2⭐
Genre ~ psychological fiction
Setting ~ Chicago, Illinois
Publication date ~ December 1, 2022
Publisher ~ Thomas & Mercer
Est Page Count ~ 365 (56 chapters broken up by season)
Audio length ~ 9 hours 58 minutes
Narrator ~ Lauren Ezzo
POV ~ single 1st
Featuring ~ debut, nightmares, dead sister, drugs

Harper already has nightmares from her past and it's not helping one bit that women are turning up dead that look exactly like her. Creepy. Is she going crazy, or could she really be the target?

Oof, this was pretty tough to get through. Loved the premise, but I did not care for Harper at all. She was all over the place and always ‘fine’ when asked a bazillion times "are you okay?", when clearly she was anything but. I didn’t mind her eagerness to get to the bottom of things, but she didn’t make many smart choices. Like her toxic friend as just to name one. I was sad for her with how her family treated her though.

Overall, I'm left with unanswered questions and a lackluster ending, but it wasn’t absolutely awful for a debut.

PS ~ hope Woodstock, the cat, is okay.

Have you ever finished a book and sat there thinking "What on earth did I just read?" That's exactly how I felt after turning the final page of Elle Grawl's psychological thriller "One of Those Faces." This novel had all the ingredients for a gripping, edge-of-your-seat read - a traumatic childhood, a twin's death, mistaken identities, and a string of murders. Yet somehow, these elements never quite come together in a satisfying way.

The story follows Harper Mallen, a children's book illustrator living in Chicago who's haunted by her past. When Harper was ten, her twin sister Issie died, and her father forced her to assume Issie's identity - a psychological trauma that sent her running from home. Now, Harper exists in a perpetual state of sleep deprivation, plagued by nightmares of her sister.

The plot thickens when women start turning up dead across Chicago - women who all bear an uncanny resemblance to Harper. In fact, she's been mistaken for each victim at some point, dismissed as merely having "one of those faces." Is Harper the killer's ultimate target, or is something else at play?

It's a premise rich with potential, but Elle Grawl's execution left me feeling disoriented and frustrated. While some of this confusion appears intentional - we experience Harper's sleep-deprived, unreliable perspective - the narrative itself becomes as muddled as Harper's mind.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect is that the big reveals fail to deliver the emotional punch they should. After investing in Harper's journey through her trauma and terror, the resolution comes across as both convoluted and underwhelming.

For readers who enjoy unreliable narrators and don't mind feeling a bit lost in the narrative, "One of Those Faces" might still provide an intriguing escape. However, those looking for a tightly plotted thriller with satisfying resolutions might want to look elsewhere.

As I closed this book, I was left with that unmistakable "WTF did I just read?" feeling - and not in the good way that comes from an expertly crafted twist. Instead, I felt like I'd wandered through someone else's fever dream without a map.

Once of Those Faces was a fast read with a lot happening. Harper is a struggling artist with "one of those faces" that looks familiar to a lot of people. Throughout the story, other women who look like her are found murdered. The set-up had so much potential, but the story went in a couple directions I did not love (to avoid spoilers I cannot be specific). The ending left me making a lot of assumptions and drawing my own conclusion, as the reader does not get a lot of answers about Harper, the murders, and some of the other character-story lines. While I can love an ambiguous ending, something was missing for me with this one. I wish we had a few more answers prior to the last page! Overall, it was a chilling and entertaining read.

One Of Those Faces by Elle Grawl had a very interesting premise for a creepy psychological thriller, that of an artist suffering from severe insomnia, forced to paranoia and danger as more than one female with a similar face to hers gets murdered.

A debut work by the author that does carry brilliant promise in writing but the plot itself kind of meanders down to an 'unthrilling' finish line. The first part of the book is engaging, keeping the reader hooked to turning the pages even though most of us have been through the whole pills popping, alcoholic, do not trust one’s eyes kind of unreliable narrator in many a book nowadays and Harlan is characterized as someone who never catches a break. She lost her twin at the age of 10, and there is emotional and physical abuse and trauma from her father, the consequent nightmares make her an insomniac but things are plodding along when all hell breaks loose in the form of a murder near her apartment and the train wreck begins.

There are many parts of the story where the creepy factor is brilliantly highlighted but Harlan is not a MC that one would feel sorry for. Honestly, the self destructive streak just gets worse by the middle and then she crosses the line to being a stalker. Another sore point for me is that everything and anything that can go wrong in one’s life seems to be happening with Harlan including a peeping voyeur which was like an overdose of bad things for one person.

I would have loved the author to have at least one element as positive for a feel good factor coz even the rushed ending left me down and out. This is the debut work by the author and with a writing style that feels like something slithering under your skin, Elle Grawl is sure to make a mark soon!

Many thanks to Net Galley, Thomas & Mercer, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

A really good premise but there were lots of unanswered questions by the end that left me disappointed. After a very strong start, the plot starts to veer into very unplausible territory and becomes quite chaotic.

Saturdays are for debut authors and I have to tell you, this might be one of my most favorite posts.

Ladies and Gentleman, let me introduce to you, Elle Grawl.

