Put this one off for a long time, not really sure why. Started it tonight and only made it to 5% before deciding to stop. Something about the writing just wasn’t working for me.

"Final Cut" is a gripping thriller that brilliantly captures the essence of a seemingly ordinary place harboring extraordinary secrets. Its taut and terrifying narrative grips you from the beginning and doesn't let go, making it a must-read for fans of thrillers and anyone who appreciates a well-crafted, suspenseful story. . Watson's skillful storytelling ensures that the nerves of the reader will be jangling long after the final page is turned.

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Final Cut is a thrilling and engaging read that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The story follows Alex, a documentary filmmaker, as she delves into the disappearance of a woman named Lucy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex herself.

Watson's writing is superb, with a talent for creating vivid and atmospheric settings that will transport you right into the heart of the story. The plot is well-constructed, with plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. The characters are also well-developed and feel like real people, with their own unique personalities, motivations, and flaws.

One of the things that sets Final Cut apart from other thrillers is the way Watson weaves in themes of memory, identity, and the nature of truth. The book raises some thought-provoking questions about how we construct our own narratives and the role that memory plays in shaping our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Overall, Final Cut is a gripping and satisfying read that will appeal to fans of psychological thrillers and anyone looking for a well-crafted and thought-provoking story. Watson is a talented writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

A good read but I found myself comparing it to Before I Go To Sleep and sadly it isn't on a par. Not to say that it's a bad book but I had very high expectations.

Was a big fan of Before I Go To Sleep so had high expectations with this new novel. I wasn't as gripped through the story but it was still an enjoyable read.

Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to ordinary people.

It used to be a buzzing seaside destination. But now, ravaged by the effects of dwindling tourism and economic downturn, it’s a ghost town – and the perfect place for film-maker Alex to shoot her new documentary.

But the community is deeply suspicious of her intentions. After all, nothing exciting ever happens in Blackwood Bay – or does it?

Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to an extraordinary secret.

Final Cut is told in a timeslip perspective ‘now’ and ‘then’. Set in a town where everyone knows everything, it has a claustrophobic feel that adds to the overall tension.

Alex’s story seems simple enough, until it doesn’t…

She is definitely not as straightforward and trustworthy as she first seems, but then in this novel I don’t think anything is as it seems

I have read several books by S J Watson and loved them and therefore I was so looking forward to reading Final Cut, however, I did not enjoy this one. I felt it was a slow and inconsistent book and although I persevered with it to the end I could easily have given up several times.

A DNF at 25% for me sadly, I had such high hopes for this one after Watson's previous two.

I found it really slow & I didn't want to pick it up again ...maybe I'm missing out on a fabulous ending but I'd like my reads to be entertaining all the way through.

Told in a now/then setting this story slowly gives away its secrets. Set in a small town where everyone knows everyone adds to the sinister feeling of the story. With drug use and abuse as the main subjects in the book it sets on some gritty content and I was happy Watson saved us some of the details on the more disturbing parts. I did find the flow of the story a bit bumpy but that is often with flashback stories, still I had a hard time putting it down.
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Alex is the main character of this book and her place in the story is clear and yet it is not at all. I did not understand her motives to stay so secretive all the time, while on the other hand she seems to fully trust random strangers. As she is the narrator it made me doubt her view on the other characters too. But the excitement of the things happening in the story make up for that.

I really love this author and was pleased to be given access to this book on Netgalley. Another nailbiter.

I really enjoyed his debut book 'Before I go to sleep' that kept me guessing and it was such a great book it was made into a movie. What I'm saying is this author does a great job at story telling.
Expect intense plot twists and mysterious characters with a horror elements all the way through the book.
I did find it was a slow burn but it does get better the more you read each chapter and start understanding the characters. Alex goes to a sea side town to film a documentary about 2 girls that vanished and a mysterious girl found with no memory of who she was. Does this girl have a connection with the ones who vanished and what will Alex uncover at this secluded town and can she trust the people there.

Like many readers Before I Go to Sleep is one of my all time favourite debut novels and so I was looking forward to reading Final Cut. It had a promising synopsis and a good premise but I found it to be a slow paced and laborious read. I found it difficult to connect with the characters and felt that the plot lacked pace and originality.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC

I have read all of SJ Watsons books to date and unfortunately this is not his best. Although the story had potential it was so slow and to be honest, and this is my opinion only, boring. I really cannot recommend,

⁷Alex is an independent film maker whose first film was a success but that difficult second attempt not so much. So shes desperate for a new commission. But that commission is for a film about a small seaside town, Blackwood Bay. A town on the skids, with a dark history, one Alex is all too aware of....


