Stupid Unlikeable People on a Mountain in the Snow... aka "Shiver" Review

 

TITLE: Shiver

AUTHOR: Allie Reynolds

PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons

PUBLISHING DATE: January 19, 2021

PAGES: 400

SOURCE: Library

FROM GOODREADS: 

In this propulsive locked-room thriller debut, a reunion weekend in the French Alps turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snowstorm. 

When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she’s expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she’s never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition. 

Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones—missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead. 

Stranded in the resort, Milla’s not sure what’s worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that’s making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there’s no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia…someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla’s not careful, she could be the next to disappear…

MY THOUGHTS: Going into this book I felt it had so many characteristics I love that I just knew it would be hit.  I mean we have a locked-room thriller and people being stranded in a snowstorm.  You know I love a good snowy book.  Yet unfortunately I found myself disappointed.

I can't really fault the main premise.  Five old friends who haven't had contact for years are mysteriously drawn to a snowy mountain.  One member of their gang was killed back then and no one really knows for sure what happened.  They all feel they are being lured there for nefarious reasons and almost all of them are hesitant to go.  Oh, and did I mention that every single one of them has something to hide?  Sounds good so far right?

Now the issues.  There's a lot of snowboarding talk and lingo and while I didn't find it necessarily boring, snowboarding isn't my favorite topic.  And while I really don't have to like characters to enjoy a book, words cannot express how horrible these individuals are. They all have secrets and pretty much I was sure that each and every one of them was the murderer.  And get this, the victim was just as unlikeable and I didn't find myself caring one bit that she was dead.  I probably would have been a suspect too had I been there.  Finally, while I love a good thriller and enjoy a long novel I can get lost inside of, this one just seemed to long.  You know the kind of book that seems never-ending? (think The Stand and The Passage).

So overall, I am sure lots of people will grab this one and I honestly can't blame them.  It has a lot of things going for it on the surface.  I just hope that those that do end up liking it better than I did.

RATING: 2 Paws