The Digital Renaissance: Review: Thrill Switch

Thursday, February 9, 2023

Review: Thrill Switch

Thrill Switch by Tim Hawken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Performance: ****
Story: ***

A Solid Cyberpunk Detective Story

The Narration was a solid match for the story/PoV and absolutely made it better. The story itself was actually a fantastic addition to the cyberpunk genre dealing with the intersection of virtual and real existence … kicking off with a real world murder linked to a virtual avatar execution. With a small nod toward the Silence of the Lambs, a LV cop uses periodic interviews with the virtual serial killer know as Switch when a “Spectre Slaughter” copy cat picks up where she left off after being “digitally” confined. Of course … there is a clock for finding the most recent potential victim. The “mind” games are afoot.

While the world building is pretty standard for the genre, it was still well done and entertaining. Then throw in a government conspiracy for just a hint at a dystopian element to the story and the story really finds its own footing beyond its inspiration. Overall there were enough twists and turns to keep the story interesting; however, if you are at all sensitive to coarse language, quasi rape fantasy, and other common triggering scenarios, you may want to give this a pass … although I did NOT find these to be gratuitous, some did make me a bit uncomfortable …

My biggest complaint on this book a general disappointment with the ending.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#ThrillSwitch #FreeAudiobookCodes #KindleUnlimited

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.