Book Review: The Weekend by T. M. Logan

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While on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, a group of six friends find a backpack containing more money than they've ever seen. But when the group becomes split on deciding whether to hand the money in to the police, long-held secrets are exposed, and the friends discover that they don't know each other as well as they thought they did.

T.M. Logan is my favourite author, so his books are always pre-ordered as soon as a new one is announced, and this one was no different.

Unfortunately I didn't love this one as much as some of Logan's other novels.

I did like that it got right into the story. Everything started really quickly, the money was found before we even knew who most of the characters were, which worked in its favour because the story was a lot more interesting than the characters themselves.

From the beginning, I was intrigued to see how it would end, but again that was more about the story than the characters.

It moved quite slowly after the initial excitement of finding the money, but this time was spent allowing us to get to know the characters so it made sense. Unfortunately knowing them better didn't help me actually like or empathise with them.

The story as a whole isn't as original as I'd hoped. It goes the way you think it will when you first read the blurb. It doesn't go in any crazy or unexpected places, and even when hidden things are revealed, the reaction is more 'okay' than 'wow, okay'.

That said, it does get more exciting as we get closer to the conclusion. Tension is created really well, and as always with Logan's books, the writing is great. His stories are always very easy to read and get into.

Though there were some odd writing choices, in particular constantly reminding the reader of each person's relationship with Helen (our main character). There are many instances of 'my brother, my husband, my best friend, my sister-in-law' in place of names and it starts to feel repetitive.

The reveals and explanations feel quite weak, and not fully explored. There are twists thrown in at the end that don't have enough in the rest of the story to back them up. I really wanted the twists to push the envelope more, to make you want to re-read to see all the clues, but they all fell a bit flat.

So overall, while I didn't love this story, it was well written and had some really great ideas that just weren't pushed as far as they needed to be.

2.5/5




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