Dull. Boring. Tedious. depressing.
359009
Started out ok, first couple chapters,  but the part about jack and Libby was WAY TOO LONG and needlessly repetitive. Two or three chapters would have been more. than. enough. about. them. I could not, would not recommend this to anyone. Ever.
4693174
Intensely boring, pathologically boring, stultifyingly boring...This book is like reading the daily Facebook comments of someone you're sorry you friended who has to describe every mundane activity of her life. Maybe it's meant to be that way for those who love to read about a fantasy world where everyone gets along, romance has no sparkle and there is almnost no action. This doesn't ressemble any family or relationship dynamics I've ever experienced. Spoiler alert: actually I can't call it that because there are no spoilers in this book. But anyway, even the supposed drama of the estranged mother returrning to hit up her daughter for cash carries no major call for mayhem or even therapy. Everyone is so nice to the character involved that ruffled feathers are quickly smoothed. Give me a break! So why did I select this book and even more pertinently, why did I finish it? I moved near the author where she is a local celeb. To fit in to my new surroundings, I read the first book in this series which was only marginally less boring than the second. Then I went to her store for a book signing and had to present one of her gems for a signature. Logically, I picked the next in line, figuring maybe the trilogy improved as it moved along. I finished the book with the cognitive dissonance that such a famous author could write something so amazingly bad. I am not even tempted to read the final book.
1258479
Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, ZZZZZzzzzzz
1316208
ugh. boring, cardboard characters, no romance, tedious mystery and some half-hearted Christianity thrown in to make it a full-blown waste of time.
4538018
Boring, boring, boring. I couldn't finish it. Way too long, way too much unnecessary detail. I really don't get all the great reviews.
777064
Dull and very tedious. After 100 pages nothing had happen other than me falling asleep. A thriller, well if this is thrilling I sooner watch paint dry. If you happen to be an insomniac don't bother with sleeping pills just read a couple of pages. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
1008958
Tedious, boring, and worst of all Gabaldon effectively killed the wonderful romance between Jamie and Claire. I waited so long for this, and the wait was not worth it, not in the slightest. I am so disappointed.
3725205
So boring.  Kept waiting for something to happen.  Never did.
3195435
I couldn't finish it.  REALLY boring.  Like going through a boring person's day, minute by minute.  Who cares?  I lost interest completely when the main character took a job working for a game playing bully.  Sorry, but between him and the housekeeper taking that idiot's abuse, well, I mean who takes a job where he/she is called names and treated like garbage day after day? And who follows instructions from a person like that and actually does what they're told?  Pathetic.  Dull and rambling, it just goes on and on and on.  I would have liked the book if the hateful person was left completely alone in his apartment with only a phone to call for help.  I didn't respect any of the characters and thought they needed help of some kind, in order to become real people in charge of their own lives.  Blah.  I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.  The only good thing about it:  nice cover and love the deckled edges, here and there.
417196
This book was a huge disappointment. The only thing positive about it was that it helped me fall asleep. Incredibly wordy and redundant. The characters are boring and not very believable. Full of contradictions, such as, the family supposedly goes broke defending the son, even so much as using the equity in their home, yet, they can afford a two week trip to the Bahamas? Hmmm. Dialog is drawn out way too long and not very believable. Why the author felt the need to subject the readers to routine attorney courtroom questions, like, How long have you known the defendant? (which we already know the answer to)is beyond me. Don't waste your time with this book, as I did.
3256964
Oh my God, what a boring, bland book!  I'm a sucker for the whole dystopian, post-apocalyptic, with shades of horror trope.  This however, just was not interesting in the slightest and it moves along at a sluggish pace.  It was so repetitive and I didn't care one whit for the characters, which tends to be the book of death for me.  If I don't care or like the characters, then why am I going to care whether or not they get off some island?  Newsflash: I didn't.  I say, skip it.
2954773
Tedious "plot." Caricatures instead of protagonists/well-drawn characters.  There is little enjoyment in this read... and no voluntary suspension of disbelief.  Rather than being captivated and engrossed, a reasonable person trying to slog their way through this first (and hopefully last) edition may prudently choose to stop reading before reaching the welcomed end to this volume.  I was intrepid and  more than fair. Having endured 309 pages of the "plot," the caricature protagonists, itemizations of food prepared/ordered/ provided/ingested, I am trying to spare would-be potential readers.  Save your time. This "Bibliophile Mystery" is literally for the birds.
3371855
Boring, boring, boring.  Trite, too many chapters, not enough character development, a predictable ending.  I stuck with it because I like to finish what I start, but, oh, I was tempted to toss it many times.
4176441
Silly nonsense. Tedious. Painful to watch, constantly thinking that something's going to happen to hold your interest, and it never does get any better.
1176572
I did my best to finish this book, but I found it tedious and unenjoyable.  The plot is thin and it develops too slowly. The action scenes are poorly paced, completely unexciting to read.  Most of the verbiage focuses on long exposition about the thoughts of the book's many (way too many) main characters.
The story viewpoint shifts from character to character, but not in a logical, episodic way, like in the Lord of the Rings switching from Frodo to Aragorn when each is at a stopping point.  Instead it's stream of consciousness:  1) a good guy thinks about a bad guy 2) we see what the bad guy is thinking about for while, then the bad guy thinks about his henchman, 3) then we see the henchman and he thinks about his girlfriend ... etc for 800 pages.
Next time: less telling and thinking, more showing and doing.
4867996
Tedious.  Boring.  Unlikeable characters.  Part I is a cliche - a variation on a dream ruse, a cheap trick.  The author should have followed Elmore Leonard's advice and deleted those parts readers will skip.  It would have made a nice short story.  If you really must read this book, just read the first couple chapters in Part I (if you can stay awake), a middle couple in Part II, and then read Part III.  It's like a soap opera, you don't miss much by watching a couple of times a year.  One other irritant - the sister's name.  Go.  Annoying to have to repeat in your head.
3906689
I picked this up at the bookstore while in search of something interesting to read and I figured that the Booker Prize emblem was a good sign.

I was disappointed to find it a rather dull and tedious book to read, but because I can't just leave a book unfinished, I read it through.

In all honesty, I was already bored with it by the second chapter. While the author made attempts for an unreliable narrator, she falls flat with Veronica. Everything seems repetitive  and random, to the point where the main character seems like she doesn't even care about the story she's telling.

Another thing would be the disjointed jumping of the story line, back and forth through the past and future. That coupled with an overuse of imagery leaves one with a headache.

Finally, there are the characters. While I'm usually a fan of the sprawling family saga, there was absolutely no character development here. I couldn't really distinguish any of the Hegarty siblings from each other and they certainly didn't interact the way you'd expect a family like that to (regardless of how dysfunctional). It was like they were just going through the motions.

In fact, the only two characters I felt any empathy for was Liam (who died before the main plot even began) and the little boy at the end (who barely even said a word).