When Alex is looking for a close-knit community to base her new film around she receives a postcard to suggest Blackwood Bay. However, Alex has a sordid past with the village that not even she fully realises…

Around 10 years ago when it first came out, Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson was one of my favourite books. I was therefore very happy to receive the ARC of Final Cut, the new thriller by the same author. It seems that unreliable narrators and memory issues really do run in the author’s repertoire and are in full force in this novel.

Final Cut is a very twisty thriller that fully takes advantage of the unreliable narrator technique. Alex knows that she has a connection with the place she is visiting and tries to find out more about it, along with information about 3 girls who disappeared 10 years ago. I did think there was a little suspension of disbelief with the plot, particularly as to why some people recognised her instantly and some not at all and also why the whole village seemed so hung up about something that happened so long ago. I did like the idea of using small videos uploaded to a website which made for a sinister aspect. However, at an important plot point someone instantly uploads something to the website which is not true to life and seemed to be a too convenient plot device – has the author ever tried to upload a video to something like Dropbox? It takes hours and if it’s stopped at any point it will be cancelled!

Alex is difficult to sympathise with because she is so unreliable and the plot forces her to be vague and confusing at times. I felt that the novel dragged on a lot in places with not enough new information to drive it through. I found it hard to care about the mystery of what was happening to the girls in the present and instead was more focused on the past mystery which I had already guessed the twist to very early on. I do also think that a lot of the plot could have been resolved if the characters had actually spoken to each other or told someone what was going on. There seemed to be an awful lot of conversations that ended with a frustrating ‘I can’t tell you’ which made them feel a bit pointless.

Overall, Final Cut felt frustrating at times with an over-reliance on convenient plot devices which made the plot feel unrealistic. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers & Doubleday for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is not the way I wanted my 2021 book reviews to begin. I am devastated. I thought picking up a book by a known to me author, who I have really enjoyed previously, was a safe bet.
But noooooo.
This book was dull. I got about 60% through and felt like things were being repeated over and over and over again. The book was dialogue heavy. And I felt like the explanations were flimsy and fairly unbelievable. And the final chapter is basically a villain monologue which I hate.

But I loved the premise, the whole idea is interesting and I want to read more books set in Yorkshire, more thrillers about missing people and more books about film making. It just didn’t do it for me.

Before I Go To Sleep is perhaps one of my all time favourite thrillers, and so I was really excited to see another book by Watson, and requested it immediately. However, due to having a serious overload of books, it ended up languishing on my Kindle for several months, as I'd completely forgotten I'd been accepted for it. However, when I started reading it, I almost wished I hadn't bothered...

I hate to sound mean, but I really didn't like it. It's just so repetitive and there's so many questions being asked over and over and never being answered but instead just leading to more questions which will also not be answered. I assume it's meant to build tension, but it really just felt incredibly annoying. Everything also felt very forced - there wasn't really a good sense of flow, and everything was very much A has to happen for us to get to B... if I'm honest, you could almost see a flowchart planning out where the plot was going to go.

I'm so disappointed, as like I said, I loved his previous work. But this just didn't work for me at all, and I found it so frustratingly plotted and poorly written that I honestly wouldn't bother reading it.

Disclaimer - I was fortunate enough to be provided with an advance reading copy of this book by NetGalley. This has not affected my review in any way, and all opinions are my own.

I didn't really rare this book. The blurb didn’t grab my attention and nor did the story. A little bland and unoriginal for me.

I was so excited to get this to read and review as I enjoyed Before I Go To Sleep, even if it didn’t blow me away, hoping that Final Cut would be a huge improvement. I’ve not read Second Life yet, which I will do.

Unfortunately, this was still a little disappointing... this is a book that I enjoyed to a certain extent, but again it didn’t blow me away.

I didn’t gel with any of the characters and it wasn’t pacy enough for me. A decent plot, I guessed the twist at the end quite early on and I found myself skimming a lot to rush through some of the pages to get through it.

It was quite a complex story and it’s all over the place, quite slow and long winded; I found some of the context doubtful.

It is quite dark as the whole plot is about child abuse and drugs, which I must point out isn’t graphic, however Watson gets across how easy it is to manipulate young girls into doing things they don’t want to do.

