I began reading this book and could not stop and that, for me, is high praise. B. Shapiro has written an intriguing, engaging, and clever novel. The setting is Boston; each chapter is brief and told from the point of view of a different character. You are immediately drawn to the good guys, and fear for their well-being. One of the main characters is writing a doctoral thesis trying to prove that the conditions you happen to be born into very much determine how your life will turn out. The book illustrates this concept and does it well. Shapiro is a really good writer - over and over again she succeeds at creating a scene you can picture; she is stronger at this than with descriptions of interior states.

Metropolis is much much better than most of the "best seller" fiction out there; I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a really good reading moment.

This book is well written and very hard to put down as you are driven to learn what happens to the 10 year old precocious child who is the narrator. I read it in one sitting, although I skimmed at times as it was a bit too wordy. You love the child, want to protect her and desperately want something to go her way. It is hard to say too much about the story without spoiling it. It is terribly sad and at times hair raising, but satisfying in the end. I will say that some aspects are just too extreme to be believable and some issues were never satisfactorily revealed. I would not recommend it to anyone who is grieving or depressed however, as there is quite a mountain to climb in this book before resolution occurs.

I like thrillers, and requested this book for an early review because it is described as a thriller. The author, Christine Mangan, has a PhD is gothic literature and she has written a 21st century gothic novel here which does not thrill, but does have scary, gloomy, "something terrible is about to happen" moments throughout the book. The protagonist, a writer, is a lonely, disturbed, "weak" woman who does not undergo any arc of transformation, nor find any hero to rescue her. The writing is good but the plot is not strong enough and the story does not ever lift out of the gloom. It wallows for far too long. As you can tell this book is not my cup of tea, but fulfills its intention and will please those who like the endless twists and turns of gothic mystery and despair.

In The Survivors, Jane Harper has written a character who is a successful and popular writer. It is said of him that his books are the type you buy in the airport, are engrossed in during the flight and on the beach, but do not pack in your suitcase to bring home with you. I think that is a fair description of this book - it is a tightly written, well plotted mystery in a romantic and mysterious beach setting, and it is quite a page turner. The characters are appealing but not that well developed, and there are a few too many. But it is a marvelous bit of entertainment, a great escape. Harper has figured out how to write this type of novel, which, as she herself says, is perfect for a trip or vacation read or when you want to leave the world behind.