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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
Oh dear god.
So, I have many, many issues with this book. It's not quite as bad as 'An Anonymous Girl', but brother it is on its way there. The premise- which feels like it was lifted from The Lovely Wife (was it just me that got that vibe?) - takes a while to get going and when it does, it's so, so boring. So let's get into it, shall we?
Let's begin with biggest dislike that made me nearly stop reading altogether: the rape and sexual assault of multiple women used in order to further the plot line. AUTHORS. PLEASE STOP. Thriller writers especially- we can have dark, twisted stories without having to fall back on a woman getting raped to give someone a motivation or prove that the villain is bad. Seriously. This book is very cavalier about the fact that two women were assaulted by this guy and are probably recovering from the trauma of being with him. One woman literally spent her entire time describing it as 'ugh, men are such tools, he did all this nasty shit and now I hate men.' Stop.
Why are we perpetuating an idea seemingly celebrated by male writers that we have to traumatise women in order to make them interesting?
There is way too much going on here. Not only do we have the story of the mysterious sister, who has returned to town after being accused of a heinous crime, but we also follow her family trying to unravel the mystery of 'who is this guy she went on a date on', the sister's relationship with past therapists and her obsession with getting people to love her, and whether or not she's been abducted. That's too much! One of those plot lines should give you ample enough content to write a book about. Altogether, it makes for a garbled, chaotic mess that starts to read like a soap opera if you stick around long enough.
Which brings me nicely on to my next issue: the writing. It. is. bad. So bad that I honestly wondered if this book had been edited at all. When the characters speak, it doesn't flow like dialogue. Every sentence is stilted, dripping with unnecessary exposition or postulating emotion. The happily married sister has two emotions: hysterical or concerned. That's it. Perhaps it was the acting of the audiobook narrator, but it honestly felt like I was watching a terrible play unfold before my eyes. I just kept cringing at how blatantly stiff everything felt. Real dialogue- authentic dialogue- should flow naturally and mimic human interaction. This was robotic.
Perhaps this book's brief saving grace is the main character, Laura, and that's only for about a micro-second. The interactions with her therapist are interesting, but as soon as she's painted as the 'love-obsessed' woman who jumps to conclusions and revolves her entire life around getting a man to love her, I checked out completely.
There are better thrillers, people, there really are.
I'm losing hope in this genre.
So, I have many, many issues with this book. It's not quite as bad as 'An Anonymous Girl', but brother it is on its way there. The premise- which feels like it was lifted from The Lovely Wife (was it just me that got that vibe?) - takes a while to get going and when it does, it's so, so boring. So let's get into it, shall we?
Let's begin with biggest dislike that made me nearly stop reading altogether: the rape and sexual assault of multiple women used in order to further the plot line. AUTHORS. PLEASE STOP. Thriller writers especially- we can have dark, twisted stories without having to fall back on a woman getting raped to give someone a motivation or prove that the villain is bad. Seriously. This book is very cavalier about the fact that two women were assaulted by this guy and are probably recovering from the trauma of being with him. One woman literally spent her entire time describing it as 'ugh, men are such tools, he did all this nasty shit and now I hate men.' Stop.
Why are we perpetuating an idea seemingly celebrated by male writers that we have to traumatise women in order to make them interesting?
There is way too much going on here. Not only do we have the story of the mysterious sister, who has returned to town after being accused of a heinous crime, but we also follow her family trying to unravel the mystery of 'who is this guy she went on a date on', the sister's relationship with past therapists and her obsession with getting people to love her, and whether or not she's been abducted. That's too much! One of those plot lines should give you ample enough content to write a book about. Altogether, it makes for a garbled, chaotic mess that starts to read like a soap opera if you stick around long enough.
Which brings me nicely on to my next issue: the writing. It. is. bad. So bad that I honestly wondered if this book had been edited at all. When the characters speak, it doesn't flow like dialogue. Every sentence is stilted, dripping with unnecessary exposition or postulating emotion. The happily married sister has two emotions: hysterical or concerned. That's it. Perhaps it was the acting of the audiobook narrator, but it honestly felt like I was watching a terrible play unfold before my eyes. I just kept cringing at how blatantly stiff everything felt. Real dialogue- authentic dialogue- should flow naturally and mimic human interaction. This was robotic.
Perhaps this book's brief saving grace is the main character, Laura, and that's only for about a micro-second. The interactions with her therapist are interesting, but as soon as she's painted as the 'love-obsessed' woman who jumps to conclusions and revolves her entire life around getting a man to love her, I checked out completely.
There are better thrillers, people, there really are.
I'm losing hope in this genre.
Some of the twists in this book I liked, others not so much. It's just hard to find super original twists in books if you're a thriller/suspense junkie because at this point it seems like everything's been done already. I did still ultimately end up liking the book for the story itself but the writing was the real selling point for me.
I was super excited to be receive an email telling me I was auto approved for this title as I had reviewed Wendy Walkers previous novel Emma in the Night.
