did guess the mystery part right away so that wasn't a big reveal for me, which was a bit of a bummer. 
 - Elyse & Redheadedgirl