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thopp84 's review for:
You Should Have Known
by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Well, this book is almost completely different from what I was expecting. I've been watching the HBO adaptation of this, The Undoing. And the two are almost completely different stories. The basic elements are the same. But for the most part, this book is so different. It's not a whodunit, at all. It's pretty clear from the beginning who killed the victim. So the book isn't about that. It's about one woman's marriage and the ways in which it comes unraveled. And how she tries to pick up the pieces and create a new life. This book is a slow burn. Incredibly slow. It takes almost 100 pages for the murder to happen. Her husband is barely in it. There's a lot of scenes that just take forever and feel very unnecessary (did we really need an entire chapter about her son trying to join a folk band?). Look, I get that I shouldn't be comparing this to the adaptation. After all, the book and the show are two completely different things for two different audiences. Yet, I couldn't help but compare the two. And the show does a better job of telling a more compelling, more gripping story. Maybe I would have liked this book more if I hadn't watched the adaptation first. Maybe I would have liked it less. I can't say for sure. I can say that this didn't fully work for me. Just a bit too slow.