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A review by fwog19
Center of Gravity by Laura McNeill
2.0
This book reminded me of a TV movie. The story (woman's seemingly "perfect" marriage starts to crumble around her and she freaks out, having to fight for her children, etc, etc.) has been done to death both in TV and books. At first I was annoyed at Ava for being so naive, but then I realized it was because, having grown up in an abusive home, it hit a little too close. It's easy to see all of the bad stuff when you're looking in from the outside.
I felt bad for Ava and the kids being in such a horrible home and to them, it was normal. Jack has the little boy obsession with superheros and uses it as a way of coping. Poor baby Sam is just caught in the middle and doesn't know why his mama is suddenly taken away from him.
The book seemed a bit long at first because you spend about 2/3 of it basically seeing what a sociopathic douchebag Mitchell, the husband, is. It's like the author wanted to spend as much time as possible showing us just how awful someone could be, which didn't really feel necessary to me. You realize right off how despicable the guy is and I didn't think that it was really necessary for the author to keep going on and on by showing just how horrible he was. His past was touched on fairly briefly, but again mostly showing that yeah, he has serious issues, and that's about it.
Several topics (the previous wife's death, for example) were barely touched upon and Graham, the attorney, just seemed to be tossed in as a "oh yeah, we need another character" type.
Overall, the story was decent. I wouldn't really call it a "thriller" but I can see how it could be to people who maybe aren't familiar with abuse. To me it was more of a "let's feel bad for this family and see them prove that they are, in fact, stronger than they think" story that we've all seen before. I just wish everything hadn't happened in the last third of the book. So much of it could have been left out and we'd have been fine.
I felt bad for Ava and the kids being in such a horrible home and to them, it was normal. Jack has the little boy obsession with superheros and uses it as a way of coping. Poor baby Sam is just caught in the middle and doesn't know why his mama is suddenly taken away from him.
The book seemed a bit long at first because you spend about 2/3 of it basically seeing what a sociopathic douchebag Mitchell, the husband, is. It's like the author wanted to spend as much time as possible showing us just how awful someone could be, which didn't really feel necessary to me. You realize right off how despicable the guy is and I didn't think that it was really necessary for the author to keep going on and on by showing just how horrible he was. His past was touched on fairly briefly, but again mostly showing that yeah, he has serious issues, and that's about it.
Several topics (the previous wife's death, for example) were barely touched upon and Graham, the attorney, just seemed to be tossed in as a "oh yeah, we need another character" type.
Overall, the story was decent. I wouldn't really call it a "thriller" but I can see how it could be to people who maybe aren't familiar with abuse. To me it was more of a "let's feel bad for this family and see them prove that they are, in fact, stronger than they think" story that we've all seen before. I just wish everything hadn't happened in the last third of the book. So much of it could have been left out and we'd have been fine.