This book is about memory loss, dissociative amnesia, owing to personal traumatic experiences which Watson covers well, the girl, Alex, does good in the end and produced an award winning documentary.

Who sent the postcard about Blackwood Bay?

Three girls have disappeared and Alex the key character goes back to Blackwood Bay to make a film about the town, something she didn’t want to do but didn’t really have a choice. Her agent not appreciating that she had a dark past and was from Blackwood Bay, a town with a quite troubling history.

I don’t want to go into too much detail, I’m sure some will enjoy this and indeed it has some very positive 5* reviews it just wasn’t dynamic and hard hitting enough for me.

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Random House UK for this ARC provided in exchange for this unbiased review.

Ohh this book gave me a headache reading it; I started it months ago and read about 10% of it... promptly gave up because I did not enjoy it, and now i'm taking part in a NetGalley challenge over on Instagram and so I thought this would be the first book that I tackled.

I absolutely loved Before I Go To Sleep and so was really looking forward to reading this one, but it just didn't stand up for me. The book was honestly so jumbled throughout and it was really hard to keep track of the overall events. I am not a fan of books with unreliable narrators, and our MC is most definitely an unreliable narrator and doesn't seem to know whether she's coming or going.

It's pitched as a thriller but there isn't one bit of the book that I found to be thrilling; there are numerous plot twists in the book and I guessed pretty much all of them. They felt like they'd just been laid right out in front of us and there was no "twists" for me as I would have hoped. It never felt suspenseful and I just struggled to get hooked in.

I also find it very hard to believe that most of the people in this town didn't know what was going on to the young girls; young girls who are repeatedly described as promiscuous despite being like 13/14 years old. Also Monica... like hell she didn't know what was going on!!!!

I definitely think this book could have been a lot shorter because it felt so repetitive at times. Sadly not one for me but thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy!

Had high expectations, having read Before I Go To Sleep and wasn't disappointed. Loved the layers to the story, told with effortless ease. What an amazing setting in Blackwood bay too - that insular small town tension is so atmospheric. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. I found it difficult to follow at times and there were quite a few characters, that I needed to reread paragraphs to get the story straight in my head.

Thank you for the opportunity.

The book started fine with a documentary shooting, an amnesic main characters and suspense in the village. then it started to lose its steam and meandered through the midway, and I began to lose interest in it too.
I skim read parts of it to get to the end.
An okay read

EXCERPT: I lay on the bed staring at the ceiling, my open phone heavy in my hand. I'd found only one number in the memory. It seemed simple. If I wanted to find out who I was, all I had to do was dial it. So why couldn't I do it?

ABOUT THIS BOOK: For generations Blackwood Bay, a quaint village in northern England, has been famous only for the smuggling that occurred along its coastline centuries ago, but then two local girls disappear bringing the town a fresh and dark notoriety. When Alex, an ambitious documentary filmmaker, arrives in Blackwood Bay, she intends to have the residents record their own stories as her next project. But instead of a quaint community, Alex finds a village blighted by economic downturn and haunted by a tragedy that overshadows every corner.

Alex pushes on with her work, but secrets old and new rise to the surface, raising tensions and suspicions in a town already on edge. Alex’s work takes her to dark places and uncomfortable truths which threaten to lead to a deadly unravelling.

MY THOUGHTS: I loved Second Life by S.J. Watson, it earned a glorious five stars from me. But Final Cut? I struggled to finish it. Had I been given this book with no previous experience of the author, I would have said that it was a debut novel, and not a very good one at that.

There is a lot of dialogue, far too much, and far too many questions, endless. These two things killed what little suspense there was for me. And there was very little of that. Occasional flashes of brilliance shine through - like the grave on the moors. I got excited at that point, certain that all was going to come right and that this was going to be the great read I had been expecting. That didn't happen. Instead, the storyline seemed to get bogged down in itself and I lost interest. I even thought about not finishing it, but read on in the hope that my faith in this author would be justified.

There is nothing new in this plot. We have a young woman with amnesia, drawn back to her home town. Missing teenage girls - of whom 'Alex' is one. But no one recognizes her (there's a reason for that which just didn't gel for me), and she doesn't seem to recognize many people in the village either. Her mother is conveniently no longer living there. And no mention is made of people she may have gone to school with . . . So, we have an unreliable narrator, a mysterious man living in an isolated house, an abandoned caravan, three missing girls, and strange behaviour by the villagers. It sounds enticing, doesn't it? Like it should be a good suspenseful mystery. But it's not. It flounders.

