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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Really enjoyed this one, burned through it in just a few short days. Although I completely guessed the plot twist (and it's very reminiscent of Gone Girl / Nick and Crazy Amy) just before the halfway mark, I didn't care. And that's because I really loved the structure of how this one was told - especially in the beginning. I loved the 3 detective characters - Abraham Reid for the 1995 parts and Spengler and Loren in the 2018 parts.
Spengler's character is great at pointing out the misogyny and sexism in her job as a homicide detective in a male-dominated field. And while, yes, I figured out the plot early on, I still completely enjoyed watching it all unfold.
Another successful book club book! But I think we're going to need to find a different style for our next choice. As Long As We Both Shall Live has now meant we've read two thriller kinds of books (the other was also very successful - [b:The Last Mrs. Parrish|36039837|The Last Mrs. Parrish|Liv Constantine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528028359s/36039837.jpg|55049770] - and I think if we stay in this lane we'll grow too fatigued with this style. So the challenge is on to find another great book club pick, but from a different genre. ??
Spengler's character is great at pointing out the misogyny and sexism in her job as a homicide detective in a male-dominated field. And while, yes, I figured out the plot early on, I still completely enjoyed watching it all unfold.
Another successful book club book! But I think we're going to need to find a different style for our next choice. As Long As We Both Shall Live has now meant we've read two thriller kinds of books (the other was also very successful - [b:The Last Mrs. Parrish|36039837|The Last Mrs. Parrish|Liv Constantine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528028359s/36039837.jpg|55049770] - and I think if we stay in this lane we'll grow too fatigued with this style. So the challenge is on to find another great book club pick, but from a different genre. ??
A fast read, very suspenseful, widely tipped to be a big WOM thriller this season. Interesting characterisation as first impressions are revealed to be misleading.
1.5 stars
This was just... Yikes. Where to even begin?
The "twist" was so simple it was essentially revealed on page 38 purely because of the structure of the storytelling during that section of the novel (and what was up with those bizarre section titles? No relevance whatsoever) and it was completely boring when the "reveal" was finally laid out.
The plot was fine for a moment. And then there's just this unfathomable shift in narrative from plot to a downright deplorable character who is an open misogynist that belittles every other damn character, from intentionally calling them by different derogatory terms or names to using the weirdest brand of toilet garbage language I've ever heard. It was forced, despicable, and any effort to make me care even one tiny bit about fucking LOREN failed miserably.
I also LOATHED the "development" of Marie. It's lazy writing to automatically brand her as an evil character because she's the scorned wife and maybe experiences some postpartum depression. It's a stereotype and it's weak. Perhaps instead of focusing on a horrible cop character who brings nothing to the story, maybe should have done a deeper dive on Marie, who's only granted about 25 pages of character development TOTAL. I ended the book feeling like I never got to know one of the most important characters. Neither female character, Marie nor Spengler, is developed at all past a stereotype of their gender or job, and that's so sad.
The fact that neither Matt nor Marie dies at the end is frankly nonsensical, and unfortunately even the hasty ending could not have been over fast enough. The author has a tic, too, of phrasing her thoughts as questions, ie "it was how she'd grown up, wasn't it?" And "she'd always been left out of everything, hadn't she?" I DON'T KNOW??? I'm the reader! You tell me!
TL;DR: Ugh.
This was just... Yikes. Where to even begin?
The "twist" was so simple it was essentially revealed on page 38 purely because of the structure of the storytelling during that section of the novel (and what was up with those bizarre section titles? No relevance whatsoever) and it was completely boring when the "reveal" was finally laid out.
The plot was fine for a moment. And then there's just this unfathomable shift in narrative from plot to a downright deplorable character who is an open misogynist that belittles every other damn character, from intentionally calling them by different derogatory terms or names to using the weirdest brand of toilet garbage language I've ever heard. It was forced, despicable, and any effort to make me care even one tiny bit about fucking LOREN failed miserably.
I also LOATHED the "development" of Marie. It's lazy writing to automatically brand her as an evil character because she's the scorned wife and maybe experiences some postpartum depression. It's a stereotype and it's weak. Perhaps instead of focusing on a horrible cop character who brings nothing to the story, maybe should have done a deeper dive on Marie, who's only granted about 25 pages of character development TOTAL. I ended the book feeling like I never got to know one of the most important characters. Neither female character, Marie nor Spengler, is developed at all past a stereotype of their gender or job, and that's so sad.
