1.04k reviews for:

What She Knew

Gilly Macmillan

3.71 AVERAGE

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for my book club’s latest pick. When Rachel let her eight-year-old son run ahead of her to the park, she was shocked to find him missing by the time she got there. As days drag on, the case doesn’t seem to lead anywhere. Despite this, Rachel knows he is alive and clings to any lead that may bring him home. This was a quick read, but the ending wasn’t as crazy as I expected.

2.5 stars

Sustained suspense.

A page-turner with real characters I won't soon forget.

3.5 stars, it's a good story, that went on just a bit too long for me... still not a bad read!


MORE? MORE! @ P.S. I love that book!

EXPECTATIONS: I think I got this book as recommendation from booktube, unfortunately I have not read the blurb before going into as the comparison to the Girl on the train would have been a big red flag to me...anyways yeah...my need for thrillers sometimes ends really bad.

THE WORLD: Just like the ordinary boring world we all live in. Rachel is a recently divorces mother raising her son Ben alone. Her ex husband is now married to a younger prettier girl blah blah. Typical middle age crisis. And then we have creepy aunt aka sister of Rachel who is just wrong in the head but yeah...let's talk about it in characters area more. All in all this world felt sad and made me totally depressed and disappointed in people...just like The Girl on the Train. I really need to stop reading about pathetic people.

CHARACTERS: Okay so let's start with Rachel - Ben's mom. She is depressed, her husband left her for younger more beautiful women, she is now obsessed with her to the point where she actually goes to their appartment and shouts why she stole her husband...pretty much middle age crisis says it all. When Ben goes missing it of course gets much worse. The thing is there is this huge website where people discuss missing Ben case and they starts pointing fingers at Rachel, like really nasty stuff and when Rachel finds out...yeah well I think you can imagine. There is a lot of self pity, disgusting behavior of society and all that in this book. Then of course there is the father of the year who is just...well you kinda want to dislike his at first but then you realize Rachel is impossible person to be around so you start thinking that okay maybe he left her for a reason but then again did he leave her because he could not stand her or because he needed a younger girl by his side to feel like a man. And yes then the crazy creepy aunt. I am not gonna spoil you anything but let me just say that her mind is completely messed up. If I met a person like this I would run away without looking back. She is seriously seriously nuts. And the excuses we get for her being that way...I am not buying it. She should be locked up. End of story. The nutcase is crazy dangerous.

ROMANCE: Middle age crisis if I may say. You would think Rachel is messed up because she loves her husband that left her and Ben who goes missing...well nope. Rachel is not messed up because the love of her life left her, she is messed up because she is pissed at her husband having enough of her. No love here. And Ben? So she is not messed up because motherly love...no she is messed up because you see she thinks she is bad mother...this is so so crazy. Everybody cares only and I am serious only about themselves. The rest can go to hell. So no, no romance I guess.

GOOD: I really liked this website online, it was just such an everyday life. I mean if you ever read comments under articles, frankly doesn't even matter what articles, all the comments are exactly what Rachel was reading online. It was just purely nasty, people love to hate. And sadly this is a perfect representation of our everyday life too. Hashtags on twitter, articles on facebook...even news websites...it is all the same, people love saying nasty things about others. I told you, this book is pathetic but it is a good representation of actual world.

BAD: I think for me it was too real. I don't have such pathetic depressive people in my life yet, and I am saying yet because who knows how it will be when I hit middle age crisis but so far this is too realistic and too crazy horrible to enjoy.

OVERALL: If you liked The Girl on the Train then you will definitely love this one. But if you didn't trust me, stay away from this book.

MORE? MORE! @ P.S. I love that book!

4.5 stars for this debut psychological thriller from Gilly Macmillan. The writing was excellent, the story tight, and the ending had a twist I did not see coming. I devoured it in 3 days. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

It seems a bit of a stretch to compare "What She Knew" to titles like "The Girl on the Train" (as Goodreads does) but I understand the common trope of the unreliable narrator. Throughout the book you like and cheer for the main character, Rachel, but the more you learn about her the more it makes you think. I never stopped liking her as we learned her flaws, but the depth of the character I admired. The mystery had a somewhat obvious ending that the author didn't choose to take, which is why I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 3 or 3.5. A minor mystery is left unsolved, which rubbed me the wrong way for some reason, but overall this was a good beach read for thriller fans.

This was really a good book! There was a really good story, that really made you think, what would I have done and the situation? If you are a Parent you will be thinking the same thing, what I have let my 8 your old run off on his own in this particular situation, I really can't even answer that question. So, you have a really good story and then on top of it it is told in a really fantastic way. I love all the different points of view, and I like to how we were delivered other information blogs, newspaper reports , And post on websites. I'm looking forward to another book by this author.