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cdjdhj's review
4.0
Five families live on a cul-de-sac in a middle class Florida neighborhood. All appear to be living the American dream in one way or another, but all of the families have secrets, some deadly, that will change their lives, and their neighborhood forever. This is a well-written book that weaves the story lines of all five families through the tightly-crafted, page-turning plot. The theme of family violence makes the book disturbing to read in parts, but the author's message about easy access to guns and it's impact on our society, both individually and collectively, comes through loud and clear.
cutenanya's review
2.0
Cul de sac is a psychological thriller that explores the secrets and lies of five families living in a suburban neighborhood. One night, a shooting will shatter their lives and expose their dark sides. The author, Joy Fielding, is known for her character development and suspenseful writing, but does this book live up to her reputation?
I was disappointed by this book. It made me feel like a bored voyeur, peeking into other people’s problems without any real interest or connection. The book lacked a central plot and a clear mystery to keep me engaged. It was just a series of flashbacks and vignettes about the characters’ past and present, with no direction or purpose. The characters were so flawed and unhappy that it was depressing to read about them. Some of them were also unrealistic and exaggerated, like Maggie, the woman who was driven to paranoia for doing the right thing but never giving up trying, and Danny, a smart professional who tolerates her abusive husband way too much. The only redeeming quality of this book was the ending, where some justice was served and some hope was restored.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery or a gripping thriller. It was slow, dull, and confusing. I give it 2 stars out of 5.
I was disappointed by this book. It made me feel like a bored voyeur, peeking into other people’s problems without any real interest or connection. The book lacked a central plot and a clear mystery to keep me engaged. It was just a series of flashbacks and vignettes about the characters’ past and present, with no direction or purpose. The characters were so flawed and unhappy that it was depressing to read about them. Some of them were also unrealistic and exaggerated, like Maggie, the woman who was driven to paranoia for doing the right thing but never giving up trying, and Danny, a smart professional who tolerates her abusive husband way too much. The only redeeming quality of this book was the ending, where some justice was served and some hope was restored.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery or a gripping thriller. It was slow, dull, and confusing. I give it 2 stars out of 5.
legitamatehalo's review
1.0
Real Rating: 0.5 rounded up, but if i could give it a 0 i would
This was not a thriller at all. This was not very suspenseful, nor was it a murder mystery. It was literally anti-gun propaganda. This book infuriates me so much and I have no idea how it is averaged at 4 stars! This book was quite literally a bore and when it wasn't, it was so hard to read. It had so much abuse of guns, and drugs, and just so much degrading of women, rape, and just truly uncomfortable scenes. The only reason I finished this book was to have a proper stand on how I rate and feel about this book. I didn’t want to rant on and on about the book and not of finished it all and possibly wondering if it got any better from where i stopped. so praise me for finishing this god awful book.
The book is nowhere near a mystery or even a thriller, I don't even know if I can even call this contemporary fiction. The reveal of who kills who and who even gets killed was in the last chapter. I'm not even exaggerating. **It was the last chapter**. And yes, we found out who was getting killed and who killed who at the end. May i tell you once again, it was. the. last. chapter. No mystery to that and nor was it very thrilling. The only part of this book I did like was the very thoroughly-ish (honestly most likely i very fast google search) researched paragraph about guns and owning guns in the United States. I commend her for the research and how much I learned just off of a little paragraph, unlike how fast my brain has deteriorated from reading this. I don’t think I’ll ever recover.
The reading was very intriguing to me at first, but then it got repetitive and just became word vomit at some parts for me. Truthfully it was the whole book. The whole book was word poop. It belongs in the toilet, flushed. Not even the trash. At one point a wife goes to an office building and Joy just wants to tell us the news that's happening on the TV and the COLOR of the CARPET and how the wood is the same as the pillars. I'm sorry but I don't care about the color of the carpet.
***read at your own risk (don't really cause the book is hot garbage, don't waste your precious time like I did).***
The "character development" in this book was atrocious. Yes, the only thing that made me keep going through this book—like eating a whole family sized bag of chips—was the grandson and grandmother duo that I absolutely loved despite him being a pothead (that in my opinion was first of all represented a little poorly, but only because—I think— she hasn't had any experience with it; although her writing makes it look like she was smoking during writing and that everyone has different experiences, it feels like it was very forced and unrealistic.). She describes him as "skinny, a little unkempt, skinny (yes again) torso, with skinny legs, long thin face, and bony shoulders" (those are all from different lines of the book, I KNOW.) but she still chooses to use skinny three or more times throughout the book making me believe he's not only just a pothead. But she just says he smokes weed which I refuse to believe because weed significantly increases your intake of food by 40%. And just in saying that itself why is this man-boy so skinny?? Also is skinny the only word you know? Is this the only word that can be used to describe this pothead? No. Simply, no. You can use words other than skinny and bony Ms.Fielding.