And it has one of those endings that I just hate - where all is 'explained' in a conversation, this one between 'Alex' and her psychiatrist.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

#FinalCut #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: S.J. Watson was born in the UK, lives in London, and worked in the NHS for several years.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Random House, Transworld Publishers via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Final Cut by S.J. Watson for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. A lot of other readers love this book. Reading is a very personal subjective experience, and not every book is for every reader. So, if you enjoyed the extract, and the plot summary interests you, please do read Final Cut by S.J. Watson. I hope that you are one of the many who love this book.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram, and my webpage

Final Cut is full of mystery and suspense from the first page. Missing girls, a hitchhiker, a woman found with no memory of who she is. And when filmmaker Alex Young feels compelled to go to Blackwood Bay to make her new film, it’s clear there is a lot more going on than people think (or deny). As I read this book there were lots of “wow” moments when a plot twist took me by surprise, and I loved the vivid portrayal of the settings including a dingy underworld. Final Cut kept me guessing until the end as I didn’t know who to trust. The plot was so gripping I did find it a bit hard to slow down in the final few chapters as there is so much packed in at the end of the book.

Highly enjoyable thriller.

Thank you to Netgally for the Arc.

So I felt a bit hit and miss with this author. I loved Before I go to sleep it's one of my favourite books ever, the second book Second life, not so much.

I thought I'd give this a go, as it sounded along the same lines as Before I go to sleep, it filled me with promise.

It didn't fulfill those promises. I actually lost count how many questions are asked in this book. I think every other scripted part is a question. There are never any answers. I think he was trying to build up the suspense and mystery, and I felt it was just dragged out with these constant questions, I just got fed up. It felt like they were trying too hard to make it mysterious.
The ending was predictable. I'd already guessed towards the beginning. I'm glad it's over. It was a try hard that fell flat.

I think maybe if you haven't read this author before you might enjoy it with fresh eyes. It just wasn't for me.

The book opens with a confused tumbling of limbs, places, people and events. This confusion continues right through to the end.

A young woman has a new identity but she's not sure why. She goes back to a small place she has been to before, to make a film. The film is fragmented pieces that coincide with half-truths and stories, bits of memories. There are suspicions, rumours and things that don't quite add up. Something has gone on and maybe still is going on - but what is it and why is everyone afraid?

The story is told in the first person but in two timelines: then and now. It is a dark and atmospheric tale that looks at identity, memory, abandonment, mistrust and belonging, as well as community and the collective effect of trauma. There are red herring characters as well as the parochial shutting out of outsiders, like those in folklore horror stories.

An intense read with the repetitive thoughts of confusion and doubt, sometimes seeming as if it is overdone. But in the end it is probably just right. Recommended for those who enjoy dark psychological fiction.

A twisting tale expertly told as a small town turns itself inside out when suddenly under the microscope. Highly recommended.

The Final Cut is a psychological thriller that set off at a roaring pace but slowed right down for the most part before ramping up mags in for the last quarter.
Alex Young is a documentary film maker, she doesn’t want to be here but she has to be as this is kind of the last chance saloon where her job is concerned. Blackwood Bay is a small, very quiet fishing village but has had more than it’s fair share in sadness as two young girls have gone missing and one having committed suicide. Alex has suffered from a traumatic past and has left her with disassociate amnesia and while on this job in Blackwater Bay is determined to get to the bottom of it.
This was a good read it was just slow in the middle and didn’t really urge me to pick it up and read it. The storyline is set on two timelines that does work on this occasion and let’s you get deeper into the story.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

A great thriller from the author of “before I go to sleep” gritty and fast paced.

Alex is a film maker, and is commissioned to make a film about Blackwood Bay, her home town and somewhere she hasn’t returned to in many years, Blackwood Bay is a place that has secrets, tragedies and memories that Alex had long since locked away.

