Reviews

Sophie Hannah is a great suspense writer and one that captures the broken human psyche like I've never read. I really enjoyed The Wrong Mother, which preceeded this story in her Spilling CID series. However, in this story, I LOATHED the main narrator. By the end of the book, I understood her oddities a bit more, but I could not stand her evasiveness. I almost quit the book several times just because of her. But I was intrigued by the bizarre plot that I wanted to know the end. It didn't really help me like the book any more. But I'm still impressed with Sophie Hannah as a writer. I might just wait awhile before reading another. Needing a break from all the crazy.

janice_72's review against another edition

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3.0

The start of this book annoyed me as it seemed that so many of it's characters had skeletons in their closets. However once some of the characters had been more fully introduced it became clear how it was all going to end. A lot of overlapping stories to keep in your head, although an enjoyable read.

rwedewer's review against another edition

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3.0

Needlessly convoluted.

clockwatcher212's review against another edition

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4.0

This one is even more convoluted than usual for Sophie Hannah but she wraps it all up nicely in the end.

frickative's review against another edition

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3.0

This is a borderline 2/3, though throughout the first half it was probably a 1. The characters in this book are infuriating. Sophie Hannah has some ideas that sound great in blurbs, but then bogs them down with her frankly awful, loathsome detective characters who could both drown in a ditch and leave the literary world a better place IMO. I think the plot in this one might have been a bit too ambitious. It all paid off nicely in the end and rewarded my perseverance, which is why I eventually settled on a 3, but there were many many points in the beginning/middle where I considered giving up on it entirely because it was just so convoluted and irritatingly smug. It's one thing to dangle a massive secret in front of your readers from page one, it's quite another to keep re-iterating it over and over again without taking them any nearer to any sense of understanding. Still, it was all resolved satisfactorily in the end. I'll definitely think long and hard before starting another Spilling CID book though.

celiaedf12's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm having a bit of a Sophie Hannah-fest at the moment. I really enjoy them while I'm reading them - the ridiculously complex mysteries, the reoccuring police characters, the weird relationship between Charlie and Simon. And then I get to the end, and think - "Phew... hang on... what the fuck was that all about? How could that even work?" They're all so ludicrous in their resolutions. But fun!

The Other Half Lives distinguishes itself by most of the characters being truly awful. Ruth Bussey is a nutter. Aidan Seed is creepy. They don't really improve over the course of the novel - I never empathised with Ruth. The resolution to the mystery is completely crazy. I speed-read this book because I was desparate to see how it ended, and then I just wanted to go out and get another one of her books. See? Sophie Hannah-fest. It has to end soon though, because she hasn't written all that many books. It's the JD Robb-fests that are much more time consuming.

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