This author is here to stay and I will be her biggest advocate.

I love debut authors but I also know going in that there might be things I don't like or things that could be improved. I have read plenty to know that the idea might be there but the development could lack. That was NOT the case with this book. One of Those Faces, is incredible and will steal your dinner plans. Yes, cancel your schedule before you pick this bad boy up, you won't want to miss one second by putting it down.

Thank me later, in the mean time, check out this teaser :

From debut author Elle Grawl comes a psychological thriller about an insomniac artist who discovers a shocking truth about a recent spate of murders in her city: the victims all look just like her.

Years after escaping her abusive childhood, Harper Mallen has only ever known sleepless nights—or terrifying nightmares. She’s struggling to survive as an artist in a trendy Chicago neighborhood, getting by on freelance gigs, when she’s suddenly confronted with the worst fears from her past.

A young woman is killed outside Harper’s apartment—a woman who chillingly resembles her. As Harper searches for information about the victim, she discovers unsettling links to two other murders. Upon discovering another doppelgänger, Harper realizes her life is not the only one hanging in the balance.

As her obsession and paranoia deepen, everyone is a suspect: the handsome stranger in the café, customers at the painting studio, even the ghosts from her past. The closer she comes to unraveling the truth behind the murders, the more Harper realizes there is no one she can trust—not even herself.

I hate leaving a one star review on NetGalley because I feel so valuable as part of an author's publication journey but this was rough.

Unpopular opinion, I love an open ending. I like filling in the gaps based on how I interpreted everything in the book. This was... not that. An abrupt ending with no resolution

One of those Faces is a very intriguing read. It engages, it thrills, it gets you thinking, and then, unfortunately it fall flat. There are lots of players in this, lots of situations, and it gets quite confusing. The ending is also a difficult sell because there's no resolution to the majority of the issues that are brought out in the story, and it's just very underwhelming.

Not for me, sorry.

Star Rating: 2.5

Many thanks to the author, Thomas & Mercer, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Harper sees her face in other women and not just those she passes on the streets, but especially in two women recently murdered in the area. Her face, her exact image, almost her, but not. She knows he's back for her, that this killer is looking to kill her, and her sleep issues take her from scared to terrified to a paranoid space where fiction and reality blend.

Harper is the unlikeable, insomnia suffering lead in One of Those Faces. An artist at her core doing all she can to ignore the sleepless nights and popping pills to allow sleep to happen as needed. She lets no one too close, at least no one outside of her one friend and the boy who happens to be right where she is when she's feeling weak. What feels like the turn to something good, to something normal, is upended by the death of multiple women with similar looks and too many occurrences of strangers calling her by other names. We know she has a damaging, abusive childhood that haunts her, but her insomnia is just a piece of her, at least at first. Soon it is all consuming and we are taken on an obsessive, terrifying journey with an unreliable journey at our helm.

One of Those Faces reads incredibly similar to other works about women suffering from extreme insomnia and delusions. In fact, until about the 50% mark I was convinced I had read this book, or one exactly like it, before. While it didn't impact the overall storytelling, Grawl writes very well, it just wasn't exciting or new for me. I struggled to believe Harper could have coped as long as she had with no issues. In fact, it appeared as though her life was entirely together up until the events in the book, however we're expected to believe she'd dealt with sleep issues for much longer. How then, had she maintained friendships and work prior to now? Of course, there is the thriller edge and the twists presented, but I needed more believability with the sleep issues.

From debut author Elle Grawl comes a psychological thriller about an insomniac artist who discovers a shocking truth about a recent spate of murders in her city: the victims all look just like her.

Years after escaping her abusive childhood, Harper Mallen has only ever known sleepless nights—or terrifying nightmares. She’s struggling to maintain an artist’s life in a hip Chicago neighborhood, getting by on freelance gigs at a local painting studio, when she suffers another terrible shock.

A young woman is killed outside Harper’s apartment—a woman who chillingly resembles her. As Harper searches for information about the victim, she discovers unsettling links to two other murders. And then there’s a third doppelganger, still alive. Harper’s life is not the only one hanging in the balance.

As her obsession and paranoia deepen, everyone is a suspect: the handsome stranger in the café, the owner of the painting studio, even the ghosts from her past. The closer she comes to unraveling the truth behind the murders, the more Harper realizes there is no one she can trust—not even herself.

The concept for this book was incredible. I was very into this book the whole time, but the ending left a lot of things unanswered. This felt very fast paced and was interesting throughout the book. I read it so quickly because I wanted to know what was going on. Sadly there were things that were hinted at that didn't happen and also things that were still confusing to the reader at the end. I will definitely read from this author in the future!

I was pulled in from the start, loved the writing and the twisty mystery but as the story went on I questioned the plausibility of what was going on. It had a strong start but was ultimately anticlimactic. Though I wished for more with the ending, I overall enjoyed the read.

Insanely creepy tension filled and just adore the cover for this one. Thank you to Amazon pub for the ARC.

