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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I loved the unreliable narrator Hildy in this novel. The characters in the story a well-developed and I enjoyed the every day intrigue of a somewhat insular town. A good read!
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A slow pithy start built into an engaging New England novel with a bit of a thriller feel in parts due to the jumping narration.
Overall a really great read with a heroine I couldn’t help but want to root for......by the end.
Overall a really great read with a heroine I couldn’t help but want to root for......by the end.
Listened on audiobook. I loved the craggy voice of the reader! It really lent to the unreliable narrator aspect of the book. It was well written, but didn’t build the suspense that I was expecting toward the end. Enjoyable though.
"Hildy Good is a townie. A lifelong resident of a small community on the rocky coast of Boston's North Shore, she knows pretty much everything about everyone. And she's good at lots of things, too. A successful real-estate broker, mother, and grandmother, her days are full. But her nights have become lonely ever since her daughters, convinced their mother was drinking too much, sent her off to rehab. Now she's in recovery―more or less.
Alone and feeling unjustly persecuted, Hildy finds a friend in Rebecca McAllister, one of the town's wealthy newcomers. Rebecca is grateful for the friendship and Hildy feels like a person of the world again, as she and Rebecca escape their worries with some harmless gossip and a bottle of wine by the fire―just one of their secrets."
It took a long time to get into this book. It started out slow and stayed that way for most of the book. Towards the end when it finally started to come together and get suspenseful it was almost too late to redeem it. I did like the book, but it was a little too slow moving for me.
Alone and feeling unjustly persecuted, Hildy finds a friend in Rebecca McAllister, one of the town's wealthy newcomers. Rebecca is grateful for the friendship and Hildy feels like a person of the world again, as she and Rebecca escape their worries with some harmless gossip and a bottle of wine by the fire―just one of their secrets."
It took a long time to get into this book. It started out slow and stayed that way for most of the book. Towards the end when it finally started to come together and get suspenseful it was almost too late to redeem it. I did like the book, but it was a little too slow moving for me.
I just really liked this book! It started a bit slow I thought but it then sucked me right in. The characters are so "real". It was one of those stories I had to keep telling myself "it's fiction Melanie, they aren't real". That's a good indicator for me that I'm going to rate it high. I loved Hildy even though I would have liked to smack her sometimes. It made me laugh and it made me sad. I found out the author is Denis Leary's wife so I googled her and read an article about her writing this book. She also has a problem with alcohol which I'm sure is why it is so true to life. Can't wait for the movie!
I really enjoyed this book, and I think a huge reason was the audiobook narrator (Mary Beth Hurt). Her characterization of Hildy Good, an unreliable first-person perspective at best and a falling-apart alcoholic otherwise, was so fantastic. It felt like I was sitting on a couch just listening to a friend talk about her weekend. When I wasn’t listening to it, I wanted to be. Apparently in production as a feature film so if you like to read the book before seeing the movie, here’s your chance.
Audiobook; highly recommended. Hildy Good lived her whole life in a small New England town with a cast of characters that are richly drawn and incredibly amusing. The narrator of the audiobook brings everything alive; you can taste the seashore air and swear you know these people. The logic of a drunk suddenly makes sense when she tells it. I found this story hilarious, terrifying, cringe-inducing, free-wheeling and sobering. Very enjoyable.
I listened to the audio version of this book and I loved the narration. I mean LOVED IT. The story was also well-written. It’s one that I will be thinking about for a long time.
This was probably a 3.5 for me but I liked it enough to round up. I felt like it took a long time to get to the meat of the story and I really had a hard time liking the main character. I liked the second half much better.