Why This Thriller Missed the Mark: A Review of The Lake House Children

Information:

• Goodreads: 4.26 out of 81 Ratings
• Genre: Thriller??
• Age Category: Adult
• Series: None

Summary:

The Police are interviewing Kate for a fire that killed four people. They’re hoping to figure out who did it, but get more than they bargained for. One clearly thinks Kate’s lying – her story is outrageous – but the other thinks it may be so outrageous that she might just believe it to be true. Kate believes her son is the reincarnation of her nephew – and her son has information about how he died. We follow Kate’s story as she leads us up to the fateful night when everything went to shit.

Review:

So much about this could have worked. A police investigation into a suspicious fire that happened to a strange family filled with coverups and bad behaviors? What isn’t to love about that? I thought I was going to get an interesting investigation following complex people. I was so excited to see what in the world was going on with this weird kid. First, Netgalley and Goodreads have two different synopsis’ for this book. I only read the Goodreads one, which talks about one of our detectives as he can’t get this weird case out of his head. Netgalley full on talks about how Kate’s son Jack is actually her nephew, Zack, who has been reincarnated. The Netgalley synopsis full on gives away the most interesting aspect this book. Regardless, the plot had such a great concept, but failed to deliver on it. We only get snippets of the detectives talking to Kate in the interview; most of the story is her talking about her son. Which could have been interesting, if done differently and done right.

None of the characters felt like they had anything to them that made them special. They all felt wooden. Within the first time meeting each character, you know how they’re going to turn out. There was not a single plot twist that I did not guess by 25% through the book, which very much hindered the amount of fun I was able to have while reading it. Of course Jack is Zack. Of course Aaron killed him. Of course Amber was sleeping with Neil and covered up her son’s murder. I don’t even count this as spoilers because it’s all so obvious. I couldn’t get a sense of suspense because I could easily figure out what was going on -and that’s not bragging. I’m dumb, I can’t ever guess what’s going to happen.

I did like the prose. The story is written in 3rd person when the detectives are interviewing Kate, but written in 1st person when going over the actual story line. I like and appreciate it. It’s reads like Kate talking to the detectives. If it had been paired with interesting characters ( who even knows anything about Aaron’s twin sister, Kate’s dad, Brock, or Tris), and was a little more like the way it was marketed, it could have been a great story. All the material is there, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been used.

If you’ve read this book, I’d be curious to know what you thought. It’s set to come out September 17th, but I certainly won’t be purchasing a physical copy or recommending it to many people.