Eeny Meeny Review

From looking at my previous reviews, I feel as though I have made it very clear that I enjoy books of the thriller genre. Understandably, when I then became aware of the enormous hype that surrounded M. J. Arlidge’s Eeny Meeny, I was quick to buy and engulf the novel. Unfortunately, I was nothing but disappointed.
The book surrounds the concept of couples being abducted, and then being given the choice to kill or be killed. Detective Inspector Helen Grace finds herself against the clock, desperately trying to catch the killer before another life is lost.
Enigmatic and mysterious, two key features that I expected to find within this novel, and unfortunately, two elements that refused to make an appearance. I understand that writing a thriller is bound to be difficult work; however, I found that the pacing, wording and even character development was just all poor.
The book seems to be moving so fast, that I found myself not caring about people’s deaths. There’s no build up or character development, and it then just seems to be a case of do I want stranger 1 or stranger 2 to die.
The twists which have been to positively praised were all quite predictable. If I hadn’t already guessed the next turn, then it seemed to come completely out of nowhere, and not in a good way. Usually, a good plot twist has hints that are right in front of the reader’s eyes, but are still too clever to be guessed.  Eeny Meeny’s twists were ever screaming out of the pages, or were completely random and like an afterthought.
At the risk of now just seeming harsh and rude, the writing style is, in my opinion, not good enough to be published. In fact, it reminded me of GCSE English, where rhetorical questions are overused, and the choice of words were overly basic. It felt like the author was treating the readers like idiots, as everything seemed to be explained. Although this does then control any potential confusion, for some things, it just really isn’t necessary.
Overall, even though I do live near to Southampton, this book did nothing for me. I found it dull and tedious, as well as ridiculously unrealistic, particularly one part at the end with a baby. Throughout all the 437 pages, only one part of it was actually gruesome (the maggot part), but other than that, it was a bit too mundane for my liking. I feel like vast improvements will need to be made to continue the series, even though many readers rank this book so highly.

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