bathtubbookworm 's review for:

What You Did by Claire McGowan

3.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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🎧🛁 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 🛁🎧

What You Did by Claire McGowan

Narrated by Pearl Hewitt and Karen Cass

Synopsis: Ali is thrilled to host all of her college friends for the first time since a terrible incident broke them apart years ago. The night starts great, until Ali’s best friend Karen stumbles inside late, hurt, accusing Ali’s husband Mike of rape. The accusation tests loyalties, trust, and begs the question - do you ever really know the people closest to you?

Going into this book, I definitely thought it was going to be more of a thriller. It ended up being a little bit more of an adult, contemporary drama. While it didn’t end up being exactly what I thought it was going to be, I still did enjoy the themes of touched on.

Ali is sort of a quasi-celebrity, having come into the spotlight after a televised debate with an anti-feminist influencer. She works for women’s Resource Center helping place women in dangerous domestic and sexual situations in safe spaces. But when her best friend, accuses her husband of rape, she reverts back to all of the classic anti-feminist themes like her friend being too drunk, what she was wearing, and her past sexual exploits. This double standard causes a lot of issues in Ali’s life, including her relationship with her teenage daughter. 

The author tried to tie what was happening in the present day two in event that occurred at Oxford, when the six friends were all in college of a murder. I really don’t think this piece of the story was necessary, and I think it caused the book to be longer than it needed to be, if that makes sense. But I do think that it showed the major changes in these people as they grew up, and showed the insecurities that we have as  young adults somehow always blossom into issues in our adulthood, no matter how much time goes by, which I found compelling.

I didn’t love the ending of the book, and I felt like it was VERY rushed. But overall the themes of masculinity, feminism, rape culture, and adult friendships felt authentic and thought provoking. I give What You Did a 7/10 bubble baths.📚🛁