Reviews with content warning for Addiction - The Woman in the Library

Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

18 reviews

librarymouse's review

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funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

A book within a book within a book made for a wild and very engaging read. I finished it in a day.

the novel ending with Leo, whose storyline seemed to be constantly unfinished, waiting for Winifred and Marigold made the whole thing more meta. For Freddie to be seemingly stalked by the Leo that Leo the murderer praises Hannah the author for creating was such an interesting way to fold the layered universes in on themselves! Leo the murderer stalking the author who then wrote a Leo the character stalking Winifred the author character who was friends with Marigold, the stalker of Whit, who had done an unsettlingly large volume of research on Cain to try to exploit his mom's shoddy lawyering into a pullitzer makes for a very interesting web of morally gray people. I did want Leo the character's story to be tied up more. He's still characterized as helpful, which I think ads an interesting tilt to the story being told about Leo the murderer and Hannah the author and the impact of what he gave her on her writing. But I want to know more about the reasoning behind the cupcakes and the groceries. Is it flirting, stalking, or friendship? I wasn't expecting for Leo the murderer to be a racist, but using that racism and vitriol to show his descent into delusion was interesting, especially in how that morphed from what could be perceived as advice on US perceptions of race and how it impacts jnteracrjoms with the police.

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josefineisreading's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

I really really enjoyed this! I read it for my book club and it kept us hooked the whole way through mainly because we had no idea where the story was going and who was responsible for all this chaos. It was quite fast paced and easy to read with chapters being only a few pages.

I think the ending was pretty packed together but it would’ve been nice if we had a few hints along the way. I’m not sure if this is done on purpose because this story is essentially a manuscript. Not sure about the very end of the book because I’m pretty sure this is stand alone but I guess we make our own assumptions. At first it was confusing with what was going on with the emails and the actual story but I think it was cool. Wish we could’ve gotten a bit more out of it. Overall, I really enjoyed it but that was because I could speculate with others.

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bzliz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The Woman in the Library is a thriller/mystery that manages to be satisfying and exciting without frequent graphic or gruesome descriptions of murdered people. It is a story within a story- each chapter is part of a manuscript by a writer named Hannah, which she sends to her beta reader, Leo. Each chapter is punctuated by the subplot of his emailed reaction to her writing and occasionally by other correspondences. Her story follows Freddie, an Australian writer living in Boston, who believes she may have overheard a woman being murdered and bonds to her table mates at the time the woman screamed- Marigold, Whit & Cain.

The story takes several turns and I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery along with Freddie and while I can’t say I was too shocked at the ending, there was just enough left that I hadn’t pieced together to be surprising. I believe the email subplot is the darkest part of the story because it’s meant to be the “real” world. I particularly like that although we see Hannah’s work and we see Leo’s response, we never see her directly nor do we see her messages to Leo. I just found that intriguing.

If you’re like me on occasion and need to see whodunnit, spoilers ahead:

Whit killed Caroline because they were working on a scheme to do a close up story about Cain (who killed his stepfather as a teen and served 8 years in prison) and Whit didn’t want her to steal his thunder. Her scream while Whit was sitting by Cain was meant to bond them together, which it did, along with Marigold who was sitting there hoping to talk to Whit and Freddie who just happened to be there. He actually killed her later and somehow a man called Boo witnessed enough to know her death was fake until it wasn’t anymore. Whit tried to pay him off but Boo stabbed Whit because of some confused sense of justice for Caroline. Whit then killed Boo. Meanwhile Cain has been blamed for everything and is on the run. Freddie is helping him as best she can while being observed by the police. Her neighbor Leo (named for the “real” Leo) gives me weird stalker vibes but it doesn’t amount to anything. Cain is proven innocent after Whit shoots him and confesses his crimes to Freddie and Marigold.

The “real” Leo has been acting as a research resource for Hannah while he shops around his own book. He starts sending her photos of crime scenes, then bodies, claiming to have found the crime scene later but actually he killed those people and his emails get increasingly creepy with suggestions on how to brutalize characters or punish Freddie for falling for Cain. He finally tries to get to Hannah and is apprehended by Australian police. His final letter to her comes when he’s in jail.

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amberinpieces's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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schausjk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This took me a little while to get into, mostly because I find books about authors/writing irritating. However, as the story went on and the purpose of the little editorial bits became apparent I enjoyed it a lot more.

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vmontori's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

The concept of the book itself was interesting, the book being written by Hannah versus the emails written to Hannah, but the latter actually made the book rather weak. I know the emails were heavily worded so that the reader could infer what Hannah was saying in response to Leo, but I would have preferred to see Hannah’s correspondence alongside Leo’s. Leo was so annoying in the beginning with his excessive detailing of everything that I as the reader didn’t care about. And as communication with Hannah progressed he was just so transparent in his murderous inclinations that rolled my eyes. I think Leo’s last message was actually perfect because I couldn’t help but laugh at how oblivious he was.

In regards to Freddie’s side of things, I didn’t find any of the characters really likable, which made it hard to become invested in any of them. I hate when a group meets and is established as close, with the excuse that was just meant to be. Freddie herself was kind of boring and her romance was empty and shadowed her common sense. Cain’s personality was so blank in spite of his crazy past. Marigold was a stalker and never really got criticized for it. Whit, while being so integral to the plot, was also absent for a majority of the book.

Overall, the best part of the book was how fast it was to read.

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ckraney's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

3.5 stars. I loved the format of this book—the book within a book. I thought the crimes and clues were well plotted and I was prepared for a masterful reveal. I was disappointed by the twist at the end and it felt like it cheapened all of the previous work. Such crimes seemed more intricate than how they were tied up in the end. (It’s hard to explain without spoilers!) I wish the ending had been as well thought out and crafted as the rest of the story. It would have been a 4 star book in that case.

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