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vro521's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.25
stephanie1b's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
bookrantreviews's review
5.0
“Knowledge or understanding of something that has been obscure.”
Hannah and Lovell’s marriage is anything but ideal – or happy. He’s a climate scientist, immersed in his career to the point that he never puts work away, even when he’s home. She’s a mother to their children, fifteen year old Janine and eight year old Ethan, and works the same part-time job she had during college. Lowell is portrayed as the unhappy husband, angry that simple chores such as paying bills are being neglected by his wife, while Hannah is shown to be directionless and resentful of Lovell for her unhappiness.
All is bad, but it soon gets worse. The morning after a near-violent fight between them, Hannah disappears.
Hannah and Lovell were a mismatched couple right from the start. He was awkward and shy, a recent college graduate when she delivered flowers to his door. Hannah was beautiful, graceful, and raised in privilege. She was the type of girl that might have never given Lovell a second glance if not for the fact that the love of her life had just broken her heart. Their eventual marriage seemed more of practical than romantic, yet through flashbacks of their honeymoon in paradise, you see that maybe – just maybe – there was love.
Hannah once asked Lovell about all the time he spent with his work: “When you look so close at something, doesn’t it start to disappear? Doesn’t it lose its fundamental it- ness?”
Her question becomes symbolic of the state of their marriage as Hannah and Lovell each look back on their life together, each from their own perspective as well as through the eyes of their children. For Hannah, sometimes you need to step away to see what’s in front of you. And for Lovell, sometimes you need to face the darkness to see the daylight. But once they do, will it be too late? Hannah’s still missing.
“The Daylight Marriage” is one of those books that is hard to put down once you start reading. Heidi Pitlor has an understated style of writing that makes her enjoyable to read. You will easily read one hundred pages, but feel like you’ve only read ten. If the characters she creates are not extremely likeable, they aren’t extremely unlikeable either. They are authentic. Problems in a marriage don’t bring out the best in either spouse. Pitlor is talented enough to know that denying that would have diminished her story. I know I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much.
“The Daylight Marriage” is a riveting, plausible tale that’s rich in symbolism and meaning. Read it with a friend. You’ll want to talk about it after you finish.
judithdcollins's review
5.0
A very special thank you to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Top 50 Books of 2015 "Best Psychological Family Drama; Ideal Book-Movie Adaptation. "
THE DAYLIGHT MARRIAGE, by talented Hedi Pitlor is one unique, complex, suspenseful, thought-provoking, and chilling psychological mystery thriller. "A mouth full"--My heart is still pounding!
As the novel opens in the Cambridge area, we meet an ordinary family of four. Husband Lovell, wife Hannah-age thirty-nine, and two children--Ethan nine, and Janine fifteen.
Lovell, a climate scientist at Mass Environmental, buries himself in his work, data, and deadlines. He studies weather patterns and storms. He has never felt like he quite lived up as a husband and father, even after seventeen years. He feels as though the universe has a way of conspiring against him, when it comes to being the husband Hannah wanted. Maybe, he thinks their differences is simply, economics; he is accustomed to work-giving for a living; she on the other hand has been accustomed to receiving.
After all, he married a girl from a wealthy family raised by a nanny in a waterfront estate on Martha’s Vineyard, spending her birthdays at the Ritz in Boston or the Plaza Hotel, boarding schools—until twelve years ago her father’s business partner was convicted of embezzlement and the sailboat manufacturing company he and her father owned was liquidated. No more money from the parents or business, and savings dwindled, leaving Hannah working at a part-time flower shop. Now his wife is quick to leave a room once he enters. They have not made love in over a year, not for lack of trying on his part. He has no idea how to turn things around at this point.
Hannah, beautiful, tall, the girl who had first shown up at this apartment in Brighton with a pyramid of irises, the delivery girl for Fanciful Flowers, was able to simply stand there and take his breath away. Tonight, Lovell is not happy with her, as once again she forgets to pay the electric bill which is three weeks late. Her husband speaks to her as though she is a bratty child—a spoiled brat. She is almost forty, and she wants a new life and feels her current one is like an “epilogue”.
