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A review by mnboyer
Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Reese Witherspoon Book Club: December 2023
Reese's book selections are, by far, the most polarizing group of novels I have ever read. I either pick one up and love it, or I get something like Before We Were Innocent -- which was a huge snooze fest, and that is putting it mildly.
The first thing you should know: the story is told in two different timelines (the past and the present) and it really, really did not need to be. I would have preferred quick flashbacks instead of all of these overly lengthy returns to the past, but instead you get overwritten moments that make you start to nod off. And this has a lot to do with the pacing, which is slow. I would not call this a thriller in the sense that it was pitched -- it is a super slow burn, and once you get into it, it really is not as 'thrilling' as it promises.
The story itself is about a group of friends who, honestly, really shouldn't be friends. The book, at its core, is really about abusive and toxic relationships/friendships and leads you down a dark path in which one friend falls to her death in Greece. Or was she pushed? Okay -- that sounds fun, right -- a mystery! But it never gets fun, it never picks up the pace, and by the time I got to the end I was like wait... what? Went back, read it again, was even less impressed the second time that I read the ending.
Characters... not likeable. There wasn't a single character that I gravitated towards as a character I liked. Now, I'm all for unlikable characters but I still have to care about their plight. Here, I just kept thinking, "is this still going?" and kind of wished everyone had fallen off a cliff.
Reese's book selections are, by far, the most polarizing group of novels I have ever read. I either pick one up and love it, or I get something like Before We Were Innocent -- which was a huge snooze fest, and that is putting it mildly.
The first thing you should know: the story is told in two different timelines (the past and the present) and it really, really did not need to be. I would have preferred quick flashbacks instead of all of these overly lengthy returns to the past, but instead you get overwritten moments that make you start to nod off. And this has a lot to do with the pacing, which is slow. I would not call this a thriller in the sense that it was pitched -- it is a super slow burn, and once you get into it, it really is not as 'thrilling' as it promises.
The story itself is about a group of friends who, honestly, really shouldn't be friends. The book, at its core, is really about abusive and toxic relationships/friendships and leads you down a dark path in which one friend falls to her death in Greece. Or was she pushed? Okay -- that sounds fun, right -- a mystery! But it never gets fun, it never picks up the pace, and by the time I got to the end I was like wait... what? Went back, read it again, was even less impressed the second time that I read the ending.
Characters... not likeable. There wasn't a single character that I gravitated towards as a character I liked. Now, I'm all for unlikable characters but I still have to care about their plight. Here, I just kept thinking, "is this still going?" and kind of wished everyone had fallen off a cliff.