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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
After the first few pages you work out how this book has been written - which then makes it very readable. The book tells the story of Catherine/Cathy four years apart, when she was a confident, bubbly party-girl and then when she is a nervous introvert with severe OCD. Both stories go along together so that you can see what's happening to her at both times.
What caused the change in her was meeting the wrong guy who turns out to be a charming, yet brutal, man who has everyone believing he is Mr Wonderful.
I feel bad putting this in the chick-lit genre as it probably should be a psychological thriller. It's easy to read (albeit quite uncomfortable to read at times) and a very well told story.
chanced upon this book at the library and took it home. didnt touch it for a whole 5 days. Decided i would read a chapter or two before bed one night just to get started on it. really hated the flip flopping between years at first but before i knew it i was keeping up just fine AND it was 4am and i had work in a few hours. shit. had to bring it to work with me so i could read on lunch. i seriously couldnt put this book down. loved it.
Oh. My. God.
So, I should preface this with the fact that I had to take this book out of the library five times before I actually found the opportunity to read it. I suppose it says something about the first fifty pages if I kept taking it back out on the basis of what was written there. What a read!
Catherine is a young woman whose story is told in two parallel timelines: 2003/2004 and 2007/2008. When we meet her past self she's a party girl looking for a good time, and when we meet her present self, she's struggling with OCD and PTSD, the survivor of an abusive relationship and an attempt on her life. The two timelines tell the tale of the abusive relationship, and her gradual recovery from the OCD/PTSD, with the consequent rebuilding of her life. There's a fascinating description of the gradual devolution of self in an abusive relationship, and the daily survival of a woman with OCD & PTSD. Then there are the two relationships: the abusive one, which starts out quite normally; and the one she forms as she recovers.
Things that were amazing about this:
- psychiatric portrait of the OCD / PTSD
- development of the abusive relationship
- suspense!
- and where would it be without a little romance?
I LOVED this. Couldn't put it down. I have so much to do and I spent the day reading this book.
So, I should preface this with the fact that I had to take this book out of the library five times before I actually found the opportunity to read it. I suppose it says something about the first fifty pages if I kept taking it back out on the basis of what was written there. What a read!
Catherine is a young woman whose story is told in two parallel timelines: 2003/2004 and 2007/2008. When we meet her past self she's a party girl looking for a good time, and when we meet her present self, she's struggling with OCD and PTSD, the survivor of an abusive relationship and an attempt on her life. The two timelines tell the tale of the abusive relationship, and her gradual recovery from the OCD/PTSD, with the consequent rebuilding of her life. There's a fascinating description of the gradual devolution of self in an abusive relationship, and the daily survival of a woman with OCD & PTSD. Then there are the two relationships: the abusive one, which starts out quite normally; and the one she forms as she recovers.
Things that were amazing about this:
- psychiatric portrait of the OCD / PTSD
- development of the abusive relationship
- suspense!
- and where would it be without a little romance?
I LOVED this. Couldn't put it down. I have so much to do and I spent the day reading this book.
I had a difficult time at first getting into this as the chapters move around a bit (2005 then further in the past, etc). But once I did start figuring things out, I really liked the story. You know right off that the ex boyfriend is in jail but you don't know how it all went down. The reader gets to know what happened as Cathy works through her demons.
Overall, I quite enjoyed this book. I think that contrasting the main character as she is now to how she was then was done in a good way.
I also felt that it handled how domestic violence can happen a little more realistically, in the sense that the controlling partner didn't just hit her one day and it is accepted but actually it can happen much slower then that.
I'm wasn't overly fussed on the ending and I really hated Sylvia's role in the whole thing - which I felt was quite unnecessary and a bit of a cop out to finishing the story.
That being said, it was a page turner and I was eager to finish it once I had started it.
I also felt that it handled how domestic violence can happen a little more realistically, in the sense that the controlling partner didn't just hit her one day and it is accepted but actually it can happen much slower then that.
I'm wasn't overly fussed on the ending and I really hated Sylvia's role in the whole thing - which I felt was quite unnecessary and a bit of a cop out to finishing the story.
That being said, it was a page turner and I was eager to finish it once I had started it.
Into The Darkest Corner was the scariest book I have ever read. I was getting up to make sure the doors and windows were shut and locked. This read had me on the edge of my seat, reading well into the night, because I could NOT put it down. Great writing, and frightening because this could happen in real life, and often does in controlling relationships. Even though you know that she lives through her first major attack, you scared for her through all of the flashbacks. Great read, and I would recommend this book to everyone I know!
I really liked the way this book was written. The chapters go back and forth between the beginning of a relationship four years ago and the present. An interesting look at how a very determined man can make your friend think you're crazy.
Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
When I read that this book is a psychological thriller, I had expectations that it’d be all-consuming and a huge mind-blowing/emotional experience because that’s how psychological thrillers usually end up being for me. Unfortunately, that isn’t entirely the case for Into the Darkest Corner.
You see, the biggest issue I had with this book is how the first half—excluding the first two chapters—is boring. Don’t get me wrong, the narrative is good. It’s convincing enough and it shows the reader a good contrast between how Cathy is ‘before’ and ‘after’. However, the pacing is simply too slow, and that’s troubling because this is supposed to be a thriller. As many of you already know, thrillers are characterized and defined by the heightened emotions (suspense, anxiety, excitement, anticipation, etc) they elicit. In the case of Into the Darkest Corner, these thriller-esque emotions are only evoked, for me, in the latter half of the book. I spent five days crawling past the first half (200+/- pages on kindle!) because there was nothing much going on, ‘before’ and ‘after’. It would’ve been better if Haynes instilled some sense of urgency—or well, executed this instillation better because while I could see things changing for better and for worse during the first half, I couldn’t feel it.