His wife has expectations. The pressures of any ordinary marriage. Arguments. On one night, an argument grows a little more heated. Things are said. Emotions rising. Disagreements, voices raised, objects are thrown. A night like the others of struggles and unhappiness . . .
The morning after, a different course of action. It began as a typical morning. Work at the flower shop, and Ethan’s orthodontist appoint in the afternoon, worries over her daughter. She has two and half hours before she is due at work.
What goes through the mind of one woman, on her way to drop off her son at school, as she tidies the house, as she heads to her daily routine of work at the flower shop? A detour, like the course of a storm brewing; without warning which changes direction, which will forever change the lives of an ordinary family.
A riveting page-turner, an exploration of emotions of the heart, written with beautiful prose and metaphors of the storms of life. As we flash back and forth from Lovell and Hannah, from details of their younger years when the couple met, their life, an ex-boyfriend, to the events leading up to the night of the heated argument.
Each day Hannah is missing, the intensity mounts, mystery, guilt, struggles, and suspense builds as a man, a father is left to deal with the aftermath, the media, the police; his life, his troubled daughter, and his son. Where is Hannah?
We also hear from Hannah as she is in her car that morning, she is distraught, confused. We experience her emotions, her thoughts, feelings, her choices, a decision…..a wrong turn.
As Lovell studies the potential intensity of tropical cyclones at work, there is another hurricane brewing in his personal life, he may not be able to predict or control with the same preciseness—an going theme throughout the novel -the storms of life, climate patterns, damage, destruction. Like hurricanes, life may erratic and intense, and no one can predict when tragedy will strike nor prepare for the aftermath.
What makes this novel so powerful, mind-blowing, raw, and emotional; It is so realistic; the events could happen to any marriage or family, on any given ordinary day.
Gone Girl, move over. An intense read, a page-turner which has you rushing to find out whereabouts of Hannah. What happened to her? The author delivers extraordinary insights with raw human dynamics. Fans of deep psychological suspense thrillers will be glued to the pages. Can’t wait to see what is next, an author to follow!
My prediction: THE DAYLIGHT MARRIAGE lands on the top list "Books That Inspired Oscar-Worthy Films."
Judith D. Collins Must Read Books
Top 50 Books of 2015 "Best Psychological Family Drama; Ideal Book-Movie Adaptation. "
THE DAYLIGHT MARRIAGE, by talented Hedi Pitlor is one unique, complex, suspenseful, thought-provoking, and chilling psychological mystery thriller. "A mouth full"--My heart is still pounding!
As the novel opens in the Cambridge area, we meet an ordinary family of four. Husband Lovell, wife Hannah-age thirty-nine, and two children--Ethan nine, and Janine fifteen.
Lovell, a climate scientist at Mass Environmental, buries himself in his work, data, and deadlines. He studies weather patterns and storms. He has never felt like he quite lived up as a husband and father, even after seventeen years. He feels as though the universe has a way of conspiring against him, when it comes to being the husband Hannah wanted. Maybe, he thinks their differences is simply, economics; he is accustomed to work-giving for a living; she on the other hand has been accustomed to receiving.
After all, he married a girl from a wealthy family raised by a nanny in a waterfront estate on Martha’s Vineyard, spending her birthdays at the Ritz in Boston or the Plaza Hotel, boarding schools—until twelve years ago her father’s business partner was convicted of embezzlement and the sailboat manufacturing company he and her father owned was liquidated. No more money from the parents or business, and savings dwindled, leaving Hannah working at a part-time flower shop. Now his wife is quick to leave a room once he enters. They have not made love in over a year, not for lack of trying on his part. He has no idea how to turn things around at this point.
Hannah, beautiful, tall, the girl who had first shown up at this apartment in Brighton with a pyramid of irises, the delivery girl for Fanciful Flowers, was able to simply stand there and take his breath away. Tonight, Lovell is not happy with her, as once again she forgets to pay the electric bill which is three weeks late. Her husband speaks to her as though she is a bratty child—a spoiled brat. She is almost forty, and she wants a new life and feels her current one is like an “epilogue”.
