Cover Image: Free Rider

Free Rider

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Member Reviews

While I found this book a little to get into in the first few chapters, I am beyond glad I pushed through. It has such a different perspective for a horror book. It was so dark and complicated that I found myself trying to dissect every little crumb the author gives to the reader to figure out what was really going in. The plot was surrounded by a ton of scary, disgusting topics but it was done in such a way that you couldn't help but be there for the MCs and react at the same time with her. It was never too graphic to continue, but warped in a way that you would never want to be in the twins' shoes. I figured out the ending/twist about two thirds of the way through, but I didn't care. It was so beautifully & tragically wrapped up in present that you can't help but unravel even knowing what darkness lie ahead.

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Two sisters are facing dark times in the 1970s in New York. Although they are twins, the two couldn’t be more different. One is just trying to make it into adulthood, while the other is slipping into the evil side.

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Well, I suppose the good thing about Free Rider was that it was…well, free, through Netgalley. Being the first to rate and review this one, I wish I had some nice things to say about the it, I really do. But being true to thy own self and fellow goodreaders requires some honest choices and honestly, this book just really, really didn’t work for me.
To be fair, it isn’t a terrible book as such, it was mainly just a really strong book to reader incompatibility situation. It featured a protagonist much too young, barely twenty, practically YA or at least New Adult.
This protagonist has a mysterious twin sister who comes and goes and tends to leave a mess behind. So prone is she to messes and so dark are both sisters’ mental states, that when a string of murders occurs in the neighborhood, there might be some possible involvement by the twins. A hunky cop/potential love interest is promptly dispatched to investigate. So that’s the basic plot.
Which is kinda sorta discernible beneath all that overwriting. And boy, is this book overwritten. Dramatically (in every sense of the word) so. All the characters, especially the twins, are prone to these tangential discursive monologues and soliloquies. The novel is so overnarrated, it’s a miracle the characters can function at all beneath the weight of it.
And that’s the main detractor here…not the easily predictable from early chapters plot twist, not all the clichés, not the tedious angst and disaffection of youth, no…it’s the style or overstylization of a novel that desperately tries to be poetic at cost to plotting, pacing, etc.
The writing so overwrought, so affected, just really, really didn’t work for me. Even though the use of Latin was nice.
But oh wait, thought of a nice thing to say about it…it read very, very quickly. That’s about it. Maybe it’ll wow some readers out there, who’s to say. Thanks Netgalley.

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I liked most of this story. A few parts didn't feel like they were needed. But it created great nostalgia with the setting, and watching the character arcs.
Interesting concept overall.
I enjoy the dark undertones, and just the pure grittiness.

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