Simply brilliant

A young documentary filmmaker travels to a quiet fishing village to shoot a new film, only to encounter a dark mystery surrounding the disappearance of a local girl. For generations the northern English village of Blackwood Bay has been famous only for the smuggling that occurred along its coastline centuries ago. When two local girls disappear, it brings fresh and dark notoriety to the area. When Alex arrives in Blackwood Bay, all of her intentions go awry and she finds a village blighted by economic downturn and haunted by tragedy. As Alex forges on with her work, secrets surface, raising tensions and suspicions. Alex's assignment leads her to dark places that could result in deadly revelations.

In Final Cut themes of memory and identity are explored. In a seamlessly moving narrative between past and present day, the reader is regaled with a wonderfully oppressive slow-burn thriller. Amongst the lies, skeletons in closets, concealed truths and local gossips, lurks affable though mysterious protagonist, Alex. S.J. Watson's descriptions of Blackwood Bay are brilliantly atmospheric, and I don't think I will be adding it to my list of places to visit! A captivating, and very highly recommended, intense psychological thriller.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Doubleday via NetGalley, and this review is my unbiased opinion.

What sounded like an interesting plot quickly turned out to be unrealistic and filled with obvious attempts at fooling the reader. Lots of different characters, flipping between "then" and "now", characters hiding in shadows and slinking around in the darkness, characters advising Alex not to trust others... it was all just like a poor thriller movie for me. I guessed the major twist fairly early on and found the rest of the book to be frustratingly over-complicated and not particularly well written. I didn't find it at all believable that a stranger could go to a small village, start filming the locals and asking questions like she asks and the locals not be upset, offended or annoyed! Alex's character had no right to ask the questions she was asking, to visit the people she visited but she was practically welcomed in and given all the information she was asking for. This didn't feel remotely believable to me and I was increasingly annoyed by it.

Final Cut was not a book I enjoyed unfortunately. I was intrigued as to how it would finish but really just wanted it to be over. The ending felt like the author was trying for a movie-worthy ending but for me it was just over the top.

Thank you to NetGalley, S. J. Watson and Random House UK for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a great fan of this author since his debut "Before I Go To Sleep"
His books I find very cleverly written....
Intriguing for sure....
I feel I wait with baited breath for a new one to come out from him. He does guarantee you a dark, disturbing read...
Final Cut is no different....
We meet his character Alex in this one.
Alex is a filmmaker, documentaries more so..
She returns to her hometown of Blackwood Bay...
Having left it previously and not too keen on ever returning, she has an idea to film village life through videos and its occupants interacting, their daily life....
She is not met with much enthusiasm however.....
Being from village life myself, I can understand the closeness of people and why they might not want someone coming in raking over past events and happenings...
I guess it can upset people to a degree...
I did find this one quite an atmospheric read...
SJ Watson spends much time on his descriptions, painting a picture of town life you want to be part of.....
It has changed though, suffered badly....
What has happened one wonders and what has it to do with missing girls..
I loved how it was told, a now and then way giving the reader great insight into the story and the build up to it..
Actually this is one of my favourite ways a book tells it's story...
If you haven't read this authors books yet, you are in for a treat...
Make time to put him on your list, you won't regret it....

The Final Cut is an intriguing and compelling read which had me gripped from the first page. It’s going to be a hard book to review as I don’t want to give anything away.

The story is told in two parts; the now one follows Alex as she attempts to make a film at a northern sea side town while trying to solve the mystery of two girls who vanished there. The Then part of the story follows a mysterious girl who is found with minor injuries but suffering from memory loss. Both storylines were very interesting and I enjoyed watching them develop especially as I didn’t have a favourite which was unusual for me. It was interesting to see how the two stories fit together and to discover more about what had been going on.

Alex was a very interesting main character, especially as I wasn’t sure if I liked or trusted her. I did feel a lot of sympathy towards all the hardships she had experienced in her life but she seemed to be keeping a lot of secrets from everyone which made me unsure of her motives. I went between feeling irritated with her and her attitude to wanting to give her the hug I felt she needed.

I thought this story was quite fast paced with lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. There was an fantastic feeling of menace and unease hanging over the story which was very intriguing and made me want to keep reading as I really wanted to know what was going to happen. The ending was absolutely brilliant as it was completely unexpected, shocking and totally original.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Transworld for my copy of this book via Netgalley.