Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Gone Tonight: A Novel

I won this ARC in a @goodreads giveaway, and I’m going to be honest, I almost stepped away from this book at first…I wasn’t drawn in right away, and the beginning felt slow. The story follows mother and daughter Ruth and Catherine, and starts with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. I’m glad I didn’t put the book down, because as you get further into the book, the story picks up the pace and leaves you with so many questions that you have to keep reading in order to find answers. I also really like when a story has an unreliable narrator and Dual POV. Overall, I’d give it 4 ⭐️

Thank you again to @stmartinspress and @goodreads for the ARC!

Content Warnings

pomoevareads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Twenty-four year old Catherine Sterling has only known life with an overprotective mother. They don’t have any other family and share an apartment and car and each other’s phone locations. They have moved several times but this will be the first time that they will live separately as Catherine has taken a job as a nurse at a hospital in another city. All that is threatened when Catherine starts noticing some strange behaviours from her mother that may result in Catherine not taking her new job. From Ruth’s perspective, she will do anything to protect her daughter including keeping her as close as possible. Ruth has secrets that are threatening to cause harm to her and Catherine and decides to keep a journal to pass on to her daughter, should anything go awry.

As a fan of short chapters, mother/daughter stories and alternating POVs, I was hooked. I binged the last 50% of this book and loved all the crumbs dropped along the way. It was a slower burn for the first half and I have read comments from reviewers saying this wasn’t for them but I didn’t mind it one bit. I was invested in the storyline, the deception and discoveries, the suspenseful jaw drop moments and in the journal entries.

I was in the mood to read escapism and didn’t care about believability. So if you don’t mind suspending belief and are looking for a story to keep you on your toes, then pick up Gone Tonight by @sarahpekkanen when it comes out August 1st.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

As always, potential triggers will be shared to my StoryGraph review (also Pomoevareads)

Content Warnings

More...