Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!!
Review: This book is quite a page-turner. I enjoyed her last one (Blindsighted) too, but this was even better! It has a very sad & disturbing plot to it that makes you angry that this could happen to children. This author is a wonderful story-teller. I can't wait to read her next book!! And, by the way, I am not a friend or agent of this author as a previous reviewer suggested about people who give this book a 5-star rating.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!!
Review: This book is quite a page-turner. I enjoyed her last one (Blindsighted) too, but this was even better! It has a very sad & disturbing plot to it that makes you angry that this could happen to children. This author is a wonderful story-teller. I can't wait to read her next book!! And, by the way, I am not a friend or agent of this author as a previous reviewer suggested about people who give this book a 5-star rating.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing, terrific, "Cant-put-down"!
Review: This book is set four months later than the first book "Blindsighted".The story starts out at the local skating ring, where Sara has a date with her ex-husband and local chief of police, Jeffrey Tolliver. Both of them seem to be looking forward to a nice evening together when Jeffrey has to shoot a 13-year-old girl, who threatens to shoot a 16-year-old boy. Part-time Medical Examiner Sarah finds out shocking details during her autopsy of the 13-year-old and also during the autopsy of a stillborn child that SEEMS to have been born by the 13-year-old. The central characters of this story are more human, better developed in this book (even the evil ones).Lena Adams, one of Jeffrey's detectives is still suffering from what happened to her during the chase of the killer of her twin sister in the first book. There are quite a few references to give the reader an idea of what the first book was about. When I thought I had an idea of what the book was all about, there were enough twists and turns to keep my nailed in my chair, and eyes glued to the book. I certainly did not expect child molesters/child pornopraphers to be the main focus in this book when i read the back flap, but I must admit that Karin Slaughter has chosen a great way to show that they may be the seemingly nice next-door neighbor or the seemingly nice priest/colleague/buddy/acquaintance. She even set out to let the evil characters be female. Women are hardly ever suspected of child molestation. Read this book and you will be surprised on how evil some people can really be. Even though some of the perpetrators are portrayed in a favorable way (thats before you know it is them of course), don't seem to feel any remorse and even believe that they molested the kids out of love (how can anybody ever be that sick and perverted?). Some parts of the book made me really furious (especially the lack of remorse), but that's a good way to keep the reader hooked, isn't it? However, I admire her for having the courage to write about such difficult topics as pedophilia and child abuse. A nice and welcome distraction from the horrible things that were done to the kids is the attempt of Sara and Jeffrey to get back together and working on their relationship. However, Karin Slaughter does not get lost in detailed, in my opinion unwanted, descriptions of Sara's and Jeffrey's sexual encounters. Lena, one of Jeffrey's detectives, bares her soul in the progress of this book. She, who seemed so hard-boiled, (nearly) breaks down and leaves you wondering what will happen to her in the follow-up. Anyway, Karin Slaughter surely got me waiting for the third book in this series. I can't wait for it to be published !
Rating: 
Summary: Cry for ME: I just wasted $18 on this book.
Review: This is another one of those "child abuse is bad" books written by people who think that watching CSI and Law & Order qualifies them as authorities. It's all recycled emotions and plot here, there's nothing new, even the faux insights are canned. The graphic details are used gratuitously and add nothing to the book. Can't believe anyone would fall for this as a valid message on any serious social issue. If an author is not contributing anything meaningful to the undersandng or prevention of a problem, they're only trying to piggyback the salacious details to fame. I don't want to be too hard on this author. She's just one of about 25 who wrote similiar books last year. But I do wish someone somewhere would be more original, insightful and true to life on this topic when used in a crime book. I'm sick of all this fake stuff that demeans and distracts from the real problem.
Rating: 
Summary: I Have Finally Found a Book I Don't Want Read to Me
Review: This is in reference to the unabridged version. The reader uses what was probably intended to be a Georgia accent. I don't know if she knows what one sounds like but it watered down by a producer or she actually thinks that this was a Georgia accent-- but whatever the cause, this was BAD. I was gritting my teeth over the narrator's nasal voice within the first five minutes. Within the next five I was praying that someone would get killed so I didn't have to hear any more about the heroine's relationship with her ex-husband as they groped one another in a crowded skating rink. Finally, I gave it up as a bad job.
I am left with only one burning question-- now mind I make no claim to being able to wear Cinderella's glass slipper myself-- but how big are the heroine's feet and why did she have to wear men's skates?
Rating:
Summary: Why write this?
Review: This is not the first book I read by Slaughter. Right now, I do not want to read another. I want to be entertained, not repulsed. I don't want to read about child porn or child sex abuse in my free time. It was graphic at times. If you want to write about sex, how about the main characters instead?
