Reviews with content warning for Dementia - Gone Tonight

I won this ARC in a @goodreads giveaway, and I’m going to be honest, I almost stepped away from this book at first…I wasn’t drawn in right away, and the beginning felt slow. The story follows mother and daughter Ruth and Catherine, and starts with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. I’m glad I didn’t put the book down, because as you get further into the book, the story picks up the pace and leaves you with so many questions that you have to keep reading in order to find answers. I also really like when a story has an unreliable narrator and Dual POV. Overall, I’d give it 4 ⭐️

Thank you again to @stmartinspress and @goodreads for the ARC!

Content Warnings

pomoevareads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Twenty-four year old Catherine Sterling has only known life with an overprotective mother. They don’t have any other family and share an apartment and car and each other’s phone locations. They have moved several times but this will be the first time that they will live separately as Catherine has taken a job as a nurse at a hospital in another city. All that is threatened when Catherine starts noticing some strange behaviours from her mother that may result in Catherine not taking her new job. From Ruth’s perspective, she will do anything to protect her daughter including keeping her as close as possible. Ruth has secrets that are threatening to cause harm to her and Catherine and decides to keep a journal to pass on to her daughter, should anything go awry.

As a fan of short chapters, mother/daughter stories and alternating POVs, I was hooked. I binged the last 50% of this book and loved all the crumbs dropped along the way. It was a slower burn for the first half and I have read comments from reviewers saying this wasn’t for them but I didn’t mind it one bit. I was invested in the storyline, the deception and discoveries, the suspenseful jaw drop moments and in the journal entries.

I was in the mood to read escapism and didn’t care about believability. So if you don’t mind suspending belief and are looking for a story to keep you on your toes, then pick up Gone Tonight by @sarahpekkanen when it comes out August 1st.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

As always, potential triggers will be shared to my StoryGraph review (also Pomoevareads)

Content Warnings

oceanwriter's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It’s been a few months since I’ve read a psychological thriller and I can’t think of a better one to have come back to the genre. With quiet twists and extraordinarily flawed yet lovable characters, I was hooked.

Though Catherine has always had a good relationship with her mother Ruth, she’s ready to leave home and begin a life and career of her own. Her plans change when her mother receives an Alzheimer’s diagnosis from her doctor. Not willing to waste a minute of the time left with Ruth, she cancels her moving plans.

Ruth begins to write down her life story for her daughter… but not for the reasons one might expect at such a time. She’s worked the entirety of Catherine’s life to keep her past buried. Not only her past but also the secrets Catherine unknowingly carries. It isn’t long before Catherine begins to pick up on the fact something deeper is amiss. How well does she really know her mother?

While the book keeps a slower pace than usually found in these kinds of thrillers, there is a constant string of events weaved in and out. Through Ruth, we get glimpses of her past. Through Catherine, we hear recollections of her mother and the conflict the plot brings into their relationship. I found Catherine’s character the most fascinating element of the book. Some might disagree with me, but I also found Ruth’s love for her child admirable under the circumstances. I feel she did the best she could with what she had.

I listened to the audiobook version. Kate Mara did a fantastic job narrating. Sometimes I don’t love listening to thrillers because the narrator will be too dramatic. There was the perfect amount of emotion and urgency conveyed without becoming theatrical. That said, the story would have benefited from two narrators so each character had their own voice. Nevertheless, the reading experience was not hindered because of the single narrator.

Gone Tonight is easily the best thriller I’ve read this year. I can’t wait to read Sarah Pekkanen’s other books.

A huge thanks to Macmillan Audio for inviting me to listen to an audio ARC of this book through NetGalley! I am looking forward to purchasing a hard copy for myself.

Content Warnings

tinamayreads's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Atmosphere: 👍
Fly-on-the-wall feels. We see the independent interpretations of the mother and daughter of similar events and behaviours, but it wasn't repetitive and the character reactions made sense even when you started to piece together what was really going on.
-Mostly set in an apartment and geriatric facility in a Pennsylvania town; imagine away because the author isn't overly detailed (in a way that fits the story), so if they don't describe something in detail early on you won't get your imaginings smashed in later.

Main POVs: 👌
-A parent in their 40s who had their child while in high school. They dropped out of school, cutting off their family, friends, and boyfriend. They successfully made a life as a waitress and single mother. They are caring, protective, intelligent, and cautious bordering on cunning.
-A morally grey adult child (in their 20s) of the above-mentioned parent. They are close with their parent, loyal, but also excited to branch out on their own after obtaining a geriatric nursing degree. They have confusing and conflicting emotions about leaving because their parent has recently shown symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer's.
-Journal entries sprinkled throughout of the parent recounting how they met their boyfriend, handled pregnancy and high school, and why they cut everyone off in their life.

Cred Rating: 👍
Mostly realistic/plausible. I found myself fly-on-the-wall screaming "what about____" sometimes and every time the MC would address my internal rantings in a way that made sense or showed they were aware of the shortcomings in their plan/interpretative of events, which drew me into the story and made me feel like I was interacting with the characters sometimes. Certain scenes near the end had to rely on a complete lack of eye witnesses but I guess it could happen! The feels about a parent wondering if their child inherited the worst of the other parent (while ignoring their own shortcomings) were realistic.

Reading Journey: 👍
Cruising through town in the evening on a twisty turny road while totally lost in an audiobook/podcast/radio program.

Great match if you like:
-Mother daughter relationship tropes
-Book club/thought-provoking commentary based on "Nature vs Nurture", "What would you do in that situation?", and how far is healthy/non-psychopathic for protecting your loved ones
-Fly-on-the wall narratives (we are deep in both MCs thoughts and understanding why they do what they do or think what they think while knowing more of what happened as the observer)
-Fugitive/secretly on-the-run plots
-puzzle piecing over the course of a story

Vibes: 🫢🥺🤗

Content heads-up: One of the characters works in a geriatric facility supporting elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer's. There are descriptions of what the patients go through based on the MC's POV, and although dementia and Alzheimer's is touched on in the story, it isn't the main focus.

Format: ARC from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

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