Now I'm not going to try to go into more detail as I have above with the other characters, but within the last chapters (each chapter was highlighting each of the characters at the end) every character and family was literally being wrapped up to an end. Magically Aiden doesn't want to listen to his dear old mommy and retaliates (verbally) against her; him not caring anymore about his mom and her taking care of the money around the house. Which is just a huge jump from how he was before with little to no explanation. I mean yeah he doesn’t want to listen to his mommy anymore because he loves his wife, but throughout the whole book you didn’t show any of this to your wife or mother, so why now? Just cause Joy Fielding doesn’t want to leave the book with any character holes or flaws. I would of been just fine with his character following his mommy’s orders.
Now Julia's turn: She wants to go to the nursing home in turn for her grandson to go to college and have housing all paid for by her (julia's) son. Now don't get me wrong I loved this, I loved her, I loved the relationship of her and her son getting better and of course I loved the relationship between Mark and Julia, but to me it all seemed a lot rushed or just "because Mark left me and even though I believe he is gonna come back, I'm gonna go to the nursing home". I just don't like how that all feel rushed and all of a sudden she wants to tell the readers that she does indeed feel that the house is a little too much work and her hips are starting to hurt from the stairs and she's afraid that she might fall down the stairs. Her son has been saying that ever since we first read about him visiting her and now she's afraid of falling down the stairs and she hasn't said anything like that during any of our time reading about her! This is third person but we also hear their thoughts and we don't hear a thing about julia thinking anything like that!! Throughout the whole book Julia doesn’t have a problem with being in the house alone BEFORE her grandson comes along or after.
Now we have the overbearing mother, Lisa, who I don't think overbearing is the right word to describe her. (Even though Ms.Fielding describes her as just that word only.) But I'm a little too lazy and undereducated in the dictionary to really find the right word. In the end, we NEVER get to find out why she's like this or what even REALLY happened during her marriage and divorce with her ex-husband. All we know is that the father said to stay with him cause it would make 'mom' happy and mom not being happy is not good and that she probably goes crazy. She tells everyone that her son DIED in Afghanistan when he didn't, she's just embarrassed her son ‘disowned’ her. And that she was trying to make her son breakup with Heidi.
And of course to top it off ,OF COURSE Maggie stays with Craig. I'm fine with them getting back together, but it's just he left her cause she was going crazy and now that she's not (going crazy) he wants to stay. You can’t pick and choose when stay and love your wife. I mean you CAN but good lord you shouldn’t and can’t? If you get what i’m putting down. They also have two kids one like 16 or 15 and the other like 8? Not sure, but you shouldn’t be coming in and out of the lives of ATLEAST the 8 year old cause you know…don’t want him having the wrong idea. It’s just best for the kids, but you know it’s whatever Craig do what you want. Confuse your kids and mess around with another women. Yes, Joy Fielding wrote that he was like “with” another women and pretty much the only reason he wants Maggie back is cause he got jealous when he saw her with another man kissing and that she’s magically not crazy anymore. Maggie wanted a divorce at one point in the book and was starting to get some closure and realize he's not coming back, but nope he wants her back now. Yay happy ending.
This was not a thriller at all. This was not very suspenseful, nor was it a murder mystery. It was literally anti-gun propaganda. This book infuriates me so much and I have no idea how it is averaged at 4 stars! This book was quite literally a bore and when it wasn't, it was so hard to read. It had so much abuse of guns, and drugs, and just so much degrading of women, rape, and just truly uncomfortable scenes. The only reason I finished this book was to have a proper stand on how I rate and feel about this book. I didn’t want to rant on and on about the book and not of finished it all and possibly wondering if it got any better from where i stopped. so praise me for finishing this god awful book.
The book is nowhere near a mystery or even a thriller, I don't even know if I can even call this contemporary fiction. The reveal of who kills who and who even gets killed was in the last chapter. I'm not even exaggerating. **It was the last chapter**. And yes, we found out who was getting killed and who killed who at the end. May i tell you once again, it was. the. last. chapter. No mystery to that and nor was it very thrilling. The only part of this book I did like was the very thoroughly-ish (honestly most likely i very fast google search) researched paragraph about guns and owning guns in the United States. I commend her for the research and how much I learned just off of a little paragraph, unlike how fast my brain has deteriorated from reading this. I don’t think I’ll ever recover.
The reading was very intriguing to me at first, but then it got repetitive and just became word vomit at some parts for me. Truthfully it was the whole book. The whole book was word poop. It belongs in the toilet, flushed. Not even the trash. At one point a wife goes to an office building and Joy just wants to tell us the news that's happening on the TV and the COLOR of the CARPET and how the wood is the same as the pillars. I'm sorry but I don't care about the color of the carpet.
