Stereotypes, Flat Characters, and Zero Payoff – Why I Quit "Tell No One"
DNFed at 51%.
I started Tell No One excited to try a genre I don’t often read. I do love a good mystery, and honestly, the premise was really intriguing. But unfortunately, the book just doesn’t deliver on the potential of its idea.
Right from the start, everything felt painfully caricatured — the characters, the pacing, even the emotional beats. And what really started to grate on me were all the casual racial stereotypes. The pediatrician working in the suburbs who only sees “welfare cases.” The sketchy “ghetto” guys. The “evil” Asian martial artist. A character named Latisha who’s a drug addict. That bizarre line comparing a handshake between the FBI and the police to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?? It’s exhausting. Coben seems oddly obsessed with describing every character’s race — unless they’re white. It’s just such a weird racist tic, and it adds nothing but discomfort.
And don’t get me started on how queer characters, especially the lesbian couple, are portrayed — it just didn’t feel real or nuanced at all.
Around the halfway point, the suspense stopped working for me. The plot keeps stretching itself out without adding depth or stakes, and I found myself more bored than intrigued. So I DNF’d. And when I looked up the ending, it honestly felt convoluted and full of plot holes.
I know Coben is popular and this was a gifted book, but his style of mystery/thriller isn’t for me. At least that’s one more book I can donate without guilt. I gave it a fair chance.