The fact that neither Matt nor Marie dies at the end is frankly nonsensical, and unfortunately even the hasty ending could not have been over fast enough. The author has a tic, too, of phrasing her thoughts as questions, ie "it was how she'd grown up, wasn't it?" And "she'd always been left out of everything, hadn't she?" I DON'T KNOW??? I'm the reader! You tell me!
TL;DR: Ugh.
I have been reading a lot of psychological thrillers/mysteries and I have been getting burnt out on them. So I went into reading As Long as We Both Shall Live not wanting to read it. I am glad that I made myself read this book. It was fantastic.
There are four plotlines in As Long as We Both Shall Live. Yes, 4. When I realized that, I did an internal groan. Anything over two plotlines and I get confused. In As Long as We Both Shall Live, the author was able to keep the plotlines separate. She was also to merge the plotlines when needed. There was a little lag in the middle of the book when two of the plotlines joined. Other than that, this book zipped right along.
I loved how snarky this book was. There were points where I was dying laughing with the views on marriage. I am not married but have been in a relationship for 15 years, and I get it. That’s what made parts of this book funny to me.
Detective Loren is one of my new favorite fictional characters. I will admit, I wasn’t too sure about him when he was introduced. He was abrasive and rude to everyone. But slowly (and yes, slowly) a different side of him was shown. By the end of the book, I loved him.
The mystery angle of the book was good. The author did a great job of keeping me in the dark about what exactly happened the day Marie disappeared. She slowly let out clues about what happened. There are also so many red herrings. That is what made it enjoyable to read!!
I loved how the author brought everything together at the end of the book. The twists were what made the ending for me. I had guessed about one of them early in the book. But the other one, oh no. That took me 100% by surprise.
There are four plotlines in As Long as We Both Shall Live. Yes, 4. When I realized that, I did an internal groan. Anything over two plotlines and I get confused. In As Long as We Both Shall Live, the author was able to keep the plotlines separate. She was also to merge the plotlines when needed. There was a little lag in the middle of the book when two of the plotlines joined. Other than that, this book zipped right along.
I loved how snarky this book was. There were points where I was dying laughing with the views on marriage. I am not married but have been in a relationship for 15 years, and I get it. That’s what made parts of this book funny to me.
Detective Loren is one of my new favorite fictional characters. I will admit, I wasn’t too sure about him when he was introduced. He was abrasive and rude to everyone. But slowly (and yes, slowly) a different side of him was shown. By the end of the book, I loved him.
The mystery angle of the book was good. The author did a great job of keeping me in the dark about what exactly happened the day Marie disappeared. She slowly let out clues about what happened. There are also so many red herrings. That is what made it enjoyable to read!!
I loved how the author brought everything together at the end of the book. The twists were what made the ending for me. I had guessed about one of them early in the book. But the other one, oh no. That took me 100% by surprise.
It was somehow not completely my sort of thing while simultaneously being precisely one of the types of thriller mysteries I love best. I should really give it 3.5 if I'm being honest, but I had such a fantastic time once everything started unravelling that I feel as if it has more than earned that last half star.
“If you try to Kill you wife without a plan, you will fail”
This was an interesting twisted story. Not quite 5 star for me. It felt pretty long. There was a ton of foundation that was laid and it felt like the author went around the block many times to get across the road. So I’d say at about 58% it really picked up for me and all the twists really came into play.
For a story to be super epic you need to grab me much sooner. I would have given up had friends not told me to push forward on this one.
But if you want to read about a really twisted marriage and what happens when you love yet really start to hate your spouse this book might be for you.
This was an interesting twisted story. Not quite 5 star for me. It felt pretty long. There was a ton of foundation that was laid and it felt like the author went around the block many times to get across the road. So I’d say at about 58% it really picked up for me and all the twists really came into play.
For a story to be super epic you need to grab me much sooner. I would have given up had friends not told me to push forward on this one.
But if you want to read about a really twisted marriage and what happens when you love yet really start to hate your spouse this book might be for you.
I was so excited to read this book because I loved JoAnn Chaney’s first book, What You Don’t Know. And I heard really great things about this book before it came out, so I made sure to pre-order the ebook so I could start reading it as soon as possible on release day!