***read at your own risk (don't really cause the book is hot garbage, don't waste your precious time like I did).***
The "character development" in this book was atrocious. Yes, the only thing that made me keep going through this book—like eating a whole family sized bag of chips—was the grandson and grandmother duo that I absolutely loved despite him being a pothead (that in my opinion was first of all represented a little poorly, but only because—I think— she hasn't had any experience with it; although her writing makes it look like she was smoking during writing and that everyone has different experiences, it feels like it was very forced and unrealistic.). She describes him as "skinny, a little unkempt, skinny (yes again) torso, with skinny legs, long thin face, and bony shoulders" (those are all from different lines of the book, I KNOW.) but she still chooses to use skinny three or more times throughout the book making me believe he's not only just a pothead. But she just says he smokes weed which I refuse to believe because weed significantly increases your intake of food by 40%. And just in saying that itself why is this man-boy so skinny?? Also is skinny the only word you know? Is this the only word that can be used to describe this pothead? No. Simply, no. You can use words other than skinny and bony Ms.Fielding.
Now I'm not going to try to go into more detail as I have above with the other characters, but within the last chapters (each chapter was highlighting each of the characters at the end) every character and family was literally being wrapped up to an end. Magically Aiden doesn't want to listen to his dear old mommy and retaliates (verbally) against her; him not caring anymore about his mom and her taking care of the money around the house. Which is just a huge jump from how he was before with little to no explanation. I mean yeah he doesn’t want to listen to his mommy anymore because he loves his wife, but throughout the whole book you didn’t show any of this to your wife or mother, so why now? Just cause Joy Fielding doesn’t want to leave the book with any character holes or flaws. I would of been just fine with his character following his mommy’s orders.
Now Julia's turn: She wants to go to the nursing home in turn for her grandson to go to college and have housing all paid for by her (julia's) son. Now don't get me wrong I loved this, I loved her, I loved the relationship of her and her son getting better and of course I loved the relationship between Mark and Julia, but to me it all seemed a lot rushed or just "because Mark left me and even though I believe he is gonna come back, I'm gonna go to the nursing home". I just don't like how that all feel rushed and all of a sudden she wants to tell the readers that she does indeed feel that the house is a little too much work and her hips are starting to hurt from the stairs and she's afraid that she might fall down the stairs. Her son has been saying that ever since we first read about him visiting her and now she's afraid of falling down the stairs and she hasn't said anything like that during any of our time reading about her! This is third person but we also hear their thoughts and we don't hear a thing about julia thinking anything like that!! Throughout the whole book Julia doesn’t have a problem with being in the house alone BEFORE her grandson comes along or after.
Now we have the overbearing mother, Lisa, who I don't think overbearing is the right word to describe her. (Even though Ms.Fielding describes her as just that word only.) But I'm a little too lazy and undereducated in the dictionary to really find the right word. In the end, we NEVER get to find out why she's like this or what even REALLY happened during her marriage and divorce with her ex-husband. All we know is that the father said to stay with him cause it would make 'mom' happy and mom not being happy is not good and that she probably goes crazy. She tells everyone that her son DIED in Afghanistan when he didn't, she's just embarrassed her son ‘disowned’ her. And that she was trying to make her son breakup with Heidi.
And of course to top it off ,OF COURSE Maggie stays with Craig. I'm fine with them getting back together, but it's just he left her cause she was going crazy and now that she's not (going crazy) he wants to stay. You can’t pick and choose when stay and love your wife. I mean you CAN but good lord you shouldn’t and can’t? If you get what i’m putting down. They also have two kids one like 16 or 15 and the other like 8? Not sure, but you shouldn’t be coming in and out of the lives of ATLEAST the 8 year old cause you know…don’t want him having the wrong idea. It’s just best for the kids, but you know it’s whatever Craig do what you want. Confuse your kids and mess around with another women. Yes, Joy Fielding wrote that he was like “with” another women and pretty much the only reason he wants Maggie back is cause he got jealous when he saw her with another man kissing and that she’s magically not crazy anymore. Maggie wanted a divorce at one point in the book and was starting to get some closure and realize he's not coming back, but nope he wants her back now. Yay happy ending.
deanab's review
4.0
There was one big flaw in this book. When Dani goes to the shooting range, she is by herself and rents a gun. This is completely against federal laws. You must be accompanied by someone else to rent a gun at a shooting range.
alixfish's review
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
zasou_reads's review against another edition
3.0
This theme of "you never know what goes on behind the closed doors of your neighborhood" has been overdone on the psychological genre. Layer on a cast of unlikable characters, all with unoriginal secrets and loathing each other and you have Cul-De-Sac. Also, none of the characters had a particularly distinct voice, and the switches in POVs were not clearly delineated, so it was sometimes hard to know which POV we were in. I'm glad I did this one as audio, because I probably would've DNFd otherwise.
neverjethot's review
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Suburban fun
enaria's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25