Hello Bookish Buddies, and welcome to my review of The Town Built on Sorrow by David Oppegaard. Umm…I believe the review speaks for itself. Let’s get into it. For those of you who are curious about the very inaccurate and misleading synopsis, here it is:
Welcome to the strange mountain foothills town of Hawthorn, where sixteen-year-old Harper Spurling finds herself increasingly obsessed with the diary of a local 1860s pioneer girl while a serial killer runs unchecked through the area, dumping his victims into the town’s dark river. As Harper’s curiosity leads her closer and closer to the killer, she’ll have to think fast or join the killer’s growing list of victims. Because in Hawthorn, a town built on sorrow, the barrier between life and death is as fragile as an old, forgotten skull.
*Disclaimer* This review is in no way meant to disrespect the author or anyone that worked on this book. These are merely my honest opinions.
My synopsis: Welcome to the small town of Hawthorn, which is boring and empty except for one serial killer. Meanwhile, sixteen year old Harper Spurling gets really obsessed with her history homework (completely unrealistic, being a student myself). Somehow, Harper’s obsession with her history homework causes her to run into the serial killer and look past obvious red flags that foreshadow he is the serial killer. Apparently this works on the rest of the town too, because in Hawthorn, logic, forensic evidence and a competent police department are non existent.
What I liked:- One star because I read through the whole thing. I didn’t like the story or the characters, I just wanted to know what happened. I guess that’s a plus because it made me read the whole thing.
- 1/4 of a star for Harper in the end. She was kinda badass. That’s all I’m going to say, because spoilers.
The rest of the book.
- Minus one star because the book is written to give you a sense of sympathy for Olav, the serial killer, who’s point of view we also follow. Seriously, he is one messed up evil guy, but the story is still told half from his point of view like we’re supposed to care about his well being or something.
- Minus another star because Olav is just that messed up. Like I can’t even begin to tell you. In the beginning of the book, he finds this old lady in the park crying, picks up a boulder, hits her over the head with it, pees on her barely conscious face, and then throws her in the river to drown. This made me feel so icky.
- Minus another star because of the ruined mystery. A lot of this is going to be about Olav. Because we follow Olav’s train of thought, the mystery is completely ruined for us, so we all basically know what happens. Well, I guess there is another mystery in the historical flashbacks, but those were pretty boring.
- Finally, minus 3/4 of a star for Harper. She was uninteresting, I felt no emotional connection to her, etc. I feel like reading from the river’s point of view would have been more interesting.
