Michelle

The Hypnotist started with an interesting, explosive plot. It captured my attention right away. Bestiality murders, mutilated murders, annihilation of a whole family, it was a hallmark of a thrilling read, in my humble opinion. And the, the plot got more chilling as it was revealed the only survivor of the massacres might have well been the very perpetrator! I was immediately hooked.

So…

Why then, did I rate this book one star?

After the initial excitement, the plot made a turn to a whole different direction. The serial killer which had captured my attention got sidetracked by a child’s kidnapping case and a stupid family drama. Oh, in fact, this book consisted *)% of endless, dumb family drama between Erik, his wife—Simone, and sometimes, their son—Benjamin.
I found Erik to be spineless and pathetic. At first, I thought he was someone gentle and just didn’t want any drama, but as the story went on, it became clear what a sorry ass he was. He loved his wife, but didn’t do anything about proving himself to her or even tried to explain her suspicions on him away. He just let it all be, acted oblivious and confused, and relied on his pills. Even remembering it all now, I wanted to kick him in the ass!

Worst of all was Simone. She was…my goodness, the most annoying character I’ve read in a while, besides Erik. (See, this two deserved each other) Simone was selfish, whiny and overall a bitch. She blamed everything on her husband—not that he didn’t deserve some of it—, never trusted him after he had an one night stand ten years ago, AND then proceeded to sleep with an artist she worked with while her son was missing. I supposed we were to see that as her way to cope with the stress but I called that utter BS!

There were lots of gaps in the plot and unnecessary fillers that didn’t have any discernible meaning to the overall story—side-eyeing the pokemon plot. I also disliked the use of flashback in the book. I’m not against flashback, but the author had bad timing. There were some instances when interesting events were about to occur and we were suddenly detoured back in time. Like, WTF!

The only thing that kept me going was the serial killer subplot. It was tragic and I still could not comprehend why it was only a mere subplot.. hmm