His wife has expectations. The pressures of any ordinary marriage. Arguments. On one night, an argument grows a little more heated. Things are said. Emotions rising. Disagreements, voices raised, objects are thrown. A night like the others of struggles and unhappiness . . .
The morning after, a different course of action. It began as a typical morning. Work at the flower shop, and Ethan’s orthodontist appoint in the afternoon, worries over her daughter. She has two and half hours before she is due at work.
What goes through the mind of one woman, on her way to drop off her son at school, as she tidies the house, as she heads to her daily routine of work at the flower shop? A detour, like the course of a storm brewing; without warning which changes direction, which will forever change the lives of an ordinary family.
A riveting page-turner, an exploration of emotions of the heart, written with beautiful prose and metaphors of the storms of life. As we flash back and forth from Lovell and Hannah, from details of their younger years when the couple met, their life, an ex-boyfriend, to the events leading up to the night of the heated argument.
Each day Hannah is missing, the intensity mounts, mystery, guilt, struggles, and suspense builds as a man, a father is left to deal with the aftermath, the media, the police; his life, his troubled daughter, and his son. Where is Hannah?
We also hear from Hannah as she is in her car that morning, she is distraught, confused. We experience her emotions, her thoughts, feelings, her choices, a decision…..a wrong turn.
As Lovell studies the potential intensity of tropical cyclones at work, there is another hurricane brewing in his personal life, he may not be able to predict or control with the same preciseness—an going theme throughout the novel -the storms of life, climate patterns, damage, destruction. Like hurricanes, life may erratic and intense, and no one can predict when tragedy will strike nor prepare for the aftermath.
What makes this novel so powerful, mind-blowing, raw, and emotional; It is so realistic; the events could happen to any marriage or family, on any given ordinary day.
Gone Girl, move over. An intense read, a page-turner which has you rushing to find out whereabouts of Hannah. What happened to her? The author delivers extraordinary insights with raw human dynamics. Fans of deep psychological suspense thrillers will be glued to the pages. Can’t wait to see what is next, an author to follow!
My prediction: THE DAYLIGHT MARRIAGE lands on the top list "Books That Inspired Oscar-Worthy Films."
"Home is so far from Home."-Emily Dickinson
"Life itself may be part of the answer to the riddle of the faint young sun."-Kerry Emanuel, What We know about Climate Change
Judith D. Collins Must Read Books
bmpicc's review
3.0
Hmm, I was super-intrigued by this book per a recommendation. It was a very quick read. I was surprised by how I always felt like I was at the end of another chapter. The story is decent enough, but there is very little in the way of character development. Their marriage isn't perfect, I get it. Yet, I still want to know more about the people and WHY they decided to be together. Help me understand why they stay together. This book gave me that feeling that I have been having a LOT lately... the 'sigh... Another author trying to create their own Gone Girl' feeling.
mmc6661's review
4.0
All marriages have problems and sometimes couples fight but what if your spouse walked out after an argument and just disappeared ? That's what Lovell is facing the morning after his and Hannah's fight. It seems she's just disappeared without saying anything. As the days turn into weeks a few small clues turn up but still no one knows if she just needs time to herself or if she's been hurt. While trying to hold it together with his young son and rebellious daughter Lovell relives the memories of how he and Hannah met and what has become of them. Interlaced with his story is Hannahs story as we slowly, painstakingly learn what has happened and where she has gone.
A very fast paced psychological suspense of family dynamics that I read in one sitting.
A very fast paced psychological suspense of family dynamics that I read in one sitting.
dsbressette's review
4.0
A bit slow at times, but heartbreaking once you get deeper into it. Pitlor does a masterful job bringing Lovell and Hannah to life, so that we have a better understanding of both. I agree with Stephen King that especially at the end, I turned pages with dread at the tragedy of the story. Really great read....
machadofam8's review
3.0
Started this and literally only put it down to make lunch. Fascinating, but just a little disappointing in the end.
emilyisreading2024's review
5.0
"When in her other life had she finally lost her desire for the next moment and then the next?"
meganpalmer731's review
3.0
Another missing wife story trying to be a Gone Girl. Missing all the twists, turns and intrigue unfortunately. Not bad, not great.