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mamthew42's review against another edition
3.0
Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me was August's book for the adult book club I facilitate. It's the first thriller for the book club that I enjoyed - We Begin at the End and The Plot were both pretty bad. Unfortunately, I also didn't find much in it that's really worth an hour of discussion.
The official plot summary for the book gives away a twist that happens about halfway in, so my summary will give away less than that. Hannah's husband of two years works as a coder for a big tech company, and when the company is busted for fraud, he disappears, leaving her a duffel bag of several hundred thousand dollars in cash and a note that simply asks her to protect his teenage daughter Bailey, who hates Hannah. I was cautiously optimistic when the tech company bust happened, as I had the recent FTX implosion on my mind and thought a thriller in that vein could be fun. But the particulars of the company don't end up mattering all that much to the overall plot, and the author doesn't seem to have thought much of it through, as evidenced by the fantastically wrong quote, "they were building software tools set to privatize online life [....] They wanted to be a part of revolutionizing online privacy [....] How could there be fraud in that?"
But the core of the novel instead lies in the mystery of what happened to Hannah's husband and the relationship between Hannah and Bailey, now that each is suddenly the other's only person. The mystery is good enough, but the relationship is heartfelt and well-written. Most of the clues to the msytery are presented through flashbacks to conversations Hannah had with her husband in the past, going back first days, and then years, as she tries to remember anything he might have said that might give her a clue to his location. It's a good way to flesh out a character who's absent from the start. The only real flaw with this approach is it flattens Hannah's relationship to Bailey a bit, as we see that Bailey has consistently been mean to and angry at Hannah the entire time they've known each other, while Hannah has been pretty much saint-like in her attitude toward Bailey. This cheapens some of the impact of their shifting relationship in the present, as it reveals the changes to be almost entirely one-way. Which is especially a shame because that relationship is the beating heart of the novel.
I don't want to be too hard on The Last Thing He Told Me for those issues, though. It's a solid read that was enjoyable enough that I finished it within one work day, and it's not trying to be all that much deeper than a mystery thriller with a heartfelt twist. It just confuses me a little bit as to why it was chosen for my book club over something more substantial. There's a television adaptation on Apple TV, and while I have no plans to check it out, if it's a faithful enough adaptation it might be worth catching the story that way instead, in a medium where the flow of information is a little more controlled. As it is, I finished the book too quickly to really be drawn into the mystery.
The official plot summary for the book gives away a twist that happens about halfway in, so my summary will give away less than that. Hannah's husband of two years works as a coder for a big tech company, and when the company is busted for fraud, he disappears, leaving her a duffel bag of several hundred thousand dollars in cash and a note that simply asks her to protect his teenage daughter Bailey, who hates Hannah. I was cautiously optimistic when the tech company bust happened, as I had the recent FTX implosion on my mind and thought a thriller in that vein could be fun. But the particulars of the company don't end up mattering all that much to the overall plot, and the author doesn't seem to have thought much of it through, as evidenced by the fantastically wrong quote, "they were building software tools set to privatize online life [....] They wanted to be a part of revolutionizing online privacy [....] How could there be fraud in that?"
But the core of the novel instead lies in the mystery of what happened to Hannah's husband and the relationship between Hannah and Bailey, now that each is suddenly the other's only person. The mystery is good enough, but the relationship is heartfelt and well-written. Most of the clues to the msytery are presented through flashbacks to conversations Hannah had with her husband in the past, going back first days, and then years, as she tries to remember anything he might have said that might give her a clue to his location. It's a good way to flesh out a character who's absent from the start. The only real flaw with this approach is it flattens Hannah's relationship to Bailey a bit, as we see that Bailey has consistently been mean to and angry at Hannah the entire time they've known each other, while Hannah has been pretty much saint-like in her attitude toward Bailey. This cheapens some of the impact of their shifting relationship in the present, as it reveals the changes to be almost entirely one-way. Which is especially a shame because that relationship is the beating heart of the novel.
I don't want to be too hard on The Last Thing He Told Me for those issues, though. It's a solid read that was enjoyable enough that I finished it within one work day, and it's not trying to be all that much deeper than a mystery thriller with a heartfelt twist. It just confuses me a little bit as to why it was chosen for my book club over something more substantial. There's a television adaptation on Apple TV, and while I have no plans to check it out, if it's a faithful enough adaptation it might be worth catching the story that way instead, in a medium where the flow of information is a little more controlled. As it is, I finished the book too quickly to really be drawn into the mystery.
wabcoqueen's review against another edition
3.0
How well does one truly know their spouse? That question is one of many things that Hannah has to figure out in the suspenseful story.
daydreamzzz's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
cececervantez's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
It was a good short read. I may be partial as a Texas Ex and Austinite but the city was described in great detail. The ending fell a little flat in my opinion. But good thriller regardless..
sdevs12's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
sdelcharco's review against another edition
3.0
My friends who read this booked loved it. I didn’t love it as much as they did. I just liked it. Hated the end.
amandarice15's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
bthadifields's review against another edition
2.0
Este libro es entretenido. No obstante, hay algo sobre él que lo ha hecho bastante insípido. Puede que haya sido la pluma y narrativa de la autora que no ha destacado en ningún momento, esta cumple su función pero no te transmite casi nada, es sosa.
También puede haber sido los personajes, que a mi parecer eran bastante planos y siguen una evolución más bien lineal. Quizá haya sido que los Plot twists hayan sido una ida de Olla que no encajan con la narrativa, no lo sé.
La trama tenía potencial, de verdad, por desgracia se quedó en eso, potencial. Algo que me ha dado muchísima pena porque el libro trata de llevarnos por ciertas experiencias, como la de ser una madre para una niña que no te acepta, pero no ha sido algo con lo que haya podido empatizar por lo ortopédica que han resultado, sobre todo sus interacciones. Es un libro que sin duda se puede disfrutar, no obstante en lo formal deja mucho que desear.
También puede haber sido los personajes, que a mi parecer eran bastante planos y siguen una evolución más bien lineal. Quizá haya sido que los Plot twists hayan sido una ida de Olla que no encajan con la narrativa, no lo sé.
La trama tenía potencial, de verdad, por desgracia se quedó en eso, potencial. Algo que me ha dado muchísima pena porque el libro trata de llevarnos por ciertas experiencias, como la de ser una madre para una niña que no te acepta, pero no ha sido algo con lo que haya podido empatizar por lo ortopédica que han resultado, sobre todo sus interacciones. Es un libro que sin duda se puede disfrutar, no obstante en lo formal deja mucho que desear.