I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Package Published by Head of Zeus on February 4 2021 Genres: Adult, Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Overly dramatic, overstuffed and confusing as hell, The Package failed for me on so many levels.
The Package is the latest best selling thriller from German sensation Sebastian Fitzek. The book has all sorts of rave reviews on Goodreads, so obviously your mileage may vary. But as you can tell from my rating, it didn’t work for me at all. I’m giving it a generous two stars because it was quite entertaining, although perhaps not in the way the author intended it to be. Let’s jump right in and I’ll tell you why this was so problematic for me.
The story revolves around a clinical psychiatrist named Emma, her husband Philipp, a lawyer named Konrad, and the mysterious serial killer known as the Hairdresser. Emma has just given a controversial talk at a psychiatry convention, and for convenience sake has decided to spend the night in the convention hotel. That night she suffers a terrifying experience. A strange man breaks into her room, shaves her head and rapes her. Later, Emma realizes he was probably the serial killer known as the Hairdresser, a killer targeting prostitutes, although for some reason he left Emma alive (also Emma’s not a prostitute but whatever). But when Emma tries to report the crime, no one seems to believe her. A medical examination doesn’t show any signs of rape, and the hotel room that Emma claims to have stayed in doesn’t exist. Is she going crazy? Or is someone trying to drive her crazy?
Six months later, Emma is housebound, due to her paranoia over her experience, and one day a delivery man comes to the door, hoping Emma will hold onto a package for one of her neighbors. Emma doesn’t recognize the neighbor’s name but reluctantly agrees to take the package anyway. This triggers a series of violent events that leads to Emma being accused of murder. How she gets to that point is told through an interview with her lawyer, as the author jumps back and forth between the past and present.
OK where to start? From the story recap, I think you’ll agree that this sounds really good, or at least has the potential to be really good. I did enjoy the format and the way the author structured his story. The dual timelines added to the suspense, and that part worked really well. But for me, what ruined all this potential was the translation, which I’m sorry to say was awful. Now I’m obviously not an expert when it comes to book translations, but I feel if someone is going to take the time to translate a book for an American/English speaking audience, then it needs to be readable and understandable. Unfortunately, the whole book is peppered with odd writing that completely took me out of the story. Here’s an example:
The screw pierced Emma’s eardrum and threaded straight into her brain. She didn’t know who had switched on the acoustic drill that was puncturing her fear center. Who it was ringing at her door so early in the morning and throwing her into a panic.
The writing and dialog are overly dramatic and awkward, and I couldn’t believe that humans would actually talk to each other this way. In short, the writing lacked finesse, and whether that is due to the translation or not doesn’t really matter—it was just bad.
My next complaint might be specific to me because I’m an American, and I do realize that my way of life/upbringing is very different from someone in Germany. But I cannot deal with sexism in any form, and this story is sexist from start to finish. To explain that, I have to talk about Emma a bit. Emma suffered trauma as a child and so she comes into the story with some mental health issues. The trauma revolves around her father, who mentally abused her, and as an adult, Emma has very low self esteem, and her relationship with her husband is not very healthy either. So maybe because of her mental issues, all the men in her life use that against her to make her think she’s crazy. Even worse, she believes them and is continually wondering whether the things she’s experienced actually happened or not. This gaslighting was so frustrating to watch unfold, especially when she didn’t fight back.
There’s also a lot of face slapping in this story. Every single male character slaps Emma at one point or another, and Emma admits she deserves that too. This book feels like it was written in the 40s or 50s, honestly.
Finally, I want to mention all the twists in this story. I won’t give them away, in case (God forbid) you want to read this book yourself. But there are so many, I got whiplash reading this book! Also, the twists don’t make sense. There are a lot of WTF moments that just came across as silly. In fact, I laughed out loud a couple of times and not because the story is funny. The whole storyline with the package—the title of the book even suggests it’s an important element—was underwhelming and didn’t have a whole lot to do with anything. Basically, the story is just plain convoluted and overstuffed with way too many elements.
The final reveal was yet another abrupt twist that just didn’t make sense at all. By that time, though, I just wanted the book to be over so I could move on to something else. I think after this experience I will think twice before reading any other translated European authors (I guess I should have learned after my horrible experience with A Winter’s Promise), but if this sounds like your cup of tea, I hope you enjoy it more than I did.
With thanks to Kaye Publicity for providing a review copy.
