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A review by electraheart
The Best Friend: An utterly gripping psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist by Shalini Boland
2.0
I'm in the vast minority of people who didn't like this book, but I also have a feeling most people are hooked on any thriller that tries to say it's similar to Gone Girl. Which is...all of them.
But The Best Friend is so ridiculously predictable. There are alternating chapters that are about a girl and her brother growing up in foster care, and as soon as this history was introduced I was able to guess the plot, mostly because I've already read a book this year with almost that exact same premise. Could I tell you what book it was or which was published first? No, and it doesn't really matter because my point is that all of these B-list thrillers that are popping up are all the same.
The biggest problem with this book though is not its predictability, but how completely naive and stupid the main character is. She doesn't grow a backbone until it's too late and she's in way too deep, and then of course no one believes her. But here's the thing: if you don't want your husband spending time with a woman you think is trying to take over your life, do not offer your husband up to go jogging with her, especially when she's apparently vulnerable and grieving. If someone is stalking you for months and then tells you to drop eight grand on surveillance equipment for them, do not open another credit card and take out more loans to do so. If you think someone is manipulating you, do not keep accepting every single offer of help from them.
Honestly, if the main character was a lot smarter about the choices she made and acted early on instead of letting her suspicion build for the sake of the plot, this might have been a better book. Instead, it's a cheap knock off thriller that will get buried among the others.
But The Best Friend is so ridiculously predictable. There are alternating chapters that are about a girl and her brother growing up in foster care, and as soon as this history was introduced I was able to guess the plot, mostly because I've already read a book this year with almost that exact same premise. Could I tell you what book it was or which was published first? No, and it doesn't really matter because my point is that all of these B-list thrillers that are popping up are all the same.
The biggest problem with this book though is not its predictability, but how completely naive and stupid the main character is. She doesn't grow a backbone until it's too late and she's in way too deep, and then of course no one believes her. But here's the thing: if you don't want your husband spending time with a woman you think is trying to take over your life, do not offer your husband up to go jogging with her, especially when she's apparently vulnerable and grieving. If someone is stalking you for months and then tells you to drop eight grand on surveillance equipment for them, do not open another credit card and take out more loans to do so. If you think someone is manipulating you, do not keep accepting every single offer of help from them.
Honestly, if the main character was a lot smarter about the choices she made and acted early on instead of letting her suspicion build for the sake of the plot, this might have been a better book. Instead, it's a cheap knock off thriller that will get buried among the others.