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A review by bombadalejr
You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz
3.0
I bought this book so my mom and I could have a summer book-club with each other and, since we both like mystery/thrillers with female leads, I thought this book would be perfect.
The first few chapters droned on, and when the book did pick up momentum it only lasted a few pages before the author slammed on the breaks and went back to a slow narrative. I found the book frustratingly predictable. Once the author established the therapy style of Grace, and the heavy emphasis on the phrase "you should have known", I almost immediately knew what was going to happen. There were some fantastic moments of suspense, but they mostly came at a weird time or lasted only a few paragraphs. Even the parts in the book that were not predicted, were unsurprising and lacked a climax.
In fact, I'd say this entire book lacked a climax. There was not really a rise and fall of information to me, it was all done in the same and somewhat monotone narrative voice. Sometimes, while skimming through the monotonous narrative of Grace's day-to-day and skipping the moments where even a child would have connected the foreshadowing (yet, somehow Grace and her doctorate didn't), I would have to run back through and find where the "action" started after finding myself thrust into an interrogation that was over before it started.
The saving grace (pun not intended) of this book was the look it gave into a shocked mind trying to reason with itself everything that was happening. Yet, even in doing that, the author allowed her extremely intelligent character to come off as ignorant. I'm not saying Grace should have known what was going to happen or how everything would play out, just that the author could have given her more credit when Grace began to react the same way that her patients did, yet somehow did not realize it.
My mom loved it, but in the end this book just kept me frustrated the whole weekend.
The first few chapters droned on, and when the book did pick up momentum it only lasted a few pages before the author slammed on the breaks and went back to a slow narrative. I found the book frustratingly predictable. Once the author established the therapy style of Grace, and the heavy emphasis on the phrase "you should have known", I almost immediately knew what was going to happen. There were some fantastic moments of suspense, but they mostly came at a weird time or lasted only a few paragraphs. Even the parts in the book that were not predicted, were unsurprising and lacked a climax.
In fact, I'd say this entire book lacked a climax. There was not really a rise and fall of information to me, it was all done in the same and somewhat monotone narrative voice. Sometimes, while skimming through the monotonous narrative of Grace's day-to-day and skipping the moments where even a child would have connected the foreshadowing (yet, somehow Grace and her doctorate didn't), I would have to run back through and find where the "action" started after finding myself thrust into an interrogation that was over before it started.
The saving grace (pun not intended) of this book was the look it gave into a shocked mind trying to reason with itself everything that was happening. Yet, even in doing that, the author allowed her extremely intelligent character to come off as ignorant. I'm not saying Grace should have known what was going to happen or how everything would play out, just that the author could have given her more credit when Grace began to react the same way that her patients did, yet somehow did not realize it.
My mom loved it, but in the end this book just kept me frustrated the whole weekend.