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A review by lyndajdickson
The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets by Sophie Hannah
5.0
This is a collection of ten short (albeit quite long) stories. I haven't read them all yet, so this review is for the first four stories.
In "The Octopus Nest", Claire and her husband discover a mysterious woman in all their holiday photos taken over the last ten years. But not all is as it seems. The ending will shock you.
In "Friendly Amid the Haters", our narrator deals with incompetence at every turn - until she reaches her breaking point. Just how far can things go over a stained carpet?
In "We All Say What We Want", Tom finds it impossible to say what he actually feels, but what would happen if he did? Did you ever wonder what "cc" and "bcc" on emails stand for? You'll find out in this story!
In "The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets", Tamsin is compiling and editing a book of secrets, but what is her motivation? Not all narrators can be trusted to provided an unbiased account of their actions.
This last story appropriately provides the title for the collection, as all the stories have a bookish theme and feature people who have secrets of their own. The writing is excellent, the pace is brisk, suspense is maintained throughout, and the author makes some clever observations of human behavior. With their tongue-in-cheek humor and witty, sarcastic banter, these stories had me laughing out loud at some points, had me cringing at others, and left me shocked at their conclusion.
I look forward to reading the rest of this collection.
I received this book in return for an honest review.
Full blog post: https://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-fantastic-book-of-everybodys-secrets-by-sophie-hannah.html
In "The Octopus Nest", Claire and her husband discover a mysterious woman in all their holiday photos taken over the last ten years. But not all is as it seems. The ending will shock you.
In "Friendly Amid the Haters", our narrator deals with incompetence at every turn - until she reaches her breaking point. Just how far can things go over a stained carpet?
In "We All Say What We Want", Tom finds it impossible to say what he actually feels, but what would happen if he did? Did you ever wonder what "cc" and "bcc" on emails stand for? You'll find out in this story!
In "The Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets", Tamsin is compiling and editing a book of secrets, but what is her motivation? Not all narrators can be trusted to provided an unbiased account of their actions.
This last story appropriately provides the title for the collection, as all the stories have a bookish theme and feature people who have secrets of their own. The writing is excellent, the pace is brisk, suspense is maintained throughout, and the author makes some clever observations of human behavior. With their tongue-in-cheek humor and witty, sarcastic banter, these stories had me laughing out loud at some points, had me cringing at others, and left me shocked at their conclusion.
I look forward to reading the rest of this collection.
I received this book in return for an honest review.
Full blog post: https://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-fantastic-book-of-everybodys-secrets-by-sophie-hannah.html