Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney (Review)

Title: Rock Paper Scissors
Author: Alice Feeney
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Thriller
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Date published: September 7, 2021

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review.

Think you know the person you married? Think again…

Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.

Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts – paper, cotton, pottery, tin – and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.

Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.

⤖ My Review ⬻

Where to begin with Alice Feeney’s Rock Paper Scissors? Maybe I’ll start with the fact that I don’t read very many thrillers, and it had been a while since I’d read one prior to Rock Paper Scissors. I think that part of the reason why I started cutting back on thrillers (I used to read only thrillers back in the day) was that I overdid it a bit and ended up becoming bored by the plotlines as well as being able to guess plot twists a bit too easily.

I’m happy to share that neither of those things was the case with Rock Paper Scissors! I was neither bored or able to guess what was happening (including the plot twists). The twists were actually pretty satisfying and I’m glad that I didn’t ruin them for myself by guessing what would happen ahead of time.

I can’t say that I loved any of the characters, but I did root for some of them! I also don’t think the characters were meant to be liked anyway. They were all also quite flawed, which I found to be well done and in a super realistic way. My last note on the characters was that I wasn’t able to trust any of them, which I think added to the unsettled feeling Rock Paper Scissors gave me throughout.

And lastly, I wanted to talk a bit about the setting! The remote setting that a good portion of the book was set in definitely helped add to that unsettled feeling I mentioned. This feeling I think was also an important part of the experience–at least for me! All of the settings in Rock Paper Scissors were well described and easy for me to imagine and get pulled into. All in all, this was an entertaining thriller that kept me guessing and feeling unsettled throughout!

⤖ About the Authors ⬻

Alice Feeney is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist. Rock Paper Scissors is her fourth novel and is being made into a TV series for Netflix by the producer of The Crown. It will be published around the world in 2021. Her debut novel, Sometimes I Lie, was an international bestseller, has been translated into over twenty languages, and is being made into a TV series by Warner Bros. starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. His & Hers is also being adapted for screen by Jessica Chastain’s Freckle Films. Alice was a BBC Journalist for fifteen years before becoming an author. She lives in Devon with her family.