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djgroupi's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book was okay. Interesting enough for me to finish but the story didn't totally grab me.
tatyanavogt's review against another edition
4.0
I wanted to know how it ended, even though I was annoyed by the characters actions. Overall it was pretty good.
paulabrandon's review against another edition
2.0
This is one of those books that can only exist if your main character is a complete and utterly useless numbskull. Sarah Walker deserves some sort of medal for being the most incapable protagonist in recent domestic thriller memory. As the novel starts, she has just emerged from a dark place after the death of her mother. All that progress is lost when it appears she overdoses on drugs. Her husband, Patrick, decides the best thing to do is sell up and move into his childhood home, which has just come on the market.
Except, 15 years earlier, said house was the site of a grisly triple murder. Roll eyes here.
Sarah and Patrick and their two kids, Mia and Joe, move into the house. Sarah is determined to make a go of it, despite the house's history, which she just can't get out of her head. But there are unexplained cold spots in the house. Markings left on the walls from the previous occupants won't go away even after painting over them. But forget any ideas about this being a haunted house novel. It's not. It's a bizarre element in what is otherwise your standard unreliable female narrator psychological thriller.
Husband Patrick slowly but surely starts becoming a different person. Paranoid, short-tempered, close to violence. (And no, he's not being possessed by the house.) Patrick is clearly an abusive husband. He controls their finances (he makes Sarah use her mother's inheritance to purchase his childhood home.) He berates Sarah, belittles her, gaslights her, tells her she's not good enough. And for about 80% of the book, Sarah just puts up with it! Granted, she's scared she'll lose Joe, as he is actually Patrick's child with another woman, but it just goes on too long.
The book hits a holding pattern as we wait for the plot twists that we can clearly see coming from about 60 pages in. Patrick is mean and evil and controlling. Sarah finds way to excuse his behaviour. Daughter Mia is a complete snot to her mother, telling her everything is her fault. Rinse and repeat. The problem is that Sarah is mildly aware of her situation, and just refuses to do anything about it. It was utterly infuriating. It's not fun reading about a protagonist who essentially is just sticking her head in the sand for nearly the whole book. And really, even in 2019, when this was published
It was well-written enough to keep me reading. But it didn't offer anything new or original. It was very predictable, and that simply couldn't overcome the tedium of having such a clueless, useless protagonist who refused to believe, for far too long, what was right in front of her eyes.
Except, 15 years earlier, said house was the site of a grisly triple murder. Roll eyes here.
Sarah and Patrick and their two kids, Mia and Joe, move into the house. Sarah is determined to make a go of it, despite the house's history, which she just can't get out of her head. But there are unexplained cold spots in the house. Markings left on the walls from the previous occupants won't go away even after painting over them. But forget any ideas about this being a haunted house novel. It's not. It's a bizarre element in what is otherwise your standard unreliable female narrator psychological thriller.
Husband Patrick slowly but surely starts becoming a different person. Paranoid, short-tempered, close to violence. (And no, he's not being possessed by the house.) Patrick is clearly an abusive husband. He controls their finances (he makes Sarah use her mother's inheritance to purchase his childhood home.) He berates Sarah, belittles her, gaslights her, tells her she's not good enough. And for about 80% of the book, Sarah just puts up with it! Granted, she's scared she'll lose Joe, as he is actually Patrick's child with another woman, but it just goes on too long.
The book hits a holding pattern as we wait for the plot twists that we can clearly see coming from about 60 pages in. Patrick is mean and evil and controlling. Sarah finds way to excuse his behaviour. Daughter Mia is a complete snot to her mother, telling her everything is her fault. Rinse and repeat. The problem is that Sarah is mildly aware of her situation, and just refuses to do anything about it. It was utterly infuriating. It's not fun reading about a protagonist who essentially is just sticking her head in the sand for nearly the whole book. And really, even in 2019, when this was published
Spoiler
"Oh, no, my husband can't be a gaslighting psychopath," simply doesn't cut it as a plot twist anymore. Yes, he can, and we've had the exact same plot twist in 500 other books now!It was well-written enough to keep me reading. But it didn't offer anything new or original. It was very predictable, and that simply couldn't overcome the tedium of having such a clueless, useless protagonist who refused to believe, for far too long, what was right in front of her eyes.
clioreads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mrsbear's review against another edition
4.0
This was a good listen. The narrator was great and usually I zone out listening to a female narrate. I think she made the story much more enjoyable and suspenseful.
snarkbrarian's review against another edition
slow-paced
1.75
This book was not for me at all. It was dull and read kind of like a lifetime movie. It wasn't badly written or anything just very tropey for me.
delslibrary1313's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
kopalparmar's review against another edition
5.0
Such a thrilling thrilling book that just creeped me out a bit- on purpose though so good job Savage!
debtat2's review against another edition
5.0
I can honestly say that this book will be next years must read psychological thriller of 2019.
