The Woman In Cabin 10
Summary: Travel journalist Lo Blacklock has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: to travel the North Sea on the inaugural voyage of the Aurora, a luxury cruise ship. Between the plush cabins, elegant guests, and sparkling dinner parties, Lo’s trip is nothing short of amazing. But as the week progresses, Lo hears what can only be described as a nightmare: a woman in the cabin next to her being thrown overboard. The problem? None of the passengers on deck are missing, so the ship continues sailing as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s increasingly desperate attempts to raise the alarm. [from http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Woman-in-Cabin-10/Ruth-Ware/9781501132933]
Group Reviews/Comments:
8 thumbs up
4 thumbs down
The discussion of this novel was very interesting and although the “thumbs up” were more plentiful than the “thumbs down” almost everyone who did give a thumbs up made some sort of qualifying statement:
- “A little unbelievable, but not awful.”
- “It wasn’t great, but it kept me going.”
- “Liked it, but didn’t love it.”
- I didn’t like it at first, but I liked it more as I read more.”
Most of the group agreed that the writing was excellent, and those that gave the qualified praise mentioned the way the author described the setting was very well done. The description of the ship and the portrayal of the claustrophobia on board were realistic, as was the main character’s inner dialogue as it pertained to the setting.
Lo, the main protagonist, was disliked by pretty much the entire group. One member, from the beginning of the story, was “worried it would be another victim book,” but even if not all in the group agreed with how awful she was, she was clearly a victim of circumstance and her own mental health (or lack of). The inability to be sympathetic with her ranged from mild dislike to wishing she would be the next murder victim. One member said that she “…was the worst character I’ve ever read.” The other characters felt “bland” and it was difficult to identify one from the other. They were just people taking up space to fill out the passenger list on the boat.
Other comments were that the prologue seemed to be “trendy” and the ending highly unrealistic. Many mentioned that the fact that the internet wasn’t working was a poorly done plot point-very unbelievable on a ship as luxurious as it was.
Group members all seemed to like the idea of setting a locked-room mystery on a cruise ship. It felt original, but the ending was trite and could have used a lot more creativity. Plus, there was an extreme flaw with the ending itself –spoiler alert–spoiler alert–spoiler alert–how on earth did Carrie access Anne’s money, since Lo had all of Anne’s ID when she left the boat?
In addition, the escape scenes at the end felt very unbelievable. Group members who didn’t like the book at all mentioned how the introduction to Lo, the burglary scene, was completely unnecessary and that the 1st and last parts didn’t make sense at all. Perhaps, we posited, it would have been a better book if the author had concentrated on the scenes in the boat.
And yet—all agreed that Ruth Ware was a good writer, and no one put the book down without finishing it!