More than anyone’s cup of tea this sounds like a serious mess, starting with the translation. And I guess that if I read this, once reaching the part where the MC believes she deserves to be beaten I would have thrown the book at the nearest wall…
Pity, because the core concept looks like a sound one. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…BEHIND HER EYES: Netflix miniseries
I think in another author’s hands this idea could have been fantastic. Oh well…sigh
Terrific review of what sounds like an awful read! I’ll definitely pass on reading this book, but I enjoyed your review!
Thanks Lisa, if I hadn’t received it for review I would have given up on it!
I am sorry that this was such a disappointment, on so many levels!! And I agree with Maddalena comment, too! I really hope your next reading would be way way better!
And I can totally relate with the translation part. It could totally make or ruin a book!
I’m actually curious if this author is considered to be a good writer in Germany, because I can’t imagine the untranslated version is much better.
I can’t say, but once I read a series in its original language (English) and loved it, after some time I found the first book translated in Italian and bought it because I wanted to re-read the series and I was so happy to have it on my language! It was a disaster. I was just so bored. The characters that I loved were plain and the witty dialogues nowhere to find. I was aghast. How could have I loved something like that?? But then I decided to read the second book, at least try it out and see what happened. And the second book was not translated, I read again the English one and… I was in love again.
So maybe the part about the plot won’t change and maybe you would have enjoyed this book nonetheless, but the translation could really make or break a book. Or maybe it was just bad. All could be!
I think it’s okay to say that this book sounds kinda awful? Also, and maybe it’s just me, but what kinda serial killer name is “the Hairdresser” I’m sorry but that kinda made me laugh. And why so much face slapping
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…March 2021 Of Books Giveaway Hop (INT)
Ha ha I was going to add a snarky comment about the name “the Hairdresser” but I was trying to be nice. But I thought the same thing, how stupid! And maybe it’s a translation thing, ha ha.
I am a German reader. And no, it’s nothing cultural. The author, who is currently still writing books, is incredibly sexist. His latest book, published last year, is much worse. Unfortunately, the author is very hyped in Germany, he is often on TV and knows how to sell himself. I do not get it. The last book was even advertised as speaking out against violence against women, but in that book a number of women are treated very violently. Even fans of the author were horrified. To see that it is even being translated – and it is difficult for German authors to get into the American market – made me very sad. I have refused to read this author’s books for years.
Thank you for leaving a comment! I appreciate the German perspective. And very interesting about the author. I will not be reading any more of his books!
Hmmmm, real sorry to hear about this one. It looks vaguely familiar, as if either I’d seen it listed somewhere (maybe here?) as a future release or maybe there was a goodreads giveaway, but I’d decided not to add it to my TBR at that time. After this review I’m happy with that decision. I hope your next translated European book works out much better than your previous ones. There has to be great material there, just need to find it.
I agree, I know there are good translations out there. I just happened to read two bad ones in a row.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you give a book 2 stars! Wow, this sounds awful! I was going to say the language issues I *might* be able to overlook because so much can be lost in translation, but the whole slapping thing is definitely a no go for me. It just sounds gratuitous and serves no other purpose than to belittle the character! Anyway, I got this for review too but I’m probably not going to bother anymore. Please don’t give up on translated European books though, because there are some good ones out there!
I rarely give two stars! But this deserved it (or less!). I wouldn’t waste your time on it for sure.
Sorry it was such a letdown, Tammy! Hope your next read is better!
Yea… it doesn’t sound like a good one. I would have gotten annoyed and slap the book down. Sorry it didn’t work out.
What a bummer, sounds like it had a great premise. Sorry it didn’t work out! Sounds like it would be very annoying, haha.
Urg! This one sounds ghastly! I’m far more wary of translated works as I’ve read books with clunky phrasing – but I’m MUCH less tolerant than you. If I’d read something that bad (let’s face it, it reads like some of those weird spam messages we all get…) it would have gone flying across the room. And don’t get me started on men slapping women as a regular occurance – like you say, I’d hope that sort of writing went out of the window back in the 60s and 70s. Particularly at a time when domestic violence has seen such a dramatic jump during the pandemic – sadly:((…
Yikes, I agree about the awkward writing based on that example! Sorry this one really didn’t work out. Ugh.
Great review but I think I’ll be skipping this one. I’ve seen one other review from someone I trust and they had a lot of similar feelings.
Ahh bummer you didn’t enjoy this one, it happens. 🙂
Wow – this sounds awful. I will avoid.
Lynn 😀