Find Her
Rating: 3/5
First time read
My favorite books are thrillers à la Before I Go To Sleep, The Girl on the Train and anything by Gillian Flynn. This was my first spine-chiller novel of 2018 so, needless to say, I was pumped for this read.
So, to start, I received this as a gift and I didn't realize this was part of a detective series...I thought it might be when they introduced Detective D.D. Warren, but Gardner explained the back story so succinctly, I thought okay, never mind, that was all we needed to know. So then I just thought it was one of those books with multiple points of view. Nope, I was wrong. So for anyone thinking of reading this, if you also get that feeling, just know you're correct. Also know that it doesn't affect anything, so don't feel you have to read in a specific order.
I do. Not. Like. D.D. Warren. She's kind of an asshole. I get she's the workaholic, nose-to-the-grindstone talented detective, but why does every hard-working women have to be a stereotype? She could be great at her job, love it and still be a kind, uplifting person. She doesn't have to be the cliché scary bitch. She keep finding ways to tear down the woman who has replaced her more hands-on role, while she recovering from an injury, even making fun of the new detective’s name...because that’s the adult thing to do...She also completely victim blames and uses backward female stereotypes as jokes, like calling a subordinate who is worried about her “a woman.” Why. Lisa Gardner, you're a woman, what are you doing?? So my dislike of D.D. caused a lot of distraction throughout the book, taking away from the experience as a whole.
However, the other protagonist, Flora Dane, was someone I could be invested in. As a young women who carries pepper spray and wears my keys between my fingers when walking home, I really liked all the self-defense techniques advised through Flora, plus the tips on what to do if you do get kidnapped. I might start constantly hiding bobby pins in my hair now, just in case someone ever throws handcuffs on me (and not in a good way). It was invigorating to see a female vigilante for once. Yes, vigilantes should generally not take the law into their own hands, but here I’m all for it.
Flora’s kidnapping experience will definitely stay with me, so if you’re not into dark books, probably skip this read. Overall, I enjoyed the story and I really liked the twists Gardner put in to the plot. She dragged the book out, but not in a dull way as you switch between Flora’s past, her present and D.D.’s present. It made you flip the pages even faster because you wanted to know what was next. Although there weren’t any major cliffhangers at the end of chapters, which I liked, because I was worried that would happen with Flora and I’d be irritated because it would be so expected. There was just enough teasing to make you want to keep going.
So if you can ignore D.D. or maybe you think she sounds like your kind of girl (god forbid), please read this book, and maybe the others in the collection too. I’ll probably look into them, because I’m a masochist like that (well, minus the sexual part) and I’m intrigued about the other cases now. Are they all as haunting? And the burning question: was D.D. always this awful or is it just because she’s injured and frustrated? In which case, I maaaaybe would have liked her better. Probably not, but maybe. These are the need-to-know answers. Guess that settles it. I’m reading the others...so join me if you like!