I posted about the book on Litsy and Instagram when I finished, saying that it was a wild, dark, gripping story about love and marriage. It was an unputdownable, entertaining, satisfying book that I finished in two days.
JoAnn Chaney is now one of my favourite authors, and I will eagerly read whatever she writes next! If you haven’t read either of her books, I highly recommend that you pick them both up! What You Don’t Know has slightly edged out As Long As We Both Shall Live as my favourite of hers, but if you like mysteries and thrillers, you’ll be satisfied with whichever one you read first!
I have so many things I want to say about it, but it would be very spoilery, so I’ll hold off for now, but if you’ve read it, let me know! This will be a very fun one to discuss with others.
I posted about the book on Litsy and Instagram when I finished, saying that it was a wild, dark, gripping story about love and marriage. It was an unputdownable, entertaining, satisfying book that I finished in two days.
JoAnn Chaney is now one of my favourite authors, and I will eagerly read whatever she writes next! If you haven’t read either of her books, I highly recommend that you pick them both up! What You Don’t Know has slightly edged out As Long As We Both Shall Live as my favourite of hers, but if you like mysteries and thrillers, you’ll be satisfied with whichever one you read first!
I have so many things I want to say about it, but it would be very spoilery, so I’ll hold off for now, but if you’ve read it, let me know! This will be a very fun one to discuss with others.
I think perhaps JoAnn Chaney and I are not a good fit. In some ways, I liked this book better than her last one. The plot was fun and twisty. But it was grounded in the same universe, including a major subplot with one of the same characters, and I felt like the balance between the stories, and the pacing of the main plot suffered.
This is mostly a twisty murder mystery that's one of the more accurate GONE GIRL comps I've seen in several respects. (So many books claimed to be the next GONE GIRL when they were just books where bad things happened to women.) I don't think the way Chaney jumps backwards and forwards, often from character to character, works completely. It's better in the first half of the book than the second, where things start to feel stitched together in a rush.
It still could've been a 4-star book for me with the central plot, but in addition it has a major subplot (that wants to be full of surprises but is too obvious to work) with Detective Loren from Chaney's last book. I do not like Loren. At all. He is my least favorite kind of cop trope, there is nothing interesting or good about him, he is full of bluster and bullshit, he's terrible towards women and pretty awful to men, too. He sucks and I didn't enjoy any part of the book he was in, which made it hard to enjoy the book. The thing is, Loren is not even the primary detective on the main case, he's thrown in at the last minute. Before he's on scene we meet Marion Spengler, who's actually very interesting but as soon as Loren shows up she's relegated to the sidelines and I really missed her. I would have liked a book with just her and no Loren where we had some time to really let the twists play out so much better.
Ultimately I think with Chaney and I it's a tone issue. She has this very specific dark abrasive tone that rubs me wrong in a way I can't quite describe. I like her ideas, her plots are solid, her structures are interesting, but I just don't enjoy the time I spend reading her books. It's very much a me thing, this may not be an experience others share, but it still impacts my enjoyment pretty significantly.
This is mostly a twisty murder mystery that's one of the more accurate GONE GIRL comps I've seen in several respects. (So many books claimed to be the next GONE GIRL when they were just books where bad things happened to women.) I don't think the way Chaney jumps backwards and forwards, often from character to character, works completely. It's better in the first half of the book than the second, where things start to feel stitched together in a rush.
It still could've been a 4-star book for me with the central plot, but in addition it has a major subplot (that wants to be full of surprises but is too obvious to work) with Detective Loren from Chaney's last book. I do not like Loren. At all. He is my least favorite kind of cop trope, there is nothing interesting or good about him, he is full of bluster and bullshit, he's terrible towards women and pretty awful to men, too. He sucks and I didn't enjoy any part of the book he was in, which made it hard to enjoy the book. The thing is, Loren is not even the primary detective on the main case, he's thrown in at the last minute. Before he's on scene we meet Marion Spengler, who's actually very interesting but as soon as Loren shows up she's relegated to the sidelines and I really missed her. I would have liked a book with just her and no Loren where we had some time to really let the twists play out so much better.
Ultimately I think with Chaney and I it's a tone issue. She has this very specific dark abrasive tone that rubs me wrong in a way I can't quite describe. I like her ideas, her plots are solid, her structures are interesting, but I just don't enjoy the time I spend reading her books. It's very much a me thing, this may not be an experience others share, but it still impacts my enjoyment pretty significantly.