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**Many thanks to @CeladonBooks and Stephen Amidon for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 1.17!**

When I think of locusts, I think of a giant swarm of ugly bugs, ready to reign destruction down wherever they land.

And sadly, when I think back on the three days I spent wading miserably through Locust Lane, I have pretty much the same disgusted feeling.

The wealthy town of Emerson, Massachusetts is known for its hushed tones, unabashed wealth, and suburban spoils...and now it's known for one other thing: a young girl, Eden Perry, has been murdered. Last seen with three other teens (Hannah, Christopher, and Jack), there are several suspects and all of the parents of the aforementioned teens have some dirty laundry of their own (surprise, surprise). With stories changing as time passing on and fingers pointed in every direction, which one of the teens is guilty? And are the rich and powerful able to make ANY problem...or person...disappear, without a trace?

I had such high hopes for this book. I came in KNOWING it would be a slower read and about more than the murder and the surrounding drama.

AND YET...the writing took what could have been a halfway decent premise and brought it crashing down, almost immediately.

I'm not sure what aspect of it bothered me the most or hit me first, but here were some of the 'highlights':

*Unlikable characters...but more specifically, misogynistic writing. I'm not sure why this is, but in certain books, male writers have a REALLY hard time both a) writing a convincing female voice and b) not having the female characters end up in wild stereotype land. These are the sort of women who kowtow to men without even realizing it, and even when they act like they actively dislike the men in their life, still somehow seek their approval and are desperate for male attention to prove their worth. I won't get into specifics so as to not spoil anything, but the behavior was often eye-roll worthy.

There are also some culturally insensitive moments in the book, including something along the lines of "Pfft. Must be Central American." (That's not an exact quote, but close). Even if these were simply supposed to be the viewpoints one of the CHARACTERS held, the way they were written just felt very...*off*, to say the least.

*Cheesy dialogue. There were SO MANY instances where I just laughed out loud reading the dialogue in this one...it just didn't play well. I know much of it was meant to be dramatic, but I had a hard time believing the characters would speak to one another that way.

*REPETITIVENESS. If I had a dime for every time the same plot points were discussed by different characters...well, I'd have a lot of dimes. This got to be not only distracting, but so monotonous it felt like rehashing events over and over was just page filler, almost as if the author assumed the reader wasn't paying any attention. Especially when it comes to a murder mystery, most fans of the genre are going to be looking for clues and paying attention to these details...we don't need to be beat over the head with them.

*Very bizarre writing, by way of similes, metaphors, etc.

One example of this: "She looked at her wine. It brought to mind a urine sample. She left it where it was."

🤢

I mean, yes, that's gross. But it's also just a strange thing to say, period. There were many examples of these sort of 'out there' comparisons and descriptions that felt off-putting. I also remember a paragraph that said something to the effect of "She spun in her chair laboriously. (insert other short sentence here) "She turned back in her chair laboriously."

I'm not sure if some of these details will be cleaned up or changed before the book goes to print, but they certainly gave the book a first draft sort of feel and added to the 'laborious' task of getting through the book. 🙄

I'll be honest...by the time this was over, I had no interest in who the killer was or what happened. The second half was slightly better (or at least, less frustrating) than the first half, but I was still just grateful for it to be over.

I'll leave you with a quote so heinous that I bookmarked it early on...and it speaks EXACTLY to that 'icky' feeling I got from (almost) page one:

"It was as if he'd emerged, fully formed, from the anus of capitalism, to be forever streaked and redolent with its shit.��

And once again...I'm off for a LONG overdue mental shower. 🚿

2.5 stars

#CeladonReads #partner #LocustLaneBook