Review: The Sound by Sarah Alderson

The Sound
Sarah Alderson

Series: None

Released: August 1st, 2013 (U.S. is May 13th, 2014)

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Rating: 1 star

Fright Scale: 1 out of 10

Reviewed by: Mel

When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket, playground for Boston's elite, she's hoping for a low-key summer reading books and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly off the agenda.

What she doesn't count on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are hiding some dark secrets, falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy, and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...

The gripping new stand-alone novel from the author of Hunting Lila. Out August 2013

After reading Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas, I never really expected any other murder mystery to 'wow' me. Because quite simply, Dangerous Girls threw my future expectations for this sub-genre sky-high. So, I can't really leave the full blame on The Sound, saying that this was a horrible book but I never really found my enjoyment in here.

We start off with a potentially relatable main character, Ren Kingston. She's an aspiring music journalist from England, and has decided to take up a nannying job on an island just close by to Boston in America. Instead of just relaxing, listening to music and writing her blog, Ren finds herself stuck between a dangerous place and a rock. Because there have been reports of dead foreign nannies just on the shore of the beach. Who is the murderer? And is Ren the next target? For something that seemed so suspenseful and crazily hectic turned out to be a love story, to be honest. Here we are again, ladies and gents; yet another good potential gone splat.

Originally, I was going to list what I liked and didn't like about The Sound. Truth be told, I can't think of much to say in what I liked so I have just listed what did not work. This is not to say that everything was bad, it's just more helpful and efficient to list out flaws.

The characters:

I was swimming in a sea of clichés. They were absolutely everywhere and pissed me off to no end. I'm sure that this would have been a better read if the characters were actually somewhat bearable. Ren, is thankfully one of the okay ones. She questions most things and isn't as naive as I expected, I liked her curiosity but her curiosity and skepsism lead to her being awfully judgemental and having prejudice towards other members of the cast she's only just met. The 'friends', I won't say their names (because I have forgotten them already) but they were typical. We have the girls, giggly and only appearing to want to get in people's pants--guys particularly. And what shocked me more was that we have a four year old who swore and called people 'sluts' and 'hos'. We also have the best friend calling Ren a slut so frequently I almost threw the book across the room. What's more superficial about the best friend is that she kept on obsessing over 'The One'. Ugh. The male characters are no better. Majority of them wanted just wanted to hook up with girls, a different one each night. Did I mention that everyone on the island is dirty rich and beautiful?

 

The romance:

The Sound was powdered with romance. It was not only suffocating me, but also the book. About halfway through and the plot was practically non-existent due the romance being so over-powering. More reasons to not like the romance: love triangle. Angst. Insta-love. Jealousy. Obsessiveness. *head desk times 1000* I opened up this book for a murder mystery, not a romance with two typical love interests. One dark, mysterious and violent and one just trying to have fun and cute. JUST NO. But I must admit, I liked Jesse (the bad guy), he may have been stereotypically mysterious but his mystery is a touching one, which was the only main drive that made me read onwards. If not for the interest of wanting to know Jesse's past, I would have DNFed this early on.

The plot:

BORING. I was waiting it to come and when it finally did, I was already detached from the novel. Additionally, the culprit? I called it. Easy. Too easy because I normally suck at finding out who the culprit was.

To sum up:

Avoid. There are better murder mysteries in this world. If you're looking for a light romance-y but slightly thriller-y novel, this is the one for you. Other than that, like I say and will keep on saying, avoid. Avoid. Avoid.