Title: Please Tell Me
Author: Mike Omer
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: December 1st 2023
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Finished reading: December 1st 2023
Pages: 379

“A few minutes later, she walked out the front door, carrying the enormous dollhouse in her arms, a turmoil of vindication and fear in her gut.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

REVIEW

WARNING: it’s unpopular opinion time again!!

Right… I definitely didn’t expect this to happen. I’ve been meaning to try Mike Omer‘s work for a while now, and there was just something about the premise of Please Tell Me that made it impossible to resist. I mean, I can never say no to a serial killer angle… Add Kathy’s trauma and therapy being a key in it all, and I thought that I was up for a fascinating read. Sadly, I ended up being considerably underwhelmed with it all… And I kind of wish I had made the decision to DNF instead. I’ll try to explain briefly why.

I still can’t believe I had this reaction to Please Tell Me to be honest. I was absolutely fascinated by the premise itself, and in theory it ticked all the boxes of what usually would make a successful read for me. Sadly, the complete opposite turned out to be true. The first obstacle was the writing style and tone itself, which I could somehow never completely warm up to. The premise was intriguing enough to overcome this and keep reading, but I was soon struggling with the fact just how surprisingly dull and repetitive the plot itself was. Not something you would expect from this story, and it unsettled me.

One of the main things I struggled with had to do with the main characters though. I didn’t like any of them, and especially Robin could get extremely frustrating. I just don’t get how she can be a therapist when she has so many mental problems and mummy issues herself… She just wasn’t credible to me, and then I’m not even talking about those cringeworthy therapy sessions where she verbally explains every little thing the child is doing. Creepy much? The constant references to her mummy issues and the way she let’s her mother walk all over her got so frustrating that I almost threw my kindle at the wall. She just seemed so immature and again: I just don’t see that someone who can’t even stand up to her mother would be able to be a successful child therapist.

I can’t say that I was a fan of the constant reminder of COVID in Please Tell Me either. I get that the pandemic is something that should be incorporated to make books with a recent setting more realistic… But there is mentioning it and there is constantly referring to it and almost making it political. The constant mentions of social media also got old real fast… And then I’m not even talking about the romance subplot suddenly popping up. Why o why did the romance have to be added at all?! It only distracted from the main plot even more.

I confess that I started skimreading long before the halfway mark, and I’m still not sure why I even continued reading. I guess part of me was still curious to see who was behind it all… And sadly, the reveals didn’t even make up for the struggles for me. Different suspects are constantly thrown at you without too much development or details, and while the first reveal was solid enough (albeit cliche), the last ‘twist’ just didn’t do it for me. I just couldn’t look past the fact that it only seemed to be introduced for the shock-factor, and there was no explanation offered for what motivated the person. It just seemed rather lackluster for what I suppose was ment as an ‘explosive’ ending.

As you can guess, Please Tell Me and me most definitely didn’t get along. I do seem to be in the minority though, as most reviews have been glowing so far… So the chances are you will have a better time reading this story. I’m just adding my two cents in case there are more people out there having violent thoughts about kindles and walls while reading this book.

You can also find me at Goodreads. StoryGraph. Twitter. Instagram. Bloglovin’.