Now, going back to the narrative. I mentioned earlier that it’s ‘convincing enough’ and it shows a good contrast between Before Cathy and After Cathy, but ‘convincing enough’ isn’t good enough. We’re experiencing the story in the points of view of Before Cathy and After Cathy, and the differences between them are both great and solid, which also means that Cathy’s characterization is both great and solid too. This might sound like a paraphrased repetition of my previous point, but the narrative isn’t well-balanced in terms of being engaging and believable. In Before Cathy’s parts, it’s easy to see who she is and be convinced that she’s a real person. She’s happy, naive and carefree and later, scared and resigned to being unable to escape/death. In After Cathy’s parts, her OCD is detailed well but the rest of her person after her traumatic past isn’t always convincing enough to be real. I found myself not caring for Cathy in any way until after the midpoint of the book.
As for the other characters, both Lee and Sylvia were well written. The change in Lee from sweet and caring to controlling and possessive is smooth and non-intrusive—silently creeping in and settling even before Before Cathy and I could realize and that makes it all the more horrifying. Sylvia, on the other hand, couldn’t convince me to like her at all, from start to the end—which is a good thing since that’s the kind of person it seems like she’s supposed to be, despite her later change.
There’s also Stuart, After Cathy’s love interest and while he’s nice-ish, his presence in this book is largely passive and can be summed up by me as ‘meh’. I didn’t care for him, especially when he’s so inclined (a good flaw for a character but also rather vexing) to see just about every aspect of Cathy’s fears as a part of her OCD & PTSD.
So yeah, to sum things up, the first half of Into the Darkest Corner is boring—good for setting up Cathy’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ selves so the reader can see the differences but boring, nevertheless. The second half is where the thriller-esque moments appear and it’s definitely the best part of the book for me. Even so, the ending is too convenient thanks to Lee’s final declaration of his true love (the ‘gift’) for Cathy and I feel that it would’ve been better had this book ended with the second last chapter. It’s not always necessary to tie up all loose ends in a story, after all.
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
When I read that this book is a psychological thriller, I had expectations that it’d be all-consuming and a huge mind-blowing/emotional experience because that’s how psychological thrillers usually end up being for me. Unfortunately, that isn’t entirely the case for Into the Darkest Corner.
You see, the biggest issue I had with this book is how the first half—excluding the first two chapters—is boring. Don’t get me wrong, the narrative is good. It’s convincing enough and it shows the reader a good contrast between how Cathy is ‘before’ and ‘after’. However, the pacing is simply too slow, and that’s troubling because this is supposed to be a thriller. As many of you already know, thrillers are characterized and defined by the heightened emotions (suspense, anxiety, excitement, anticipation, etc) they elicit. In the case of Into the Darkest Corner, these thriller-esque emotions are only evoked, for me, in the latter half of the book. I spent five days crawling past the first half (200+/- pages on kindle!) because there was nothing much going on, ‘before’ and ‘after’. It would’ve been better if Haynes instilled some sense of urgency—or well, executed this instillation better because while I could see things changing for better and for worse during the first half, I couldn’t feel it.
Now, going back to the narrative. I mentioned earlier that it’s ‘convincing enough’ and it shows a good contrast between Before Cathy and After Cathy, but ‘convincing enough’ isn’t good enough. We’re experiencing the story in the points of view of Before Cathy and After Cathy, and the differences between them are both great and solid, which also means that Cathy’s characterization is both great and solid too. This might sound like a paraphrased repetition of my previous point, but the narrative isn’t well-balanced in terms of being engaging and believable. In Before Cathy’s parts, it’s easy to see who she is and be convinced that she’s a real person. She’s happy, naive and carefree and later, scared and resigned to being unable to escape/death. In After Cathy’s parts, her OCD is detailed well but the rest of her person after her traumatic past isn’t always convincing enough to be real. I found myself not caring for Cathy in any way until after the midpoint of the book.
As for the other characters, both Lee and Sylvia were well written. The change in Lee from sweet and caring to controlling and possessive is smooth and non-intrusive—silently creeping in and settling even before Before Cathy and I could realize and that makes it all the more horrifying. Sylvia, on the other hand, couldn’t convince me to like her at all, from start to the end—which is a good thing since that’s the kind of person it seems like she’s supposed to be, despite her later change.
There’s also Stuart, After Cathy’s love interest and while he’s nice-ish, his presence in this book is largely passive and can be summed up by me as ‘meh’. I didn’t care for him, especially when he’s so inclined (a good flaw for a character but also rather vexing) to see just about every aspect of Cathy’s fears as a part of her OCD & PTSD.
So yeah, to sum things up, the first half of Into the Darkest Corner is boring—good for setting up Cathy’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ selves so the reader can see the differences but boring, nevertheless. The second half is where the thriller-esque moments appear and it’s definitely the best part of the book for me. Even so, the ending is too convenient thanks to Lee’s final declaration of his true love (the ‘gift’) for Cathy and I feel that it would’ve been better had this book ended with the second last chapter. It’s not always necessary to tie up all loose ends in a story, after all.