Melanie Raabe

The Trap

Briar's Reviews

** spoiler alert **
           Book Review:
Title: The Trap - English Edition
Author: Melanie Raabe
Date Read: August 11th-September 1st, 2016
Date Reviewed: September 4th, 2016

Introduction: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. When I got the book, and read the back cover, I was more than impressed and pushed it to the front of my book review pile. While it took me a while to get to it, I wish I would have gotten to it sooner! This book is part of my top books, and I'm lending it out to my friends so they get introduced to this wonderful story by Melanie Raabe!

Quick Summary: Linda Conrads has been locked up in her house for 11 years. And not because she's forced to, she wants to. She witnessed a horrible murder of her younger sister Anna many years ago, and she can't bear to go out to the world anymore. Her small world suddenly turns upside down when she decides to write a novel about the murder and try to discover who the murderer is...

*SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT* You've been warned.

Evaluations: I LOVED this book. I was hooked at every word and it only took me so long to read it because I had exams and work. If I would have had it my way, I would have sat down one day and binge read it. I found myself doing that when I finally had the time! This book is totally worth it if you can get your hands on it. It's a murder-mystery thriller that leaves you thinking the entire time. It's not a fast moving novel, but if you look a good thriller, it'll keep you hooked at every word. 

Plot: Linda Conrads saw the murderer of her little sister Anna, and now she saw him again. After putting the pen to paper and writing another novel, since she is in fact an award winning novelist, she is determined to find him. When she gets an interview with this man, she learns that her view of the murder might be fiction...and she might be the murderer. This drives her mad, and she becomes even more determined to find out who murdered her sister, to finally put her theories to rest.

Characters: Linda Conrads is a bit of a shut in, and this makes her even more interesting. She's been stuck in her house for 11 years, and might be a little bit crazy. She's determined to find out what happened to her sister, and this seems to drive her mad. Her reliability is questioned many times during the novel, and it makes the reader really think about what could have happened. Is our narrator telling the truth? Or is she just to crazy to know the truth? She was well written, and I'm incredibly impressed with her.
The background characters are also fleshed out, even though they are present to a bare minimum. The story is focused on Linda, but these characters become important along the way. Paying attention to them is important! They all play a part.

Themes/Creativity: The theme of this story seemed to be fact vs fiction. Do we honestly remember everything perfectly? As a witness, are we reliable? 
For Creativity - this book was on point! I thoroughly enjoyed this tale, since I have never read a book like this before. Even with all the mysteries and thrillers I have picked up, this story was in it's own category. It has raised the stakes for other novels, and I loved every second of it!

Uniqueness: This book was in a club all on it's own. While I'm sure there are other novels out there like this, I have yet to encounter something was wickedly thrilling as this novel. I would definitely pick this book up again to see if I missed anything along the way! It's a unique view on the typical story - you don't usually see the close relative trying to solve the murder, and they might be the possible suspect. 

Strengths: The uniqueness of the novel and the situations, alongside the book inside the book, made this book terribly addicting on my end. I felt having Linda as an author, and explaining her view not only through her experiences but through her novel left me thinking and trying to pick apart the mystery even more. I enjoyed the unique take - Melanie Raabe has won me over with this book.

Weaknesses: The book is a slow building novel. I usually hate slow moving novels, but this novel is quite short and it unique. I would have loved this book not to drone on and on before the action starts, but the book was still great regardless!

Score: 5/5
This book is unique, and while it was slow I don't think that should ruin the score. It gave all the information you needed to try to solve the mystery yourself. Everything seemed to have a purpose.

Recommendations: I would love Melanie Raabe to work on a faster pace. This book left me wishing it moved faster, since it was so incredibly great! I can see some people putting the book down because of how slow it moves, and I really hope that doesn't happen! This translation is incredible, and deserves it's glory!


I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.