Reviews

For all of Catherine Sterling’s life it has been just her and her mother Ruth – and as much as she loves her mother, now that she is twenty-four, Catherine is more than ready to accept an exciting new career opportunity in another city.

But over the past few weeks Ruth has been displaying some worrying health symptoms such as confusion and memory problems, which has Catherine reconsidering her decision to move away. Before it’s too late, Ruth has started writing in a notebook – inscribed to Catherine – sharing details from her past starting nearly twenty-five years ago, secrets so shocking that they will shatter Ruth and Catherine’s carefully concealed life.

Wow, Gone Tonight was a nail-biting, intense, disturbing, twisty read, which made me question what I would do if I was in Ruth’s situation. What I really liked about this psychological thriller was that it really made me think about how close is too close when it comes to the adult mother/daughter relationship.

SPOILER AHEAD

A part of me couldn’t help sympathising with Ruth’s fear and paranoia given Catherine’s double whammy genetic history. For a lot of the novel, I could understand Ruth wanting to protect Catherine, her worry that she was predisposed to her mum’s alcoholism and James’ violent behaviour, even though she was both smothering and lying to her daughter.

END OF SPOILER.

I thought Gone Tonight had a very unique beginning and setup and I was completely in the dark regarding where it was going for most of the book because anytime I thought I had things figured out the plot would go in a completely different direction.

While I really enjoyed the first half, I did find the rest of the book (well up until near the end anyway) a little slow and repetitive in places, and some of the situations a tad unbelievable and convenient. Not that I mind that too much in this type of thriller, as too few twists would be boring, and a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required when reading domestic noir.

Anyway, I was always eager to find out what happened next, and I never considered not reading until the end (unlike the last two novels I’ve tried). All in all, a solid, suspenseful read.

I’d like to thank Netgalley, Orion Publishing Group, and Sarah Pekkanen for the e-ARC.

ash_c's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

Interesting. Good read.

raeof_sunshinebooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

ericranke's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

kaitlynyoung24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

elemar's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

kindlebabe's review against another edition

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5.0

Book : Gone Tonight
Author : Sarah Pekkanen
Pub Date : 01 August 2023

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s press, & the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Do you love:

- Domestic Thrillers
- Suspense
- Twists & Turns Left & Right
- Family Ties
- Dual POV w/alternating chapters (MY FAV!)

This book is for you!

I love a good twisty domestic thriller & I had never read anything from Sarah before and let me just start by saying that I will continue to watch for her releases because her writing style really does something for me. The characters in this read were so well done and the dialogue and storyline was perfection. This was one heck of a book. I sat down and opened this up and lost track of the entire day.

Without giving too much away because I think with this one I would…we follow a Ruth (the mother) who got pregnant with her daughter (Catherine) in high school and raised her into a beautiful young adult and she just graduated nursing school. Not long after we realize that her Ruth is forgetting things and they begin to wonder if possibly she has the early onsets of Alzheimer’s causing her daughter to put her life journey on hold — but the story takes a twist and we follow them on a wild ride that will have you hanging off the edge of your seat.

This book was hands down just wonderful! So many secrets, so many twists and mysterious turns. You never really know what’s going to happen next. I was not expecting the ending that was for sure. This book was probably another one of my favorite for the 2023 year. If you haven’t thought about picking up this book yet, this is your reminder. Cannot wait for the next one!

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