Again, this novel has strong psychopathic theme central to it. Laura has returned to her childhood town after a 10-year enforced ostracization. Laura has an unsettled history, that saw her childhood boyfriend beaten to death with a baseball bat, and a mentally ill man convicted of the murder. But Laura was found with the baseball bat in her hand and blood on her dress. Was she as innocent as she claimed to be?
After the break-up of a relationship Laura returns to her childhood town to live with her sister. Keen to start afresh she signs up to a dating website and goes on a date. But when she doesn’t return her sister becomes concerned that history might be repeating itself and goes in search of her sister.
This is a good old fashioned twisty page turner. The dual narrators, Laura and Rosie make a good slant to the unfolding of events, and the ending is clever. I enjoyed this, and for me it’s the better of the two Wendy Walker novels I have read.
Thank you to Netgalley, and to the publisher for offering me the chance to review this novel super early. I just loved it.
Again, this novel has strong psychopathic theme central to it. Laura has returned to her childhood town after a 10-year enforced ostracization. Laura has an unsettled history, that saw her childhood boyfriend beaten to death with a baseball bat, and a mentally ill man convicted of the murder. But Laura was found with the baseball bat in her hand and blood on her dress. Was she as innocent as she claimed to be?
After the break-up of a relationship Laura returns to her childhood town to live with her sister. Keen to start afresh she signs up to a dating website and goes on a date. But when she doesn’t return her sister becomes concerned that history might be repeating itself and goes in search of her sister.
This is a good old fashioned twisty page turner. The dual narrators, Laura and Rosie make a good slant to the unfolding of events, and the ending is clever. I enjoyed this, and for me it’s the better of the two Wendy Walker novels I have read.
Thank you to Netgalley, and to the publisher for offering me the chance to review this novel super early. I just loved it.
This was my first Wendy Walker novel. I felt like the beginning was more engaging to me than the rest of the book, but overall this was a quick read. Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.
Meh. This is a cute thriller to read over the course of a flight or something, nothing more or less.
Considering I read this book from cover to cover in under four hours, I think it is safe to safe that Wendy Walker’s The Night Before is an utterly addictive and spine tingling thriller. I devoured the pages of this roller coaster ride because I had to know what the hell was going on.
The story opens with Laura Lochner starting a therapy session with Dr. Brody where she is hesitant to revisit the events from a night in her past where she is holding a weapon that killed someone. She says that night cemented who she always was, so Dr. Brody instructs Laura to begin telling him who exactly that girl is.
We jump ahead to four months later where Laura has left her life in the city following a terrible break up to live with her sister Rosie and her husband Joe. Laura is ready to move on and has decided to start by going on a date with Jonathan Fields, a man that she met through an online dating site (findlove). It is quite clear that Rosie is apprehensive with Laura’s decision to start dating again, but Laura assures Rosie that this time she plans on getting it right.
Everything changes when Rosie awakes in the middle of the night and Laura hasn’t returned home. Rosie and Joe fear the worst and begin to investigate the details of Laura’s life before it’s too late…and the past repeats itself.
I really enjoyed that this story is told from dual perspectives. The plot alternates between Laura’s and Rosie’s perspectives as we move from the past to the present to figure out what happened after Laura left the house for her date. Additionally, I fell in love with Laura’s character because of all of her flaws. All she wants is to be loved.
And if you want to know more, READ THIS BOOK!
Overall, if you’re looking for a fast paced thriller/mystery that leaves you guessing until the very last pages, you need to read this book. This was my first Wendy Walker novel, and it most certainly will not be my last.
Huge thank you to @SuzyApproved for the giveaway win of a signed finished copy of The Night Before! This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
The story opens with Laura Lochner starting a therapy session with Dr. Brody where she is hesitant to revisit the events from a night in her past where she is holding a weapon that killed someone. She says that night cemented who she always was, so Dr. Brody instructs Laura to begin telling him who exactly that girl is.
We jump ahead to four months later where Laura has left her life in the city following a terrible break up to live with her sister Rosie and her husband Joe. Laura is ready to move on and has decided to start by going on a date with Jonathan Fields, a man that she met through an online dating site (findlove). It is quite clear that Rosie is apprehensive with Laura’s decision to start dating again, but Laura assures Rosie that this time she plans on getting it right.
Everything changes when Rosie awakes in the middle of the night and Laura hasn’t returned home. Rosie and Joe fear the worst and begin to investigate the details of Laura’s life before it’s too late…and the past repeats itself.
I really enjoyed that this story is told from dual perspectives. The plot alternates between Laura’s and Rosie’s perspectives as we move from the past to the present to figure out what happened after Laura left the house for her date. Additionally, I fell in love with Laura’s character because of all of her flaws. All she wants is to be loved.
And if you want to know more, READ THIS BOOK!
Overall, if you’re looking for a fast paced thriller/mystery that leaves you guessing until the very last pages, you need to read this book. This was my first Wendy Walker novel, and it most certainly will not be my last.
Huge thank you to @SuzyApproved for the giveaway win of a signed finished copy of The Night Before! This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
I did not enjoy this at all. From the prose, which managed to be fast-paced yet incredibly dry, to the characters and their foolish behavior, and down to the big trope that tied it all together, I did not enjoy any of it. At all.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes