'Creepy and packed with suspense and menace, it draws the reader into a community that has more than its fair share of skeletons to hide.' Daily Mail The phenomenal new thriller from the multi-million-copy bestselling author. __________ Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to ordinary people. It used to be a buzzing seaside destination. But now, ravaged by the effects of dwindling tourism and economic downturn, it's a ghost town - and the perfect place for film-maker Alex to shoot her new documentary. But the community ...
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'Creepy and packed with suspense and menace, it draws the reader into a community that has more than its fair share of skeletons to hide.' Daily Mail The phenomenal new thriller from the multi-million-copy bestselling author. __________ Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to ordinary people. It used to be a buzzing seaside destination. But now, ravaged by the effects of dwindling tourism and economic downturn, it's a ghost town - and the perfect place for film-maker Alex to shoot her new documentary. But the community is deeply suspicious of her intentions. After all, nothing exciting ever happens in Blackwood Bay - or does it? Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to an extraordinary secret. __________ READERS ARE GRIPPED BY FINAL CUT 'Thrilling to the end, and will keep you guessing' 'Full of twists, turns and great atmosphere' 'A brilliantly crafted thriller' WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING 'Dark and twisty, and full of surprises and so smartly done' Joanna Cannon 'I loved that behind this disturbing and clever plot there's a genuinely heartrending story.' Emma Curtis 'The master storyteller S J Watson is back with another clever psychological thriller' Woman & Home 'An intriguing and unsettling new thriller' Fabulous 'Watson adroitly [brings] the strands of his story together to create a disturbing journey to a shocking truth' The Observer 'S J Watson has done it again. Even more compelling than Before I Go To Sleep' Lesley Kara
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Add this copy of Final Cut: a Novel to cart. $1.45, good condition, Sold by Your Online Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Houston, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Harper.
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When Alex is looking for a close-knit community to base her new film around she receives a postcard to suggest Blackwood Bay. However, Alex has a sordid past with the village that not even she fully realisesÃ?¢ââ??¬Ã?¦
Around 10 years ago when it first came out, Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson was one of my favourite books. I was therefore very happy to receive the ARC of Final Cut, the new thriller by the same author. It seems that unreliable narrators and memory issues really do run in the authorÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s repertoire and are in full force in this novel.
Final Cut is a very twisty thriller that fully takes advantage of the unreliable narrator technique. Alex knows that she has a connection with the place she is visiting and tries to find out more about it, along with information about 3 girls who disappeared 10 years ago. I did think there was a little suspension of disbelief with the plot, particularly as to why some people recognised her instantly and some not at all and also why the whole village seemed so hung up about something that happened so long ago. I did like the idea of using small videos uploaded to a website which made for a sinister aspect. However, at an important plot point someone instantly uploads something to the website which is not true to life and seemed to be a too convenient plot device Ã?¢ââ??¬" has the author ever tried to upload a video to something like Dropbox? It takes hours and if itÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s stopped at any point it will be cancelled!
Alex is difficult to sympathise with because she is so unreliable and the plot forces her to be vague and confusing at times. I felt that the novel dragged on a lot in places with not enough new information to drive it through. I found it hard to care about the mystery of what was happening to the girls in the present and instead was more focused on the past mystery which I had already guessed the twist to very early on. I do also think that a lot of the plot could have been resolved if the characters had actually spoken to each other or told someone what was going on. There seemed to be an awful lot of conversations that ended with a frustrating Ã?¢ââ??¬Ã?Å"I canÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢t tell youÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢ which made them feel a bit pointless.
Overall, Final Cut felt frustrating at times with an over-reliance on convenient plot devices which made the plot feel unrealistic. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers & Doubleday for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
