Suffer by Hannah Wall

A gripping thriller about 31 girls forced to suffer for the sins of one of them, but no one knows why.

Thirty One young women are abducted and wake up in a locked facility not knowing why they are there or how they will get out.  When the abductor’s voice comes over the intercom he lays out the plans for these 31 women, letting them all know that only one will survive to become his bride. He tells the women there is one way to gain immunity for only one of them; whoever kills the woman named Alisha will be safe until the end, when the entire facility will be set on fire. For everyone else without this immunity, the only way to get out is to kill everyone around you until you are the last one standing. 

The characters introduced in this story seem unrelated in every way but soon form alliances and find out who they should protect while they try to find their way to safety. These imprisoned women aren’t the only ones suffering, the investigators find out one is the daughter of their own. The people working on the case are suffering and can’t even begin to imagine where these women are or what they are going through. 

I gave this story two out of five stars. The storyline is compelling and the ideas well thought out however the plotline moved too slowly to keep my attention. I wish there had been more information on the background of the characters as well as ongoing information into the case and the suspects rather than just the information given through character dialogue. I would have liked to have learned more about each character so I could connect with the story more. Despite the characters’ interactions with each other the story seemed stagnant, making the reader want to just skip to the end to find out what happens. That being said the ending does tie all loose ends together, making the plot feel like a complete story. I think with some revision and condensing the story could move much more quickly and keep the reader more engaged.