Catherine (alternativelytitledbooks) - why is GR broken? -_-'s Reviews > Rock Paper Scissors

Stunning. Crafty. Compelling. Shocking. STELLAR.

When you double the C and triple the S, you’ll always have success-and Alice Feeney has found it yet again!

Adam and Amelia have hit a wall in their relationship. Years of marriage have worn on them both, in differing ways. Adam battles prosopagnosia, a condition that makes it so he cannot recognize faces but this is the least of his problems. His wife Amelia is bitter that his career, turning page-turning novels into film adaptations, is all-consuming and leaves his mind swimming in the fantasy world rather than here in ours. Adam has plenty of frustrations of his own, the tiny tics that niggle at him over time and the fact that he never gets to have his own voice wears on him. Amelia has been documenting all of her frustrations for years on the couple’s anniversary, through carefully penned indictments letters where she reflects on the gifts given each anniversary year and their significance. And of course, even the BIGGEST decision can easily be made with a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. 😉

The couple think they’ve struck proverbial gold when they win a weekend getaway at a chapel that has been converted into an AirBnB, in the lovely and mysterious Scottish Highlands. Nothing like a change of scenery without the interference of digital distractions, the pesky pressures of work, and a chance to rediscover the love that brought these two together in the first place. As the snow swirls around them, however, it is clear that someone has more up their sleeve than hopes of reconciliation. But after ten long years of marriage, can they truly keep secrets from one another? Was this night a happy and lucky accident…or the culmination of plotting, planning, and simmering hostility, bubbling under the surface that will leave one member of this duo trapped in this remote locale--which just so happens to have a graveyard on the property--for good? And WHO was that mysterious stranger lurking in the window?

Alice Feeney…is there ANYTHING she can’t do?!

After reading Rock Paper Scissors, the answer is a resounding NO!

From my first foray into Alice’s Wonderland (haha) with Sometimes I Lie, I’ve always been enraptured, enchanted, and completely engrossed by her writing. As most talented writers do, however, she has truly outdone herself with Rock Paper Scissors in SO many ways. The first stark contrast between this book and her previous books? ATMOSPHERE. This book absolutely has it in spades. I’ve never doubted her ability to create worlds that pull me from reality, but where her previous novels were so laser-focused on character development and twists and turns, this book spent a great deal of time building the terrifying and isolating locale of the tiny converted chapel. This added a layer to her already multifaceted narrative, as the chapel and its surroundings became a character in and of itself, full of bumps in the night, creaks, and even a CRYPT! She honestly thought of everything, and this alone raised the stakes and pushed this book into spooky October reading territory, a place I don’t feel she’s truly visited before….but what a wonderful time to do it!

Alice is also the queen of the one-liner: she knows how to pepper her narrative with observations about the good and bad in all of us, how we love, what secrets can do to us, and other mini-philosophizing moments that get stuck in my head long after I put her books down. Some of them didn’t quite fit in this novel as well as in previous books and felt like she looked for a place to plug them in, but others left me pondering hours later. She is one of the few thriller writers I’ve ever encountered who raises the bar in this regard, and as an introspective sort of reader, it just clicks for me. She is the sort of writer who really OBSERVES the world around her and encourages you to do the same, even amidst the pulse-pounding action of her narratives, and nobody does it quite like her!

Unlike her first 3 books, this one has a bit of a different bent. The chapters are not quite as leading as previous books, where the end of every chapter was seemingly a mini-cliffhanger of sorts, and the first almost 50% of the novel moves at a bit of a slower pace, bouncing back and forth between the carefully penned letters that provide backstory and the here-and-now of the chapel. This required a great deal of patience on my part, as I was waiting for that patented Feeney twist (or 3). I honestly was starting to get a bit discouraged by the time I had reached 75% or so that this might be the first book of hers where I was left wanting more.

ENTER THE FIRST TWIST…and everything changed.

Every theory I had? Wrong. Everything you think you’ve figured out? Most likely wrong. Every misgiving or hesitation I had pretty much went out the window at this point…and I LOVED every minute of it!

Feeney’s whip-smart, perfect plotting strikes again…and this went from being a decent and interesting novel to easily one of my favorite thrillers of the year…and possibly even my favorite book of Feeney’s. Having to put this book down from this point on, even for 5 minutes, felt like absolute torture. I COULD NOT wait to reach the end, and this book left me with that warm, buzzy and adrenaline-fueled feeling that only your favorite author can give you. I actually had that after-the-movie moment where you feel disoriented walking outside and looking into the sunlight because you have been so lost and gone in reading that you need to once again orient yourself to the outside world. I also felt that day-after-Christmas letdown sadness, because once again I know I’ll need to wait (im)patiently for Alice’s next book.

Word of the year: master (adjective): having or showing very great skill or proficiency.

Or if you’re looking in MY dictionary, there is simply a picture of Alice Feeney.

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

*This was a wonderful buddy read with my dear friend Melissa which had us tossing back theories left and right! Be sure to check out her fabulous and insightful review!*

This fantastic book is now available in paperback!!