I completely agree with your point that the main characters actions were confusing and hard to understand. But, I do think I can explain some of the instances you mentioned!

So from what I understood, Theo’s entire goal (both before and after the murder) was to “help Alicia understand” what had been happening in her relationship with Gabriel. There is a part towards the end, after the reveal, where he’s talking about how he didn’t expect Alicia to remember him. He said he changed his voice and that he had been wearing a ski mask when he broke in, so he thought presumably after six years, she wouldn’t be able to tell. I get this part. The part that’s tricky is, like you said, WHY did he go back?

I think he did this for two reasons. The first, he genuinely thought that he wanted to help people as a psychotherapist. I think this is evident when he talks about his prior career and his old therapist, who he seemed to respect very much. The second, is that I believe Theo may be a sort of narcissist. Or at the very least, has a severe savior complex. I think his motivation to help others, was purely to help himself. HE was the one who had never been able to cope with his childhood trauma, and as an adult, compensated for this by teaching others how to cope with theirs. I think he went to see Alicia specifically, not only “to help her”, but his own need to feel powerful. If he can get her to talk and understand the connection between Gabriel’s murder and her childhood, that means he’s done something nobody else was able to. And if she doesn’t recognize him, even better for him! He can be close to her and always have the upper-hand in the relationship. He mentions at the end that he never expected Alicia to kill Gabriel, but that it never would have happened had he not done that to her. Maybe he feels guilty as well, but I sort of doubt it.

As far as Alicia’s motives go, I think it’s a lot more straightforward than Theo’s. We know that Alicia recognized him by only their second session when she attacked him, and she says that she wished she could kill him. After Theo helps lift her sedation, I think Alicia wanted to see how far she could push him, or if he’d admit to what he’d done. She wanted to flip the script and have the upper-hand. If she had told the police about Theo any earlier, she’d then have to admit her own guilt in killing Gabriel, which I think may have been impossible for her. And who’s to say that they would have believed her, considering there wasn’t proof of him being there that night. The only solid proof she had was Theo trying to kill her in the end, and if she’s going to die anyway, might as well tell the truth.

As far as her somehow writing 10 journal pages and hiding it all while literally dying goes, I’ve got nothing. LOL that was just very silly to me but I tried not to dwell too much on it. There’s a lot you could point at that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but I can appreciate the story the author was trying to tell at the very least!

Theo didn’t go outside to catch the snowflakes, the investigator came inside the house and they sat down at the dining table (?) and Theo opened the window next to it. Still, a bizarre thing to do!

That’s a great point actually, I had thought Barbie to be an irrelevant character but now that you mention it, she was the only person who believed Alicia about seeing the man, so of course the author would try to make her seem untrustworthy and Theo would go to see how much info she had on him! I hadn’t even considered that.

I think you’re right, that is the most plausible explanation. I just really disliked the way it was done, and felt it came at an odd time in the book for it to not be explored further! IMO Jean-Felix should have been made out to be more manipulative if we’re supposed to assume/believe that he’s trying to control her in that moment

This is a good explanation, and the only one that makes real sense for the story, so I’m sure you’re right. It just is so frustrating that it seemed really important and then completely fell short. I usually can move past a red herring, but this one was irritating to me due to the timing of him telling her this.

I also felt confused about the way it ended, because while Theo is being confronted by the investigator for what happened, it just didn’t seem like a big deal? Alicia’s journal proved that Theo was practically a sadistic mastermind, but the investigator just comes over to his house like “hey guy, listen to this fun story I read about you” lol

And THANK YOU for the warning, I considered getting it and was on the fence so that’s really good to know!

You make a fair point and I respect it. The author definitely should have reason to back up their choices, but I do think it could be up to interpretation, as the author may say “oh well actually, I did this because blah blah blah”. I’m sure this author would say there was a reason for everything he wrote, when that’s obviously not true. Ultimately because I’m such a sucker for a mysteries, I’ll admit that sometimes I don’t care too much when there are holes if they’re small enough (which is why I only mentioned two in my post, when there were quite a few lol!)

Thanks for your explanations, you gave me something to think about on this one for sure!

I definitely understand why you think that way and can agree about him throwing certain things in for convenience, but isn’t every move a character makes in a book written solely for the author’s need for them to do so? I’m not trying to convince you to change your opinion on the book itself, just wondering how we as the reader can say that the author is only writing the character for their needs when that’s essentially what fiction is.

I will say, in regard to my original question, that this probably was a loose end that was just left out to dry. But I think it’s fun to speculate when there’s no true answer!

Well I respectfully disagree, I think the story was pretty compelling and while it definitely could’ve been laid-out better, it was the guy’s first book. Saying he has nothing but contempt for the readers and craft might be stretching it a bit IMO