Zero Days

This book was so exciting! I read and read for hours. Most often my favorites are survival stories, and this thriller was the survival of one lady while left on her own. If you, the reader, like a good fast paced thriller, this would be the book to read. This Author has written a fantastic book!

I’m not alone in sharing that I’m a big fan of Ruth Ware. I’ve read all of her books and enjoyed each of them, so the bar for her books is a high bar to clear for me. When I read Zero Days and previously read The It Girl, I noticed a shift in the type of stories Ware is focusing on. For me, I’ll always love the magic of her earlier, gothic, atmospheric thrillers most. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t also enjoy these newer books in a different way.Ruth Ware’s newest thriller Zero Days is more action-oriented than any of her prior work. In Zero Days, the murder of a cybersecurity expert sends his wife on the run as she tries to find out who murdered her husband.The first chapter throws the reader right into the action, and it took me a bit to orient myself to what was happening. Jack and Gabe are a married couple that have a unique job as penetration experts. Essentially, companies hire them to break into their systems physically and remotely (both their corporate offices and their cybersecurity systems) and report back on where they detected weak spots that could leave the company vulnerable to being hacked or compromised.In the opening chapter, Jack and Gabe are running one of these exercises where Jack is onsite physically, while Gabe remains at home on the computer. The job was relatively standard for them, and while they stay in contact through much of it, they lose contact at some point. When Jack finally arrives back home late in the night, she finds Gabe sitting at his computer with his throat slit.The first chapter was a bit confusing, but once I figured out what Jack and Gabe were hired to do, it made a lot more sense. I felt Jack’s pain arriving home to find Gabe murdered. He was a rock in her life—a life that hadn’t always been the easiest. After reporting the murder to the police, Jack leaves to stay with her sister Helena, who has a husband and two daughters. But when the police bring her back to the station, Helena cautions her about it.Jack is more naïve than her sister though, giving the interview with good intention. But at some point it becomes clear to Jack that the police aren’t interviewing her to try to find out more information, they are interviewing her because she is their primary suspect in the murder. No one could be better equipped than Jack to escape the police station mid-interview. Afterall, she may be paid to break into locked places, but her skills easily translate to breaking out of them as well.The book primarily tells the story of Jack’s time on the run, attempting to evade the police (who have opened a public manhunt searching for her) and also searching for clues to understand who murdered Gabe and why. I found the who and why of the crime to be the most compelling part of the book. At times Jack trusts different people from their life and I was suspicious each time. While the pool of people who could have betrayed her or Gabe was relatively small, the intricacy of the motive she uncovers and the broader story around it were fascinating.Typically I find Ruth Ware to be the master of settings. Her characters are often isolated somewhere and the setting itself feels almost as much a part of the story as the characters. Zero Days was a big departure from that style (even more than The It Girl, when I first started to comment on the shift). This book doesn’t have an sort of gothic or atmospheric feel to it the way her early books do. However, one consistency is that Ware loves to isolate her characters. While they are often physically isolated—in this story Jack is on the run (so not tied to a location), but she is still isolated, with few people she can reach out to for help and very little resources.Jack and Gabe as characters weren’t as developed as I like, though in the back half there is more context and development to their relationship and story. The book relies a lot on the plot and action to move it forward, and will appeal to readers who enjoy that style of book. Jack is sharp and well-equipped to handle a situation like this, but we see her make several errors in judgment throughout largely because she is still shocked and grieving the sudden loss of her partner.One thing this book did well was build tension around the plot. I felt my body physically react to reading about life on the run, from sleeping roughly to grieving to physical injuries. While Jack is physically dealing with the challenges of evading arrest, the mystery itself heavily falls in the technology space. I wouldn’t consider this a psychological thriller—this was a straight thriller. This is different from what readers expect from Ware, and I think it will appeal to readers who are more interested in an action-based thriller rather than her usual style. For me, this was highly entertaining but lacked the magic of her prior work.The culprit isn’t hard to figure out, and readers will surely get there well before Jack does. The rest of the book explores how Jack will get herself out of the situation she’s in and when she will put the pieces together. The ending sequence is exciting. With both of Ware’s most recent books delivering a different style of book than her first six (and even the most recent two are quite different from one another), I’m curious to see what Ruth Ware will do next and I certainly will be reading whatever it is!

