It's One Of Us

It's One of Us by J.T. Ellison is a book that I struggled get through. The author's style of writing made it impossible for me to get into the story. I found the writing to be choppy. The point-of-view alternates between several characters (too many in my opinion). I like that we are told at the beginning of each chapter who is narrating. I was not a fan of any of the characters. The author did not give the readers a character they could like and relate to (we need a likeable protagonist). I was hoping the mystery would be complicated and twisty. The mystery is extremely easy to solve. I correctly solved part of the whodunit before the end of the first chapter. I was surprised when the author revealed the killer's identity halfway through the book (talk about a BIG no no). I was tempted to toss the book across the room at this point. Olivia and her husband, Park have been trying to conceive. We get to see how the experience affects a couple emotionally and physically. From the way the author described how it affected Olivia; I can tell that infertility is something the author has experienced personally. I wish Olivia had been a sympathetic character instead of a self-serving whiner. Olivia's self-worth depends upon a man (I guess Olivia did not get the memo that it is 2023). She should have been a confident woman (she has a successful career, good looks, and she is intelligent—for the most part). Infertility seems to be a popular topic in novels lately (it has been overdone). It's One of Us has my biggest pet peeve which is a love triangle. Some of the secrets or revelations are hard to believe (I wondered if we had entered an alternate reality). I found myself rolling my eyes often. At the end when the final secret is revealed, it is anticlimactic. It ended just as I predicted after reading the first chapter. I was very happy when I turned the last page of It's One of Us.