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scknitter's review
1.0
I just couldn't get in to it. Maybe if I had stuck with it longer it would have ended up enjoyable but it just didn't do anything for me at the beginning.
lola425's review
4.0
I'm waffling between three and four stars. On the one hand, it gave a heartbreaking view of dementia. The writing was excellent, the way the text was unvelied in a non-linear, truncated way was very effective. I sympathized with Jennifer, who came acorss before her illness as hyper-competant, driven and smart. To lose your most identifying faculties that way is devastating, and devastating to those close to you because because they can see what you, on the inside, cannot. Also, Jennifer's marriage was of particular interest to me as I am always curious to see how strong women navigate this institution. Very interesting portrayal of a marriage. So, four stars for these aspects of the book. What I didn't like was the murder mystery central to the plot. For one thing, I wanted to kill Amanda, so annoying was she. I really didn't care who killed her, although it became evident once all the cast of characters was introduced who that killer would be and what would happen once it came to light. I felt similarly about Lupton's Sister: there was a lot of great stuff in there, a lot of substance but the fore-plot (is that a word?) took away something from that substance. Still really liked the book.
pph_library_bookclub's review
4.0
Everyone in book club finished this book!
The writing style was very unique in this book as there were no quote marks around things that people are saying and there are lots of bits of space on the page. We did find this a little confusing and hard to get used to.
We found that both Jennifer and Amanda were both very manipulative and at certain parts of the book we were really not all that sure why they were even friends with each other. They seemed to want to get one up on each other and were very unpleasant to each other at times. We found this friendship on the whole to be pretty toxic and quite confusing.
This book is told by the ultimate unreliable narrator as Jennifer has alzheimers and we see her going through the process of gradually forgetting things, having her life completely changed without her knowledge of why. There were moments of complete clarity and then moments when she had no idea what on earth was happening or even who she was. She was someone you felt very sorry for because of her illness but also found quite unlikeable due to her character prior to her illness.
As a medical book club we wondered how the author went about the research into how people with dementia actually feel. This would be a very tricky thing to do as they might not understand what's being asked of them. Maybe she simply relied on watching people with dementia and coming up with what she thinks it's like? We had a discussion about dementia and other brain related research we had heard about.
We felt that this might be a useful book for people caring for those with dementia to read, and just for people wanting a little insight into what dementia does to a person. Overall, we felt that this book was far more about dementia than it is about the murder mystery, in fact some of us forgot that was the main plot point until the killer was revealed at the end!
Overall we gave this book 8 out of 10.
The writing style was very unique in this book as there were no quote marks around things that people are saying and there are lots of bits of space on the page. We did find this a little confusing and hard to get used to.
We found that both Jennifer and Amanda were both very manipulative and at certain parts of the book we were really not all that sure why they were even friends with each other. They seemed to want to get one up on each other and were very unpleasant to each other at times. We found this friendship on the whole to be pretty toxic and quite confusing.
This book is told by the ultimate unreliable narrator as Jennifer has alzheimers and we see her going through the process of gradually forgetting things, having her life completely changed without her knowledge of why. There were moments of complete clarity and then moments when she had no idea what on earth was happening or even who she was. She was someone you felt very sorry for because of her illness but also found quite unlikeable due to her character prior to her illness.
As a medical book club we wondered how the author went about the research into how people with dementia actually feel. This would be a very tricky thing to do as they might not understand what's being asked of them. Maybe she simply relied on watching people with dementia and coming up with what she thinks it's like? We had a discussion about dementia and other brain related research we had heard about.
We felt that this might be a useful book for people caring for those with dementia to read, and just for people wanting a little insight into what dementia does to a person. Overall, we felt that this book was far more about dementia than it is about the murder mystery, in fact some of us forgot that was the main plot point until the killer was revealed at the end!
Overall we gave this book 8 out of 10.
amylowe's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.25
mortechat's review against another edition
5.0
Really enjoyed this mystery...so different than another mystery I have read. Also was an amazing look at someone loosing their mind to Dementia and how the people around can affect that.
shiradest's review against another edition
1.0
I find this book terrifying given the Alzheimer's runs in my family. The thought of not remembering what a toothbrush is is unbearable.
campreadkarin's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lynnedf's review
4.0
I have to admit - I wanted this to be another "Still Alice" - and it totally is not. It's narrated by Jennifer White, a former Doctor who suffers from Alzheimer’s. We follow her thoughts - lucid and otherwise - as she learns that her neighbour and friend has been killed; with her as the main suspect. I have to admit that the murder storyline does take a back seat since Jennifer doesn't think about it often, and isn't always aware of what has happened. I do have to applaud Alice LaPlante for writing an Alzheimer victim so well - many of the conversations reminded me of conversations with my grandfather who also suffered from the disease. The twist at the end caught me by surprise – so although I thought it dragged a little, I did like it. It's probably more of a 3.5 rather than a 4 stars ... but it certainly left me thinking about it once I had finished.