Review: You Can't See Me

You Can't See Me by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding down, instead of up, because I have read so many other books that use the same tropes that this book did, and I am just getting tired of them--but of course that is a personal preference.
This book didn't blow me away, but I still enjoyed reading it, despite some flaws.
This is the story of an extremely wealthy Icelandic family who spend a weekend at an exclusive hotel. Family secrets come to light as deep dysfunction is revealed, and it becomes glaringly apparent that while this family looks perfect from the outside, those on the inside are painfully far from perfect. And someone will not survive the weekend.
This is another one of those stories told from several different points of view. Sometimes in books this helps to show insight into characters' actions and motivations, but sometimes it can get a bit boring. Especially when there is not a whole lot of real action going on, but instead a whole lot of introspection and remembering the past. While I have read books in the past that relied way too much on revealing backstory though internal dialogue, this one wasn't too bad--but more action and less page after page of individual mental self-flagellation and dwelling on personal faults and flaws would have added to a sense of tension and suspense. As it was the book had an overall tone of oppressive heavy despondency and hopelessness (which may have been what the author was going for).
I also am a bit tired of reading books in which the characters are constantly "self-medicating" with pills, alcohol, and drugs. It makes it hard for the reader to feel any sympathy toward them when they are always saying how they feel high/drunk/zoned-out but yet keep taking drinks and popping pills. This also added to my inability to really like any of the characters at all, other than Lea.
I did guess the "shocking twist" VERY early on, so that leant no suspense to that aspect of the story. The other "twist" about what happened in the past of several of the characters was pretty easy to guess as well. So there were no gasping "aha!" moments for me while reading the book.
My other issue is that there were a couple of plot holes that I would have liked to have seen resolved in a more concrete manner. There were definitely some people in this story who did some questionable things, and I would have like to have seen them "punished" or receive their comeuppance, so to speak. But that is my personal feeling.
All in all, despite the things I have mentioned, I did enjoy this atmospheric psychological mystery. I finished it quickly.

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