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A review by girlgetsbook
The No-Show by Beth O'Leary
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I read this book in two days in a daze. I had no internet and no phone, and I wanted to read something fast-paced and engaging. I chose the perfect book. The story is strange, intriguing, and mysterious. Even though it's marketed as romance, I think it falls more under the category of general fiction or women's fiction since the story is more about these women's lives and how Joseph, the guy who's dating them, fits in there. I think the women are definitely very different from each other and have interesting personal and internal lives, and I think that everyone can sympathize with at least one of them. I personally really liked Jane and Siobhan and didn't really get Miranda or her storyline; it felt like she belonged in another book altogether, which maybe was intentional but was very hard to follow (especially one particular character in it that always behaved very questionably). I do have to say I clocked it right away that they were on different timelines and even who was first. I just didn't expect that to happen to Siobhan, but I guess it's because she was the strongest character and had more chemistry with Joseph, so the author chose her to have that ending. Jane definitely suffered a lot and had second-love vibes, and Miranda was Miranda. I hated her love interest; he was a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen. I also realized that Richard was the guy who was abusive to Jane from the beginning.
I think one difficult thing about the story is that it is really hard to trust or root for Joseph as a character because there's always this aloofness (which is constantly mentioned by all the characters and gets a bit repetitive) around him, which is intentional and explained at the end but makes him a hard character to empathize with. I think the author did a good job within her limits, and I still managed to care about him, though I don't think that might be true for everyone who reads the book.
Something that I realized as well is that I don't think Beth's writing is for me. Though I loved the themes, the characters, and the plot, I don't particularly love the way she writes prose and dialogue. There were some very out-of-pocket things, either said by a character or in their inner monologues, that I found weird or maybe outdated, and I just can't put my finger on why (nothing super problematic, but that struck me as weird, and I can only attribute it to a lack of compatibility between me and the writing). Like when Joseph said he felt emasculated because he cried in front of Miranda, AJ's character as a whole being seen as endearing when he was straight up inappropriate, Richard in the beginning, and how he was perceived by Fiona and Siobhan when he was clearly awful even then.
Overall, I think the story was pretty great. It had loveable and interesting characters (for the most part), a good message about starting over and how community can help someone through hard times, was emotional and mature, and it had a feel-good ending; and though I can't give it 5 stars because of the things mentioned previously, I really liked it and empathized with a lot of the characters and it kept me hooked from start to finish.
I think one difficult thing about the story is that it is really hard to trust or root for Joseph as a character because there's always this aloofness (which is constantly mentioned by all the characters and gets a bit repetitive) around him, which is intentional and explained at the end but makes him a hard character to empathize with. I think the author did a good job within her limits, and I still managed to care about him, though I don't think that might be true for everyone who reads the book.
Something that I realized as well is that I don't think Beth's writing is for me. Though I loved the themes, the characters, and the plot, I don't particularly love the way she writes prose and dialogue. There were some very out-of-pocket things, either said by a character or in their inner monologues, that I found weird or maybe outdated, and I just can't put my finger on why (nothing super problematic, but that struck me as weird, and I can only attribute it to a lack of compatibility between me and the writing).
Overall, I think the story was pretty great. It had loveable and interesting characters (for the most part), a good message about starting over and how community can help someone through hard times, was emotional and mature, and it had a feel-good ending; and though I can't give it 5 stars because of the things mentioned previously, I really liked it and empathized with a lot of the characters and it kept me hooked from start to finish.