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willrefuge 's review for:
The Couple in the Photo
by Helen Cooper
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
7.5 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2024/06/05/the-couple-in-the-photo-by-helen-cooper-review/
Lucy and her husband Adam, have been best friends with another couple—Cora and Scott Woll—for years. The three (minus Lucy) had met at uni, becoming fast friends, and remained just as close in the years since. That Lucy had fit right in was a triumph that she had never taken for granted, and also fought to protect.
So it is that when looking at a colleague’s honeymoon photos from the Maldives, she comes across a picture of Scott, kissing a woman who is very much not Cora.
It’s a photo that Lucy cannot get out of her mind—and one she has to get to the bottom of.
Over the course of her investigation, Lucy learns that not only has the woman photographed with Scott gone missing, but the three might have had a preexisting relationship with her, one that seems murky at best. But could Scott have had anything to do with this woman’s sudden disappearance? As Lucy dives deep into the whereabouts of this strange woman, all leads keep going back to their time at uni—the one thing Lucy has felt has alienated them all this time. But the more she learns, the more Lucy is confronted with a terrible choice: is she willing to turn on Scott, or protect her dear friend, like just another one of the group she’s always envied?
—
So, she turns on Scott. I’d say spoilers, but it’s not even like it was in question—it happens so fast. Way too fast, in fact, for someone who’s supposedly been one of her only friends for over a decade.
One of the most popular reviews for this I saw just said that it was a super fucked up story—and I cannot disagree. Indeed, this is a horribly plausible if fucked up tale filled to the brim with terrible, awful people. Lucy right there among them. So, if you wanted a nice, easy he’s-cheating-on-her-because mystery, head somewhere else, because this is anything but easy. As wild as it got, however, I was never really surprised, nor blown away by its twists and reveals. So while it definitely reaches implausible levels of human fuckery, that’s the best way to describe this one: implausible, fucked up, but definitely human. Or at least within the human wheelhouse.
I will say that despite the near-constant twists and turns, very few of them completely lost any sense of realism. Yeah—there were a couple, but in a book this full of them, I’m surprised it wasn’t more. Pleasantly surprised. About the whole thing, really. After the beginning, I wouldn’t have expected the story to keep me engaged throughout. Nor see me burning through the thing in 2-3 days. Come the end I found a horrible cliché, though it didn’t ruin the journey.
TL;DR
A fucked up, if horribly plausible tale, where “horrible” can apply to the characters and plausibility of them being actual living, breathing humans, both. This story has more twists and turns than a corn-maze. While the story may lose you from time-to-time, these were thankfully few and far between. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have burned through this in a few days, learned some depressing (yet important) lessons about adult friendships, and done all you could to remember the thrill of the story, but forget the darkness represented by the Couple in the Photo in as little time as possible.
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2024/06/05/the-couple-in-the-photo-by-helen-cooper-review/
Lucy and her husband Adam, have been best friends with another couple—Cora and Scott Woll—for years. The three (minus Lucy) had met at uni, becoming fast friends, and remained just as close in the years since. That Lucy had fit right in was a triumph that she had never taken for granted, and also fought to protect.
So it is that when looking at a colleague’s honeymoon photos from the Maldives, she comes across a picture of Scott, kissing a woman who is very much not Cora.
It’s a photo that Lucy cannot get out of her mind—and one she has to get to the bottom of.
Over the course of her investigation, Lucy learns that not only has the woman photographed with Scott gone missing, but the three might have had a preexisting relationship with her, one that seems murky at best. But could Scott have had anything to do with this woman’s sudden disappearance? As Lucy dives deep into the whereabouts of this strange woman, all leads keep going back to their time at uni—the one thing Lucy has felt has alienated them all this time. But the more she learns, the more Lucy is confronted with a terrible choice: is she willing to turn on Scott, or protect her dear friend, like just another one of the group she’s always envied?
—
So, she turns on Scott. I’d say spoilers, but it’s not even like it was in question—it happens so fast. Way too fast, in fact, for someone who’s supposedly been one of her only friends for over a decade.
One of the most popular reviews for this I saw just said that it was a super fucked up story—and I cannot disagree. Indeed, this is a horribly plausible if fucked up tale filled to the brim with terrible, awful people. Lucy right there among them. So, if you wanted a nice, easy he’s-cheating-on-her-because mystery, head somewhere else, because this is anything but easy. As wild as it got, however, I was never really surprised, nor blown away by its twists and reveals. So while it definitely reaches implausible levels of human fuckery, that’s the best way to describe this one: implausible, fucked up, but definitely human. Or at least within the human wheelhouse.
I will say that despite the near-constant twists and turns, very few of them completely lost any sense of realism. Yeah—there were a couple, but in a book this full of them, I’m surprised it wasn’t more. Pleasantly surprised. About the whole thing, really. After the beginning, I wouldn’t have expected the story to keep me engaged throughout. Nor see me burning through the thing in 2-3 days. Come the end I found a horrible cliché, though it didn’t ruin the journey.
TL;DR
A fucked up, if horribly plausible tale, where “horrible” can apply to the characters and plausibility of them being actual living, breathing humans, both. This story has more twists and turns than a corn-maze. While the story may lose you from time-to-time, these were thankfully few and far between. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have burned through this in a few days, learned some depressing (yet important) lessons about adult friendships, and done all you could to remember the thrill of the story, but forget the darkness represented by the Couple in the Photo in as little time as possible.