I've really liked this authors previous works but this one left me a cold. It covers a difficult subject which for me isn't a problem usually. But my feeling is if you use something like that make it good. And for me this just wasn't. It dragged on a bit. The characters were all unlikeable, not one that you could feel any real empathy for, despite the awful things that had happened to them. I was hoping to be surprised but saw the reveal a mile off. Unfortunately this was not for me.

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, However I had to DNF and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book

This was a real pageturner, and I read it over a few days.

Alex, a film-maker is due to make a film in a small town by the sea - Blackwood Bay. However, as well as filming everyday life there, the bay has a history which involves girls going missing. Alex also has a history there and doesn't want to return, but then she receives a mystery postcard persuading her to return to her home town and her past.

Once she does, she becomes more and more embroiled in the missing girls' puzzle and what's going on now in the town. All looks fine on the surface and seems easily explained, but Blackwood Bay has a dark underbelly that is slowly revealed.

Alex is unsure who to trust and what to believe. And being back in the bay unravels some lost painful memories of her own.

It builds to a dramatic climax, and I could definitely see this being played out on the big screen. I think it would make an excellent movie.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

When Alex is looking for a close-knit community to base her new film around she receives a postcard to suggest Blackwood Bay. However, Alex has a sordid past with the village that not even she fully realises…

Around 10 years ago when it first came out, Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson was one of my favourite books. I was therefore very happy to receive the ARC of Final Cut, the new thriller by the same author. It seems that unreliable narrators and memory issues really do run in the author’s repertoire and are in full force in this novel.

Final Cut is a very twisty thriller that fully takes advantage of the unreliable narrator technique. Alex knows that she has a connection with the place she is visiting and tries to find out more about it, along with information about 3 girls who disappeared 10 years ago. I did think there was a little suspension of disbelief with the plot, particularly as to why some people recognised her instantly and some not at all and also why the whole village seemed so hung up about something that happened so long ago. I did like the idea of using small videos uploaded to a website which made for a sinister aspect. However, at an important plot point someone instantly uploads something to the website which is not true to life and seemed to be a too convenient plot device – has the author ever tried to upload a video to something like Dropbox? It takes hours and if it’s stopped at any point it will be cancelled!

Alex is difficult to sympathise with because she is so unreliable and the plot forces her to be vague and confusing at times. I felt that the novel dragged on a lot in places with not enough new information to drive it through. I found it hard to care about the mystery of what was happening to the girls in the present and instead was more focused on the past mystery which I had already guessed the twist to very early on. I do also think that a lot of the plot could have been resolved if the characters had actually spoken to each other or told someone what was going on. There seemed to be an awful lot of conversations that ended with a frustrating ‘I can’t tell you’ which made them feel a bit pointless.

Overall, Final Cut felt frustrating at times with an over-reliance on convenient plot devices which made the plot feel unrealistic. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers & Doubleday for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is not the way I wanted my 2021 book reviews to begin. I am devastated. I thought picking up a book by a known to me author, who I have really enjoyed previously, was a safe bet.
But noooooo.
This book was dull. I got about 60% through and felt like things were being repeated over and over and over again. The book was dialogue heavy. And I felt like the explanations were flimsy and fairly unbelievable. And the final chapter is basically a villain monologue which I hate.

But I loved the premise, the whole idea is interesting and I want to read more books set in Yorkshire, more thrillers about missing people and more books about film making. It just didn’t do it for me.

Before I Go To Sleep is perhaps one of my all time favourite thrillers, and so I was really excited to see another book by Watson, and requested it immediately. However, due to having a serious overload of books, it ended up languishing on my Kindle for several months, as I'd completely forgotten I'd been accepted for it. However, when I started reading it, I almost wished I hadn't bothered...

I hate to sound mean, but I really didn't like it. It's just so repetitive and there's so many questions being asked over and over and never being answered but instead just leading to more questions which will also not be answered. I assume it's meant to build tension, but it really just felt incredibly annoying. Everything also felt very forced - there wasn't really a good sense of flow, and everything was very much A has to happen for us to get to B... if I'm honest, you could almost see a flowchart planning out where the plot was going to go.

I'm so disappointed, as like I said, I loved his previous work. But this just didn't work for me at all, and I found it so frustratingly plotted and poorly written that I honestly wouldn't bother reading it.

Disclaimer - I was fortunate enough to be provided with an advance reading copy of this book by NetGalley. This has not affected my review in any way, and all opinions are my own.