The Winter Girl

I received this book from The Doubleday Marketing Department at Doubleday Publishing Thank you to Doubleday and to Matt Marinovich You re going to drop into Hell like a stone Pretty harsh words from one of the characters and a pretty harsh storyline overall in The Winter Girl Gonna chill your bones in ways than one.Scott and Elise are a young couple living in Brooklyn who receive word that Elise s father is terminal and in the hospital They rush to the Hamptons to stay at Victor s house Elise m [...]

This one really pulled me in at the beginning I thought, oh, this is going to be a fun read But unfortunately, the I got into it, the less I liked it.It s one of those books that you keep saying Are you kidding Nobody would actually do this but then I had to keep reading it even though it was a bit unbelievable At least at first But then this very twisted family just got sicker and sicker and I really didn t care what happened to any of them I don t always need to have likeable characters in a [...]

HO HUMBORING Here, we have zero sense of setting, no ambiance, no atmosphere, no edge of your seat suspense, uninteresting dialogue from even less interesting people, and absolutely nothing that stirs any real excitement The ending was entirely predictable The next Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train Not just no, but a resounding f ck no Not even close I gave it two stars because at least the author had the decency to keep it short the audio performance was less than 7 hours.

My initial response to this book wasn t fair Take two Mild spoilers follow Stop reading if you are concerned about learning too much, but I think I m sufficiently vague I tried, I really tried to like this book I thought it was going to be dark and creepy, like Jennifer McMahon s books Instead, it felt gratuitous and leering But because this book didn t work for me, doesn t mean it won t for you Read it for yourself if it sounds interesting to you This is always my advice I m a tough judge From [...]

A special thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Nice cover Matt Marinovich delivers a deliciously evil creepy psycho thriller THE WINTER GIRL,with cleverly infused family secrets, juicy suspense, laugh out loud hilarious, and twisted dark, sarcastic humor far entertaining than Gillian Flynn s Gone Girl s couple, Nick and Amy Even though The Winter Girl scouple, Scott and Elise, have their own individual naughty plans, secrets, obsessions, and dangerous [...]

This was a story I was not expecting to encounter as I opened the book, poised to read a traditional mystery It is a suspenseful thriller that starts off casually, and not very mysteriously, pointing the way to a domestic drama about a marriage troubled by external crises Up in rural New York, Scott and Elise have come to Elise s father s house to assist Victor during his last dying months of life Elise, a speech therapist, had to leave her job, and Scott s work as a photographer was waning eve [...]

Once again, high hopes dashed on the rocks of disappointment, wasted potential and amateur editing.How did I know the story was not going in my favor When I laughed OUT LOUD the moment The Winter Girl was introduced And not in a OMG, that poor girl, that s awful, I feel so bad for you kind of way but in the story has jumped the shark and I cannot believe this, not for a teeny, tiny second kind of way.I was right because it just got progressively worse from then on.No exposition to the motives of [...]

This review was done by KissinBlueKarenThis book left me scratching my head Seriously The characters were all twisted, and not in a fun way Our protagonist is a former wedding photographer, so not much going on there The wife is a speech therapist, but currently not working They are both holed up at her dad s place because he is in the hospital He is dying of colon cancer His death is taking too long Before you start feeling sorry, you should know the dad is a really bad guy He did something ter [...]

Here s a recipe for a book I am almost guaranteed not to like 1 Start with two unsympathetic characters 2 Make them do stupid things for no apparent reason and3 view spoiler Have the surprise ending revolve around incest and torture, what fun hide spoiler Which I found presented in a pervy and gratuitous manner, in fact.Voila We have The Winter Girl view spoiler Also, the novel is written in first person POV and yet the narrator dies at the end So, is he communicating from beyond the grave Just [...]

I am always on the lookout for psychological thrillers because it is one of my favorite genres I get really excited when I find something unique, twisted, and dark I love unlikable protagonists that think distasteful thoughts The disturbing, the better That is typically the case with me WhileThe Winter Girl started strong, it lost it s way in the middle and never quite redeemed itself.The narrator, Scott, is married to Elise and has been staying in her father s house in the Hamptons Elise s fat [...]

I don t know why the reviews are so negative, I found the construction of this novel to be exceptional, the prose compelling, and the plotting excellent It s a book about a character who makes bad decisions i didn t like him very much, but my negative personal feelings about the characters had little to do with the exceptional skill I appreciated in the construction of this suspense novel

Very, very odd It started off well but then got stranger and a bit uncomfortable, yet I found it really hard to put down.

This book was just plain weird Seriously weird It was so poorly written and poorly explained, it drove me nuts Sometimes I read a book that I just want to throw across a room and this was one of those times A couple of unhappily married losers move in with the wife s wealthy father to take care of him as he slowly dies, and it all goes south from there There s a loser brother, a half sister, a vacant house next door, a perverted, disgusting past to deal with, a perverted, disgusting husband who [...]

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for allowing me the eARC Not a complete waste of precious reading time, but in no way a good read I feel like this could have been such a good book, but wasn t well executed and edited Reading it was so disjointed and bizarre The unexpected plot twists do keep on coming, which is the sole reason I continued to read It was also a short novel, so finishing it didn t take long.Read my full review at booklovinalicia

Difficult novel to review without giving away spoilers Scott and Elise are a married couple who move into Elise fathers home so Elise can care for him while he is dying of cancer At first, Victor the father , is in the hospital and Scott spends long days at home alone while Elise visits the hospital We know that the couple have a troubled marriage, and Elise quit her speech therapist job to take care of her dad, while Scott lost his job as a wedding photographer.Scott becomes fascinated with the [...]

