Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney – Book Review (5/5 Stars!)
💥 Spoiler Alert! This review contains MAJOR spoilers. If you haven’t read Rock Paper Scissors yet, go grab a copy here (you’ll thank me later), and come back when you’re ready to discuss the wild ride.
The Quick Take: OMG, I Loved This Book!
This was my first Alice Feeney novel (where has she been all my life?!), and let me tell you — I am officially a fan. Rock Paper Scissors was creepy, twisty, and just SO GOOD. Sure, the middle slowed down a tad (I can be patient for drama), but that ending? Chef’s kiss. Everything clicked, every twist made sense, and I couldn’t stop turning pages.
Oh, and the way we saw the marriage unravel from both Adam’s and Amelia’s perspectives? Brilliant. Real. Messy. Just like actual marriage, where no one person is the villain (until they are… you’ll see).
Rock Paper Scissors: Plot Summary with All the Juicy Details
Alright, buckle up.
👉 Adam is a screenwriter who suffers from face blindness (prosopagnosia — fancy word alert). In other words, he literally can’t recognize faces. Kind of important later.
👉 Amelia, his wife, hopes to save their crumbling marriage with a romantic weekend getaway to a spooky place called Blackwater Chapel. (Supposedly she won the trip through work. Sure, Jan.)
They head off in the snow, dog in tow. The weather’s bad, the power’s out, and oh hey — someone slashes their tires. No big deal, just your classic marriage retreat of doom.
As we jump between past and present, we learn about Adam’s anniversaries. His wife writes him sweet letters every year. We assume that’s Amelia... but SURPRISE: it was actually Robin, Adam’s first wife.
Enter Robin, Family Secrets & Blackwater Chapel
🎬 Robin helped Adam’s struggling career by hooking him up with his favorite author, Henry Winter. Adam wrote screenplays based on Henry’s books. Major success followed.
But here’s the kicker: Henry was Robin’s dad. Adam didn’t know this because Robin didn’t want Adam getting chummy with her nightmare of a father. Henry wasn’t exactly Father of the Year — absentee, obsessed with writing, and indirectly responsible for Robin’s mom’s death.
Also: Blackwater Chapel? Henry’s creepy home.
Cheating, Revenge, and a Whole Lotta Identity Theft
Robin and Amelia were once besties. Amelia envied Robin’s life, started copying her style (single white female vibes).
On Adam & Robin’s 10th anniversary, Robin comes home and finds Adam in bed with Amelia. Adam plays the face blindness card — says he thought it was Robin. Robin calls B.S. (he blushed, which apparently gives him away). Divorce follows.
Amelia moves in on Adam before the sheets are even cold. Adam’s not thrilled, but here we are.
Later, Robin buries Henry in the backyard (ignoring his cremation wishes) and takes over his identity. Yep — she starts publishing her work under his name and becomes wildly successful. Oh, and she lives in Blackwater Chapel with Henry’s rabbit (renamed Oscar).
The Dead Mom, The Set-Up & The Final Game
Robin finds out from Henry’s files that Amelia killed Adam’s mom when they were teens (or so it seems). Time for payback! She lures Adam and Amelia to Blackwater with that “free trip” Amelia couldn’t resist.
After some solid haunting tactics, Robin slips Adam the truth about Amelia. Amelia panics, grabs a knife, tries to kill Adam. Robin steps in with scissors (fitting, right?) and ends Amelia.
But — plot twist! — it turns out Adam was actually the one driving the car that killed his mom. Amelia covered for him. They’d known each other as kids; Amelia took the blame and ran.
The Creepy Epilogue That Gave Me Goosebumps
Adam and Robin are now living their happily ever after (if you can call living in a house full of bad vibes, ghosts of the past, and one traumatized dog a happy ending).
But meanwhile, Henry’s old P.I., Sam — the guy who stalked Robin and Adam for years and never got paid — finally decides to track Henry down in person. He finds his way to Blackwater Chapel, pokes around, and what does he discover?
👉 Henry’s headstone, reading:
“Killer of One, Author of Many.”
👉 A fresh grave.
👉 A severed finger wearing a sapphire ring.
Here’s the scoop on that finger: when Robin killed Amelia (yep, with those scissors), she tried to take Amelia’s sapphire ring — probably to destroy evidence or maybe because the ring symbolized Amelia’s place in Adam’s life and she wanted to erase that. But the ring wouldn’t come off (because of swelling or sheer horror-movie karma). So Robin did what any totally-normal-ex-wife-turned-murderer would do: she cut off Amelia’s finger to get it.
Except… Robin messed up and left it behind. Sam stumbles on this gory little clue and runs off like the smart man he is. Can’t blame him.
Final Verdict: 5/5 Stars – A Twisty, Creepy Must-Read
If you want a psychological thriller that actually sticks the landing, Rock Paper Scissors delivers. The atmosphere is eerie, the twists are smart, and the characters? Deliciously flawed.
More Twisty Reads You’ll Love:
📌 The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen – Get it here
📌 The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine – Get it here
📌 Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris – Get it here
Grab Your Copy of Rock Paper Scissors:
👉 Buy Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney on Amazon
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