Book review: RETRIBUTION by Jilliane Hoffman

Note: This review is taken from the GoodReads spoilerific version and stripped of spoilers, for public consumption.

It took me 7 and a bit days to finish this crime/thriller/whatever you wanna call it, which generally speaking for me is quite quick (I'm a slow reader). This book was not only easily consumed but, at times, hard to put down. Not only were we watching the present-day story of grisly murder play out, but we were also seeing main character C.J.'s own personal story unfold (or at least we were waiting to see what lay in her future as a result of her traumatic past). The two stories were, after all, intertwined.

RETRIBUTION was Jilliane Hoffman's debut novel, and I think she did a really good job. The psycho characters were maybe a little bit two dimensional - super crazy and scary, for sure, but with no apparent reason for being so. Being given no explanatory background for either character, I find that I'm still curious about how they turned out like they did. But then, some people are just born a certain way, right? Twisted, scary and basically nuts.

In general, I tended to have pretty strong feelings about Hoffman's characters - some of them I hated with a great passion, some I wanted to slap, and others I was cheering on with enthusiasm. As for main character C.J., I found myself at some moments saying, "Yeah, you go girl!" and at others muttering incredulously, "OMG, what are you doing? No! Stop!" And I guess that's how I like it. A tormented, imperfect main character makes things lots more interesting.

I gave this book 4/5 stars at GoodReads, 'cause while it's not a sheer mind-blowing 5, I didn't really have anything to criticise it for. And on the GoodReads note, I still haven't really figured out a proper rating system. Someday, I'll get there. ;)




In other news, it's Sunday, and so time for a Sunday Session in which I share with you the song I've been listening to the most in the last week! I received the new Silversun Pickups album in the mail early in the week, and have been listening ever since. Early impressions are it's a gorgeous album full of great wonders, but the song I've listened to most so far is the following:






I'm eagerly awaiting a video clip to see what these guys have done! Meanwhile, I'll mention that the song is about a friend of Brian Aubert's who had a horrible childhood but has overcome it and is prospering now. I think that's just awesome, and so is this band. Can't wait to see them live in concert again! Last time they put on a show that was one of my favourites of all time.