I was very excited to read this novel. I saved it specifically for the month of October because it looked like it would be somewhat of a spooky tale, but you know what they say about judging a book by its cover…
Written by Ruth Ware, The Woman in Cabin 10 starts off with a bang - literally. The first chapter follows Lo Blacklock, our heroine, as she is robbed and left with a bruise on her face as a result of a door being slammed in her face. I didn’t think you could get bruises from doors, but let's move on. Lo is a journalist for a travel magazine who is sent on an assignment to write about a new luxury cruise that comes equipped with all the amenities one could ever want or need. After the robbery and a fight with her boyfriend, a week on this new cruise could not come at a better time. With a chance to prove to her boss that she’s deserving of a promotion, what could go wrong? Well, starting with the plot itself, it turns out many things can in this new mystery-thriller novel.
*Spoilers Ahead*
As Lo settles into her cabin on the cruise, she realizes that she needs to borrow some mascara for a fancy dinner being held later that night. Knocking on the door to the cabin next door, Cabin 10, a woman answers in a huff and all but throws the mascara at her, telling Lo to keep it. While it’s odd, it’s not until later that night that Lo witnesses something truly horrific. Woken up to the sound of someone screaming, Lo looks overboard and sees what she believes to be the the white glint of a hand sinking beneath the water and blood smeared on the glass from the cabin next door — the inevitable Cabin 10. What follows is an investigation in which no one knows what she’s talking about or of the woman she "claims" to have spoken with in that exact cabin mere hours earlier. According to the head of security, no one was ever in the cabin. Convinced that a murder occurred, Lo is determined to get to the bottom of it despite numerous signs — and messages — warning her to stop digging. Of course, just as they are about to dock, Lo is lured and kidnapped by said mysterious woman in Cabin 10 only to find out that she is the person behind the murder, along with Lord Richard Bullmer, the owner of the cruise ship.
By the time I finished this novel, I was really let down. It kept building up to this huge mystery that ended up being a total cliche. Not only was this all about money, but it also included stereotypical affairs and wealthy people who don’t pay attention to what’s really going on right in front of them. Feeling more like a watered-down version of the board game “Clue,” but with a way less fun ending, this novel had no redeeming qualities.
It is only when the novel is about to end that the story starts to become somewhat exciting, only to fall flat again. The “escape” from where Lo was being held on the boat was so underwhelming. At one point, she’s running from the police, and the next, she’s found by a nice old man who helps her call her boyfriend to save the day. Within two paragraphs, everything is fine. Not only do we NOT get to see a confrontation between Lo and Lord Richard Bullmer, but there really isn’t any justice found at the end of the story either. I’m not saying that every ending needs to have a “justified” ending, but this whole thing felt so anti-climactic that I closed the book wondering if there were chapters missing from the story. It felt so incomplete. In addition, the author kept adding in little pieces of information about Lo’s character that at one point I thought would be relevant, such as her sleep deprivation or drinking, but I guess it was just put in there to make the other guests on the boat question Lo’s judgment when it came to her perception of the murder. Not only that, but the robbery that occurs at the beginning of the novel has no further point to the story other than causing said sleep deprivation for Lo. You could honestly skip to the second half of the book and be no worse for the wear.
Compared to “The Girl on the Train,” The Woman in Cabin 10 received so much press leading up to its release that I was expecting this to be an epic murder mystery. Unfortunately, that’s not what we got. With no clear purpose for this story, this novel falls flat for me. If I had to give this book a rating, I would give it 1 out of 4 stars and definitely no recommendations from me.
What did you think of this novel? Let me know in the comments below!
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