Review: You're Next

You're Next by Gregg Hurwitz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is the July 2014 BOTM read of the Goodreads Group "Psychological Thrillers".
The opening (Prologue) is quite interesting, something I am surprised parents don't do more often.
For a while the timeline jumps between chapters titled "Now" and "Then", so you get a glimpse what happens as the child from the Prologue grows up and some explanation how he became what he is (and also his friend who helps him later).
Currently on page 197 - 36%. And I am staying away from the discussion thread on the group to avoid spoilers.
Had some personal stuff to do, or I would have finished it sooner, this is a real good page-turner, realistic, good persons ( William Burrell !), technology used in both good and bad ways, very up-to-date on surveillance by the powers that be.
And while not outright criticising this surveillance it should make you think wether it is good or bad to compile all these facts about everyone, free to be abused as it is shown in the book. A few years ago (even as it was published) I would have said that was not possible, but the still ongoing revelations showed us all how it is in fact quite possible.
Also the technology was used by both the bad guys and the good, and sometimes it bites back, as in the case when a connection with the internet is traced back to the hotel room.

The persons where believable and deep, their decisions well explained and for me feel real and understandable, not produced out of thin air, also, the action felt real. Even Kat the child was not bad, a first for me, who usually finds children whiny and childish and would gladly do as in the Prologue (that is one more reason I will never have a child). And no Deus ex machina, nothing felt constructed.
Still, my favorite person in this book is William Burrell, a really good bad guy, with a disease very detailed and realistically described, a professional torturer who knows pain himself knows how to inflict pain (although Dodge does the work).

Beware: a few people are tortured, and some die rather bloody deaths.
This book is highly recommended, and I am glad we chose it as a Book-of-the-month (see above). I will probably read more of his books.



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