Published April 5th 2014
When reclusive novelist Senna Richards wakes up on her thirty-third birthday, everything has changed. Caged behind an electrical fence, locked in a house in the middle of the snow, Senna is left to decode the clues to find out why she was taken. If she wants her freedom, she has to take a close look at her past. But, her past has a heartbeat…and her kidnapper is nowhere to be found. With her survival hanging by a thread, Senna soon realizes this is a game. A dangerous one. Only the truth can set her free.
My Thoughts
I’d like to preface my reaction with an initial clarification… I am a HUGE fan of the Love Me with Lies series, and I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on Mud Vein, and even stalking the evil genius Tarryn Fisher online for any hint of its release. After finishing the book, my initial reaction was possibly going with 3 stars and just spending a day or two contemplating my thoughts of the story. However, after a bit of book therapy with a few of my trusted bookie cronies, I was having a hard time coming up with anything good to say about Mud Vein. As a matter of fact, I slowly came to the conclusion that I really didn’t like it at all, and I was just trying to stay loyal to one of my favorite authors. So, I’m a bit sad that after all of the hype and anticipation, my experience was a let-down, which isn’t uncommon for many anticipated releases, so I’ll keep that all in perspective.
Overall, this book simply didn’t work for me. I didn’t like the main character Senna and when I anticipated crying and clawing the walls on her behalf, based on some of the initial reactions I witnessed online, I found myself really not liking her at all. Not even one bit. As the story progressed, I became apathetic towards her and that’s just downright sad, don’t you think? There were a lot of Senna’s qualities that reminded me of Olivia from The Opportunist, including her hard edges, sharp tongue, eerie ability to pull away from relationships, as well as a life that’s sometimes full of crappy. However, where I came to care for Olivia, I never really developed any sort of sympathy for Senna. She came across as downright mean. I say that because for someone to have love and kindness, in the form of Isaac, right in front of you and slapping him in the face with a restraining order, I just can’t connect. Senna’s character was hard to like in any form or fashion. When that happens with a MC, my reaction for the entire book is sure to follow on a downhill trajectory.
My mind worked endlessly to figure out who the zookeeper was. At first I thought it was Isaac - then I thought it was Nick - for a moment I considered the carousel carney guy - then possibly Senna’s attacker… I eventually moved on to her mother. Sooo when the zookeeper was finally revealed, I simply didn’t care. I was at a point in the novel where I just wanted to finish this book before I fell into a dreaded book slump. Thinking on it a bit more, the zookeeper’s identify was a bit hard to swallow. There was no skin in the game for that person aside from having a god complex. When I realized that, I concluded that for me the book had no substance, and started feeling like a waste of my time.
All in all, I’m disappointed in this book and I wish I never read it. I would have liked the final flavor of Fisher’s writing ability to have been The Opportunist on my reading palette because that was pure brilliance. Mud Vein, however, was just a downright disappointment clouded with an experience that left me wondering if I, myself, am Mud Vein too. Truly bummed that I didn't like this book...
2 Suns
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