Those new to thrillers may enjoy “Zero Days” a great deal. Author Ruth Ware puts her heroine “under the gun” and keeps her there, piling challenge upon challenge and disaster upon disaster in order to keep readers turning the pages.But those familiar with the genre have probably seen this story more than once before, to wit: hero/heroine wrongfully accused of spousal murder escapes police custody to catch the real killer all the while attempting to avoid recapture.Unfortunately, this iteration of that story is marred by various flaws. The characters are stock and not all that compelling. While the writing is competent and clear, it includes lots of melodrama and repetition, so much so that one wonders whether the manuscript was ever edited for content. (I mean, how many times must we read about the MC’s dead husband reassuring her (in her head): “Babe, you got this!” whenever she’s in trouble?) The story is very predictable. (I often knew what was going to happen several or many pages before it did.) And the plot relies on tech details that are not very well explained. (For example, I’d no idea what a “pen tester” does, and it took a while to figure out. And I’m still struggling to understand some of the things one can and can’t do with cell phones.)The promotional materials call “Zero Days” “gripping,” “diabolically clever,” “a rocket ride,” and “unputdownable.” I’m afraid that’s a bit of an "oversell." While “Zero Days” is not a bad book, its flaws prevent it from living up to its hype. Good for the plane, beach, or pool, and that's about it.

I really enjoyed this book. Great story. I would highly recommend it.

This is my fourth Ruth Ware book and definitely my favorite! It’s different from anything I’ve read by her, almost Blake Crouch-esque. Jack and her husband Gabe hack and break into companies to test the companies security measures. Until Jack returns from one to find her husband dead - and somehow the number one murder suspect. The novel is more of a suspenseful, action novel than thriller. I found my heart racing along side of jacks most of the novel. Really enjoyed this one and could easily see It being made into a movie - the writing is compelling and i can already see It all in my head. A great read!

Liked this thriller a lot…good pacing and character development and a fair number of twists and turns. Definitely worth a read

Loved the book. Read it in one sitting. Pick up this book without fail.

Just as I was thinking that Ruth Ware is the queen of the slow burning mystery, she delivers an adrenaline and action packed story in her latest novel, ZERO DAYS. Am I disappointed? No way, this was a ripper of a read that kept me eagerly turning the pages.From the very first chapter, I was totally intrigued by Jack. Who is this woman, and what is her mission? Is she a spy? A master criminal? When she revealed her true role, I was gobsmacked: does such a profession really exist? I am not going to reveal anything about the plot because it was so much fun to delve into this story blindly and without expectations. Rest assured that there is plenty of action and a breath-taking cat-and-mouse game to follow, which made me read this book over the course of a single day. The way the story rolled out vividly in front of my eyes, I can imagine it being snatched up by some director and turned into a brilliant movie. I also appreciated the details on the technology aspects of the story, which were a real eye opener for me.I love it when an author bravely steps out of their usual writing style and delivers something new and groundbreaking, which was certainly the case here. Whilst I have always enjoyed Ware’s slow burning, character driven, gothic-type mysteries, I loved the adrenaline fuelled journey she took me on in ZERO DAYS. If you like action and intrigue then you can’t go wrong with this one!

This is another good book by Ruth Ware. By no means is it her best but is still enjoyable. Takes a more digital spin which was interesting and I’m sure required a lot of research. As someone who is unfamiliar with the crypto / digital underworld it seemed to make sense to me.

It's a good story...worth a read once...not a must read type of book though, I am not a fan of this genre either