It has it all, what appears to be the perfect family, but in reality they are facing underlying stress, a mental ill wife, self-destructive teenage children, deteriorating marriage and of course, the move into The Murder House!
As with all books in this genre, things are never as they seem but sometimes, just sometimes, they are exactly that! I mean, who would expect The Murder House to be a perfect family home and a fresh start for them all? But can a house really have influence over the occupants and their actions? How much influence does our upbringing and past have on our futures?
Sarah, a once young colourful aspiring artist looking forwards to her future painting her way around the world. Her best friend and fellow aspiring artist Caroline, never a fan of Patrick but who has supported Sarah as best she can. Patrick, the older professional career and family man, who had an idyllic upbringing, brought up in a perfect house by the sea and who loves his wife and children. Joe their 17-year-old son, also a promising artist who has yet to find out Sarah is not his real mother and finally, Mia, the 15-year-old daughter who has always been a daddy’s girl.
All have their own story, their own problems that all culminate and come to a head inside the murder house!
Although Patrick is the only family member that wants the move and the fresh start the family all agree that they will try to make it work and to make the house perfect again just as it was when Patrick first lived there. It will be a monumental task for them all, the house has been neglected since the family before were all murdered in that house, damp patches and mould on the walls, rotting window frames, cold spots in certain parts of the house, not to mention the noises an old house can make don’t go anyway towards helping the new occupants to settle in to their new house.
Sarah becomes convinced someone is watching the house ever since they moved in, but is that just her imagination as Patrick suggests? And then what of the odd items left on the doorstep? A seashell? Living that close to the beach doesn’t sound that strange but then things begin to escalate as both Sarah and Patrick’s sanity and reality being to deteriorate.
Who’s perception is in fact reality and who’s is reality slipping away from them?
Will the house always be The Murder House or can it become the perfect family home they wish it to be?
With some plot twists to be expected and some that come as a shock, this is a psychological thriller not to be missed!
The Woman in the Dark will be published in the UK on 10 January 2019
A big thank you to Vanessa Savage, the publishers Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for my advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.
It has it all, what appears to be the perfect family, but in reality they are facing underlying stress, a mental ill wife, self-destructive teenage children, deteriorating marriage and of course, the move into The Murder House!
As with all books in this genre, things are never as they seem but sometimes, just sometimes, they are exactly that! I mean, who would expect The Murder House to be a perfect family home and a fresh start for them all? But can a house really have influence over the occupants and their actions? How much influence does our upbringing and past have on our futures?
Sarah, a once young colourful aspiring artist looking forwards to her future painting her way around the world. Her best friend and fellow aspiring artist Caroline, never a fan of Patrick but who has supported Sarah as best she can. Patrick, the older professional career and family man, who had an idyllic upbringing, brought up in a perfect house by the sea and who loves his wife and children. Joe their 17-year-old son, also a promising artist who has yet to find out Sarah is not his real mother and finally, Mia, the 15-year-old daughter who has always been a daddy’s girl.
All have their own story, their own problems that all culminate and come to a head inside the murder house!
Although Patrick is the only family member that wants the move and the fresh start the family all agree that they will try to make it work and to make the house perfect again just as it was when Patrick first lived there. It will be a monumental task for them all, the house has been neglected since the family before were all murdered in that house, damp patches and mould on the walls, rotting window frames, cold spots in certain parts of the house, not to mention the noises an old house can make don’t go anyway towards helping the new occupants to settle in to their new house.
Sarah becomes convinced someone is watching the house ever since they moved in, but is that just her imagination as Patrick suggests? And then what of the odd items left on the doorstep? A seashell? Living that close to the beach doesn’t sound that strange but then things begin to escalate as both Sarah and Patrick’s sanity and reality being to deteriorate.
Who’s perception is in fact reality and who’s is reality slipping away from them?
Will the house always be The Murder House or can it become the perfect family home they wish it to be?
With some plot twists to be expected and some that come as a shock, this is a psychological thriller not to be missed!
The Woman in the Dark will be published in the UK on 10 January 2019
A big thank you to Vanessa Savage, the publishers Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for my advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.