Debut for author Elle Grawl and definitely kicked it off with a solid read. There was really good peaks and valleys in this book that kept me engaged. I did this book as an audio and felt the narrator did a good job narrating this book. I felt the book was a tad long and there was a lot of characters that you had to keep track of but may have been easier if I was reading the book instead of listening. I couldn’t connect well with the main character Harper because she seemed to be unmotivated and not really wanting to better herself. As a reader, I fully understand the background Harper came from but she ran away for a reason and then never truly let go of the past. With all the twists, it wasn’t super predictable to know who was the villain in the story but I did guess correctly about 2/3 the way through. Overall, this was a solid debut for this author, giving it three stars and will recommend to other thriller readers.

A dark mystery - unforunately it just didn't work for me.

The MC was erratic. She could just be walking along talking to someone and suddenly fall asleep. It was hard to follow her equally chaotic life. There are quite a few people in her life and, as she slowly amasses them, one by one they are murdered. With each new death, I squinted my eyes and looked at alibis but I found so much of the story still confusing and lacking. We're giving such a chaotic mess because the MC is a mess but we're never fully given the tools to follow the story along.

When I got to the twist, I didn't feel like it was a surprise. But when I got the the final one, I felt let down. This one was just too much of a mess for me to enjoy.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

The only thing that was a bigger mess than this main character was the plotting of this book. So many loose threads everywhere. The first half of the conclusion was far-fetched and the second half led to me shouting "duh!" at the main character. Some mysteries were never even definitively solved. Most of the characters were horrible and unsympathetic.

This was a disaster and I'm sorry to say I really can't recommend it to anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to review this book ahead of publication. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

The story started out kind of interesting (I guess), where the reader is kind of like a looky loo at a 15-car pile-up on the freeway. The MC, Harper, lost her mother when she was a little kid and survived a car accident at 10 that killed her twin sister. Her grieving father abused her and messed with her head until she ran away and ended up on the streets in Chicago and later a youth hostel. Her BF/employer is a woman who is basically just a drinking buddy and drug resource. Harper is a pill popping, struggling artist with insomnia that is triggered by her nightmares of her sister’s death. All this in the first 25% of the story. Suffice it to say that Harper is a bit of a train wreck and her life a 15-car pile-up on the freeway.

The book summary pretty much lays out the primary storyline: the recent murders of a few women, who just so happen, look very similar to Harper. As if things aren’t odd enough already, Harper is often mistaken (by random people) for someone else. Once she was even mistaken for one of the murdered women by the woman’s mother. As if Harper’s life wasn’t messed up enough, there are also Harper’s nightmares of her sister’s death.

The first half of the story is an introduction into the story’s characters as well as Harper’s struggles to maintain a grip on reality and a semblance of sanity, most likely attributed to her sleep deprivation and a diet of mostly drugs, alcohol and coffee. Grawl exposes to the reader Harper’s nightmares as well as her lapses in time all of which lead her to make some really bad choices and decisions.

By the halfway point, Harper, as well as most of the rest of the characters, come off as a very unlikeable bunch and the story seems to be dragged all over the place and going nowhere. It’s like some ridiculous scavenger hunt dragging the reader all over town collecting obscure clues that lead nowhere. In those games, it isn’t until the very end that all the participants finally find out the meaning or purpose of all the random items they’ve collected.

Typically, it’s at this point that I would DNF a book that I’m just not enjoying. However, because I received a free eARC from the publisher, I am committed to finishing the book and providing a complete and honest review. Around the 60% point though, I actually closed the book and set it aside for a while and started reading another book because I was getting bored with Harper and her nonsense. I needed something more interesting and exciting to read. The final 10% was kind of a hot mess with a very unsatisfying ending. Hence the 2star rating.

I want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

@NetGalley @Thomas&Mercer @OneofThoseFaces

Harlan is a freelance artist and the teacher at the booze and paint art center. Which is start noticing women who look exactly like her or dying it really freaks her out… Not that she doesn’t go around freaked out on a normal basis. This book was setting up to be a good one but the ending ruined it for me and that’s a shame because it had the right amount of creepy and although they had a few eye rolling incidents it was a book I couldn’t stop thinking about once I put it down but as I said the end ruined it for me.. if the author could re-write it and re-release it it would be such a better book. I received it from NetGalley Ann Thomas and Mercer Books but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

There were so many moving parts to this book that it just never quite fit together. There was great potential but I just felt it fell short in so many ways. I think the author was trying to keep us guessing until the end but it just fell short,, however it left so many more questions unanswered.
The characters were so hard to connect with that it left me questioning their actions and motives. In the end the book as a whole just kinda fell flat for me and that was the disappointment.

This book should have been so much better than it ended up being! A super premise and a decent conclusion but the middle felt like the author didn't know what to do with the story. The result felt cluttered with no direction and impacted how I felt when some (only some) of the many many storylines were supposedly concluded. I am not sure if the author felt like the reader could follow along better than we were in reality or the point was to be vague to remain mysterious. While I like mysteries and don't need my storylines all tied up in pretty bows, I also like to finish a book and be able to have a solid conversation about what took place and how the story moved from point to point. I am not sure I could do that with this book.