Rating: 
Summary: Not entirely unpleasant
Review: This is the second book I have read by Karin Slaughter. I found both books very easy to get through (about 2 days each). I did find both of the books pretty predictable though. I figured out who the bad guy was pretty soon. I didn't think either book was really great but they were okay. Like I said, pretty easy to get through. I guess I'll have to read the third installmant to see if she keeps with her pattern.
Rating:
Summary: Kisscut Extremes
Review: This past week, I finished Kisscut, the second book by Karin Slaughter. I'd read the first novel by this author a few months ago, and while I wasn't blown away by her writing, I was curious enough to consider the next book in the series. After all, this author received a three-book, six-figure contract based on the first book, so why not study her efforts to see what publishers are buying? Returning to the Georgia-based setting are pediatrician and part-time coroner, Sara Linton, her ex-husband and police chief, Jeff Tolliver, and police detective, Lena Adams, who is still recovering from a brutal rape and attack depicted in the previous book. Sara interested me a great deal because of her relationship with her mother, but Lena, whose sister was murdered in the first book, wasn't as appealing. In fact, she's downright unpleasant at times. Maybe that's the point, as the second book explores. Anyway, Kisscut starts off with the police shooting of Jenny, a 13-year old who threatened to kill boy outside a roller rink. Clearly distraught, the girl was last seen exiting the restroom... where the tattered remains of a pre-term fetus are found, flushed in the toilet. Are the two connected? Did Jenny intend to kill the father of her baby? The story isn't just about Jenny, the baby (which actually isn't hers) and her attempted murder of the boy. In fact, it's a far more sordid, brutal tale of extensive child abuse, self-mutilation, incest and pornography. Slaughter thankfully doesn't go into explicit detail, though she still manages to sicken and horrify through alluded passages. It's a twisted, frustrating journey that layers trauma upon trauma, discovery upon discovery. The ultimate culprits aren't the usual suspects, and that makes the story even more difficult to handle. For the most part, the text was engaging with a good balance between the A story (the mystery) and the B stories (Lena's struggle to accept what happened to her and move on, Sara/Jeff's rekindled relationship) with strong description and dialogue. Slaughter did improve from the first book, though Lena is still very much an angry, unlikable woman, and I haven't decided yet if I want to read the third book in the series. For those who can stomach the actual story, Kisscut is a worthwhile read for an above average mystery... but it's not one I'd ever want to read or think about again.
Rating:
Summary: Sloppy and unoriginal.
Review: This story and the message behind it have been done better at least twenty five times before. I don't expect mysteries to copy real life. But I do like them to at least pretend to be real enough so that I care about the characters or the outcome. A book doesn't have to get the facts right on every front to be involving, but when an author gets just about everything wrong there is just no way I can suspend my disbelief and enjoy the story. Which is what happens here. The book suffers from a lack of research on every front and because of that it never builds a world I can care about and comes off as plastic entertainment with no real soul. The meager attention paid to the law enforcement angle in the story shows an appalling lack of knowledge or sloppiness on the author's part. The medical sections are almost as bad and are obviously faked and badly set-up in the first place. The cops and professional ethics would keep the female protagonist from ever doing the plot-critical autopsy in real life. Even the abuse sections which are the crux of the book come off as phony with the wounds inflicted and conspiracies abounding eventually becoming so over the top that it demeans the subject matter of real abuse and mutiliation. All the violent scenes in this book come off like weirdly disjointed additions to the writing. They are nothing but literary band aids slapped on to make the book more exciting. They don't. Then you have stereotypes as characters. An ex-husband and ex-wife bantering to create sexual tension is not very original. And you have a stereotypical setting in a seemingly innocent small town that seethes with hidden secrets. Pretentious flights in characterization drag down the story too often and there's a Hollywoodish solution/ending that is also not very original. The worst thing about it is a weird distance to the writing that discourages any emotional attachment to the book. I don't think writers have to only write about what they know about and I don't think that writing about what you know guarantees a good book. But if you try to fake it, you better at least have some empathy for the people and emotions you are trying to create if you hope to pull it off. This book does not pull it off and is a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Reading This is an Effective Form of Torture
Review: Where to begin? There is no significant character development. As soon as you are getting to know a character, the perspective will switch to one of the other many, many characters. However, this could be a blessing-- considering that all of the characters are infinitely boring, unlikeable and depressing anyway.
This dreck was so INCREDIBLY BORING that I began skimming about half way though. And then I just gave up and skipped to the end.
This book was so horribly dull, I just had to see if the author could salvage it with an unexpected, creative conclusion. No such luck. The author tries to push the envelope and go for shock value...but fails miserably. Instead, the ending was...well, just plain gross and stupid.
Save your money and bang your head repeatedly into a brick wall, instead of purchasing this boring dreck. You will achieve the same feeling as if you just read the entire book.
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