I m not even sure what I just read what was the point of that book The story is disturbing but incomplete it lacks any scenery and it doesn t pull you in or make you feel anything You know how books usually suck you in and create this image This one doesn t At all It never even really gets started it just feels random The author does very little to paint a picture and instead just tries to tell this horribly depressing story but because of how he tells it, it doesn t feel horribly depressing eve [...]

I m a big fan of this title Wasn t going to read it since I am easily spooked, but a friend of mine had an ARC and said, He s sick in the head You HAVE to read it I m glad I did, because Marinovich has a way of getting into the heads of a class most people wish they could be a part of, and exposing their inner secrets in a twisty, terrifying way Five stars for the brilliant writing and relatably complex characters I became invested and interested right away I don t like formulaic books, and this [...]

A dark twisted story hell of a messed up familycrets and lies in abundancee setting is perfect for this cold and dark tale

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.The Winter Girl is a psychological thriller, a tale of obsessions It begins with Scott and Elise staying at her dying father s house in the Hamptons Scott becomes obsessed with the empty house next door, and soon he breaks in He convinces his wife to join him one evening, hoping that they can rekindle some passion in their marriage.There follows a horrific discovery, bad decisions, and secrets about Elise and her family that are sho [...]

This book is pretty much the definition of dysfunctional marriage It had me hooked from the beginning I never really liked any of the characters, but I was so intrigued by the oddness of it all A couple goes to take care of the wife s dieing abusive father, and find a secret girl hiding out in the house next door A lot of violence ensues, head games, and boat load of lieing by all This couple is also drunk for most of the book, hate each other and everyone around them.Seriously I was like a deer [...]

This is a great thriller with plenty of twists and turns Scott and Elise have moved to Elise s father s house to assist Elise s father in his last months Their stay has turned into longer than anticipated and it is placing a strain on their marriage Hoping to reconnect with his wife he convinces her to accompany him to the empty house next door where he has been breaking in and nosing around Surprise ending At times you want to shout get out or no don t do that it is so engrossing Great read I w [...]

Something about this book just didn t grasp me It reads as if someone is telling me the story second handedly Like there s details missing I think paraphrased would be the appropriate word Although I feel like the book had potential, it just lacked flow And the ending made absolutely no sense to me.

From the description of this book and the beginning, I thought this was going to be an intriguing, suspenseful read But, it just turned into this weird progression of bad ideas, stupid happenings, and demented people Really not the most enjoyable read, but it was original.

The first half of this book sucked me in and I thought we were headed for a 5 star read The last quarter of the book is where I get conflicted It becomes a little too predictable and one begins to wonder if he s been living under a rock as he s so unaware what has been going on around him.

I enjoy a creepy read from time to time so when I saw this book compared to Gone Girl, I was anxious to try it The story hooked me early on but, was far from perfect.Scott and Elise are a married couple and after just four years of marriage, theirs is in a rut It s winter and the couple is staying at Elise s father s house in the Hamptons Victor s a loathsome man, dying of cancer, but not fast enough for the couple Elise, a speech therapist, is on LOA and Scott, isn t doing much of anything thes [...]

When I began this novel, I wasn t sure what to expect I d selected it based on the marketing blurb and mostly because, at the time, I had a hankering for suspense In addition, it hadn t yet been compared to Gone Girl, which seems to be the current measuring stick for any and all novels in the suspense psychological thriller category, so that was a huge bonus It s not that I didn t enjoy Gone Girl, I just don t think that it should be the novel to which all other novels are compared The story is [...]

I love a good thriller, especially ones that deal with families and secrets The Winter Girl didn t have great reviews, but I felt like the synopsis was strong.The beginning of the book was great I wanted to know about the awful couple and her sick father and what on earth the problem was, but things got out of hand really quickly.I don t even know where to start with the review because the book was just insane, over the top, and full of the most coincidental, awful, and weird secrets Like just [...]

Disclaimer I received this ARC Kindle edition from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review If you enjoy a dark psychological tale then this is the book for you.It all starts out so innocent when wife Elise and husband Scott go to the Hamptons to take care of her dying father.Their marriage is already troubled The setting is winter.You can feel the bleakness and desolation The setting is perfect All the summer homes are closed and shuttered including the one next door to [...]

If you re in the mood for a unputdownable mystery thriller with a palatably claustrophobic setting, grimly unsettling plot twists, a noir style femme fatale who may or may not be the victim, and characters whose actions are suspect throughout, then this may be the book for you I was all set to grant 4 stars, and then view spoiler came That Ending Really, I was ready for much explanations, twists to explain things But then it just ended It ended in one of the ways I kind of expected, only wit [...]

Not a book for me though I did get to the end to see if the conclusion might bring any sort of closure Psychotic characters with heavy emotional baggage, family secrets that can no longer be contained, hints of even worse things, combined into a mix of dark family horrors Evoked depression and sadness instead of exhilaration in my opinion Some of the worst scenes reminded me of parts of Donald Ray Pollock s The Devil All the Time but without a redeeming literary plot.