Reviews - Before She Knew Him

2.1k reviews for:

Before She Knew Him

Peter Swanson

3.78 AVERAGE

svankouwen's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tmeter's review

4.0

A nice plot twist.

raening's review against another edition

2.0

This was a ok book imo, it kept me interested most of the time, though the plot twist made me facepalm myself. Yup, it was his other personality doing the worst stuff!
Listen, earlier this year youtube started recommending me Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) videos aka Multiple personalities and oh boy do they struggle with the stigma of "that one part that is bad!". So now I tend to veer off works that paint them wrong. Does this count though? Seeming that both his parts were fucked up murderers? I bumped the rank down for that. There has to be better ways to make serial killers creepy than to use mental conditions.

katie_rose_mary's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

truthvenian's review against another edition

3.25

A decent thriller with interesting characters and a nice twist. Would recommend for people into thrillers

kalebprice's review against another edition

3.0

Henrietta, Hen, and her husband move into a new neighborhood and meet their neighbors Matthew and Mira. When touring their home, Hen sees a fencing trophy belonging to a boy who had been murdered years previously. She suspects Matthew of being a killer.

She confirms her suspicions pretty quickly, and the novel never really tries to hide that fact. Hen and Matthew even have conversations about why he kills men who harm women.

Matthew also has a brother named Richard who’s a misogynistic asshole. He eventually kills Matthew’s female work friend after Matthew kills her boyfriend.

Richard is a split personality of Matthew’s who kills women.

Hen escapes “Richard” and he is caught by police.

The biggest issue is that Richard is discussed as a real person outside Matthew’s thoughts. His wife seems to know about him, but also jumps to the conclusion that Richard is back because her husband slept on the sofa. The reveal wasn’t that shocking, and I don’t think it was needed for the story. Having Hen and Matthew’s relationship play out would have been interesting without Richard involved.