Kingdom of Readers

When I came across this title, I was truly excited to see that Flowers was writing another book. I really enjoyed her debut novel, All Good People Here, and have listened to her podcasts, like Crime Junkie and Supernatural, for years. However, reading through The Missing Half, I was a little disappointed. Let’s get into it.

Pros:

The story starts with a strong hook that piques your interest and eventually ties back into the ending, making everything come full circle, which I really enjoyed. Additionally, the ending had a twist within a twist that I didn’t expect, which was the highlight of the whole story. The surprise element added a lot to the experience.

Beyond the plot, which had a solid foundation, Flowers did a great job at making you dislike the right characters—something that is always important in a suspense novel.

Cons:

I found that, although the premise was interesting, I wasn’t itching to get back to it. I would read it if I was bored, but I wasn’t excited to return and uncover what happened next. I attribute a lot of this to the writing style, which I will get into soon.

The suspense, though good, didn’t really pick up until around chapter 36 or 37, which felt too late in the book. With only two scenes before chapter 37 making me go “OMG,” I felt like there was something missing.

Additionally, there were valiant attempts at misdirection throughout the novel, but at times, it felt like Flowers was trying too hard to lead us in the wrong direction. The misdirection was overkill in some places, though, fortunately, the twist at the end was still effective.

Some more personal cons…

The alcoholism subplot didn’t really fit for me. Nic is an alcoholic, and I think Flowers included that to help tie the story together, but I don’t think it was necessary to make her entire character revolve around it. Especially considering that her mother is also an alcoholic, it felt like there should have been a moment where Nic truly comes to terms with it. There is a brief scene of her pouring wine down the drain, but since she had already tried to stop drinking a couple of times throughout the story, it didn’t feel like a final resolution to that part of her narrative.

Additionally, there were a couple of scenes throughout the book that didn’t add much to the story. They felt unnecessary and drawn out—clear attempts at adding depth, but unfortunately, they just didn’t land effectively.

Speaking of the writing…

Going back to Flowers’ debut novel, I listened to All Good People Here on audio, and I think if I had done the same with this book, it would have improved my overall experience immensely.

However, when you’re physically reading a book (rather than listening to it), you naturally pay more attention to the writing itself, and honestly, I had some qualms about the writing in this story. Here are some things I noticed:

• There are quite a few run-on sentences structured like “this and this and this” instead of “this, this, and this,” which affects the book’s flow.
• Some of the tenses are inconsistent, and there were several awkward sentences or missing words that took me out of the reading experience.
• Formatting issues (maybe just personal preference) with the text messages in the story— the font wasn’t distinct enough from the rest of the text, making it difficult to differentiate when a character was reading a message versus when they were simply narrating.
• The writing overall felt a bit elementary and stilted in places.

Since I received an uncorrected proof through NetGalley, I do believe that post-corrections, this book will shine a bit brighter. However, as it stands, there were still quite a few things that needed fixing to improve readability.

Final Thoughts:

Through it all, I did enjoy the story and really liked the ending. The Missing Half had strong elements that made the highs really high and the weak elements that made the lows really low. It didn’t fully deliver on the suspense or writing quality I had hoped for, but again, I am attributing this largely to the fact that I read the uncorrected proof version.

Focusing just on the story itself, with further editing, this book has the potential to improve significantly.

As it stands, disregarding the glaring writing mishaps, I would rate this a 3/5. I’m taking off a star because I wasn’t eager to get back to it the entire time, and another for the elementary writing style, which I don’t think will be fully resolved even after final edits.

It’s a good story, and it is entertaining with a great ending—just nothing groundbreaking or especially memorable.