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A review by paulabrandon
Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
4.0
I'm surprised this has gotten a lower score than usual (3.8 out of 5 at time of writing), as I think this is one of Slaughter's best works in some time. The story involves Andrea "Andy" Oliver at a mall dining area with her mother Laura when a gunman storms the place. Laura's out-of-character bad-ass actions save the day, and thanks to someone using their phone to film the shooting attack, Andy and Laura are all over the news, particularly Laura. Was she simply acting in self-defence in killing the gunman, or were her actions more premeditated?
Andy herself can barely come to terms with what her mother did. And it only gets worse from there, because Laura's visibility in the media means that a whole flurry of secrets from her past are about to come back to bite her, putting Andy in harm's way as she struggles with the realisation she never really knew her mother at all.
This was quite the gripping read for me. I read it in two complete sittings, and that's only because I had to go to bed at some stage! Like The Good Daughter, this is much more a psychological character study than the sort of trendy, twisty unreliable female narrator thriller we get so much of nowadays. However, this is much better than The Good Daughter. I found that one very slow-paced, whereas Pieces Of Her thankfully has a lot more going on. I was enthralled, and at times, even teary eyed, while I read this emotional thriller.
I think the book's big problem, and I'm assuming what put readers off, is how inept and insipid the main character of Andy was. I wanted to reach into the book to shake her! Just how incompetent can one person be? I understood what Slaughter was trying to do with the character, but Andy's insipidness was quite distracting and it got tiresome reading about her being unable to do a single bloody thing on her own.
Andy's ineffectiveness means that the book required chapters set in the past to explain what went on, because there's no way we would have been able to learn this information if the whole book was told from Andy's useless and bumbling viewpoint. But in the end, that's probably a good thing. The chapters in 1986 were interesting and suspenseful, and a welcome reprieve from Andy's groan-inducing hopelessness.
The characterisations are excellent, whether or not you like the characters. Although a bit overly wordy, as many of Slaughter's novels are, this nonetheless had me gripped from start to finish, and bought a tear to my eye as well. This has been optioned for a Netflix mini-series, and I am very much looking forward to seeing how it translated to screen!
Andy herself can barely come to terms with what her mother did. And it only gets worse from there, because Laura's visibility in the media means that a whole flurry of secrets from her past are about to come back to bite her, putting Andy in harm's way as she struggles with the realisation she never really knew her mother at all.
This was quite the gripping read for me. I read it in two complete sittings, and that's only because I had to go to bed at some stage! Like The Good Daughter, this is much more a psychological character study than the sort of trendy, twisty unreliable female narrator thriller we get so much of nowadays. However, this is much better than The Good Daughter. I found that one very slow-paced, whereas Pieces Of Her thankfully has a lot more going on. I was enthralled, and at times, even teary eyed, while I read this emotional thriller.
I think the book's big problem, and I'm assuming what put readers off, is how inept and insipid the main character of Andy was. I wanted to reach into the book to shake her! Just how incompetent can one person be? I understood what Slaughter was trying to do with the character, but Andy's insipidness was quite distracting and it got tiresome reading about her being unable to do a single bloody thing on her own.
Andy's ineffectiveness means that the book required chapters set in the past to explain what went on, because there's no way we would have been able to learn this information if the whole book was told from Andy's useless and bumbling viewpoint. But in the end, that's probably a good thing. The chapters in 1986 were interesting and suspenseful, and a welcome reprieve from Andy's groan-inducing hopelessness.
The characterisations are excellent, whether or not you like the characters. Although a bit overly wordy, as many of Slaughter's novels are, this nonetheless had me gripped from start to finish, and bought a tear to my eye as well. This has been optioned for a Netflix mini-series, and I am very much looking forward to seeing how it translated to screen!