nina ʚïɞ's Reviews > The Unravelling

I’m thinking for a debut thriller this was good - not great though. Maybe my expectations were set a little too high.

3.25 Stars

We follow Meredith McCall, a psychiatrist who is dealing with the aftermath of a horrific tragedy and in the midst of her grief she stumbles upon the one person who would understand, Gabriel Wright. But while Meredith is drowning, Gabriel seems to be thriving and Meredith is compelled to follow him to understand how it could be possible. So when Gabriel walks into her practice as a patient, well, let’s say things start to get a little ethically gray…

This started off with a bang and I honestly thought I would love it because it hooked me right from the very first page. However, somewhere along the way it began to drag and while I still enjoyed the story, I wasn’t as captivated by it as I was in the beginning. I think what I love about thrillers is that feeling when my breath catches and I worry about what’s going to happen next. Except, the plot here felt really predictable. I didn’t get those anxious butterflies and I didn’t feel the ‘danger’. I’m a little disappointed.

Also, I think I understand the ending and it didn’t really catch me off guard? Idk, maybe I’m missing something (if anyone would like to enlighten me lol), but I don’t feel like it was all that shocking. Kinda expected it. *shrug*

Mer was an interesting MC and I did enjoy following her (for the most part). She was a little annoying though with how naive she was. I mean, she’s a doctor for crying out loud. I expected her to be at least a smidge more analytical or thoughtful rather than what we got. She’s just so willing to let life happen to her - she’s a pushover and constantly second guesses herself. Which I suppose is some of the psychological play in this psychological thriller, but ehh. Otherwise, I thought she was kind of relatable - not the stalking part, but how she handles the rest of her grief and social interactions. She’s kind and compassionate, just a little misguided at times lol.

Overall, I really liked the author’s writing so I’ll definitely try something else by her in the future, and I would recommend this because I did have fun with it, but it just didn’t blow me away.

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Pre-read.
Woke up today and felt like I needed something thrilling to spice up my boring work day. A psychiatrist stalking one of her patients with a hint of romance? Color me intrigued. 👀