Review by Sandra_99 -- Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren

[Sandra_Prakash]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Twisted Threads" by Kaylin McFarren.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Reading Twisted Threads by Kaylin McFarren was a delight. It balances more than one genre in its plot. It mixes thriller, mystery, romance, and drama. The turns the plot took were unpredictable for me. McFarren easily carries the reader with each line. She has tediously maintained the line between giving too much information and too less information to the reader. Much of the mystery remains unsolved until the very end of the book.

The protagonist of the novel is Akira who is asked to board a cruise for an assassination mission. The story revolves around various characters that intervene in this mission, both intentionally and unintentionally, during the cruise. The majority of the timeline and action of the novel is set mostly during this one cruise. As mishaps start happening on the ship, Akira finds that the truth is not what it seems to be, her time to complete the mission is decreasing and many lives are dependent on her actions. The plot picks up on suspense in the second half. It had me almost gripped towards the end.

McFarren does a great job in slowly revealing the characters and their past with each chapter. She introduces a limited number of characters but builds them all up in a great fashion. Most have a unique personality that blurs the line between good and bad. The major characters are self-reflexive, giving the readers a lot of insight into their emotions. Almost all the characters have both hateful and redeeming characteristics. The relationships shown are also imperfect, reflecting a shade of reality in all of them.

I would rate the book 3 out of 4 stars. I had a great time reading the novel. But I found that the central relationship of the story lacked some vital points. The connection between the two seemed a little unreal in the beginning. Later, McFarren does justice to it. However, in the beginning, I felt that such a crucial part of the story could be made more organic instead of a teenage-like love. The other lacking I felt is that the last missing piece to the mystery could have been elaborated on more instead of confining it to a few pages.

Regardless of the last two points, the book is well-written and properly edited. It would be the perfect pick for anyone who enjoys mystery with mature characters and a story that involves assassins, illegal organisations, and revengeful people. Although some aspects of the plot can be disturbing, credit has to be given to McFarren in narrating the story in a way that does not make a reader too uncomfortable. The dark happenings are balanced by the feelings and reactions of the characters along with the general plot movement. As a whole, the book is a great read.

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Twisted Threads
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[Erin Painter Baker]

Often times in mystery books, authors throw a million characters at us to help hide who the "bad guy" is. It is nice to know the author here limited herself to just a few characters and made them all fully realized. It is too bad the central romantic relationship did not feel quite right to you.