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A review by readfrenzy
Slip of the Tongue by Jessica Hawkins
2.0
This was a tough book for me to get through, and I can’t fault the quality of the writing because it’s excellent. Perhaps I should have paid closer attention to the blurb because it makes no secret of the fact that the main character, Sadie, enters into a love affair with her neighbor, Finn. In my mind though, there’s “justifiable” cheating in a fictional world where I’m rooting for the two cheaters to get together because the partner/spouse is so annoying, abusive, and obviously just plain wrong for the lead character. Things aren’t so cut and dry in Slip of the Tongue and the prolonged affair made me very uncomfortable.
I might have enjoyed the story more if the characters were remotely appealing. Finn is in love with his wife and he basically has a good marriage, so his willingness to cheat feels more like a midlife crisis than destiny fulfilled. Sadie’s husband, Nathan, is brooding, rude, and intentionally uncommunicative through the majority of the book. His reactions toward the end are not only abrupt, but unbelievable as well.
Sadie is definitely my least favorite character. The reader is supposed to feel bad for her. I mean, she’s a good wife and her husband up and checks out of their marriage seemingly overnight. However, she’s spoiled, hypocritical, and selfish, and somehow she manages to justify all her actions. She prides herself on never feeling guilty about her choices (Is she inhuman?), and her lack of remorse made her very unsympathetic to me. Honestly, I was so sick of the lot of them that I skimmed through much of the middle portion.
Where this book does succeed is in shining a spotlight on the intricacies of marriage. You know the expression there are two sides to every story? It couldn’t be more true than in this case. I found myself taking one character’s side only to gain a little more information and then take the other person’s side. I went back and forth so many times I got whiplash. The story emphasizes how lack of communication can snowball into the death of a relationship. The book also raises some thought provoking questions. Do people really change after marriage? Is the intention behind the way in which we show love outweighed by the quantity of loving acts? When do you fight for your marriage and when do you give up?
This book in no way glamorizes adultery and if it’s a sensitive subject for you, I’d pass. Cheating aside, my inability to connect with the characters made this a less than stellar read for me.
**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.**
I might have enjoyed the story more if the characters were remotely appealing. Finn is in love with his wife and he basically has a good marriage, so his willingness to cheat feels more like a midlife crisis than destiny fulfilled. Sadie’s husband, Nathan, is brooding, rude, and intentionally uncommunicative through the majority of the book. His reactions toward the end are not only abrupt, but unbelievable as well.
Sadie is definitely my least favorite character. The reader is supposed to feel bad for her. I mean, she’s a good wife and her husband up and checks out of their marriage seemingly overnight. However, she’s spoiled, hypocritical, and selfish, and somehow she manages to justify all her actions. She prides herself on never feeling guilty about her choices (Is she inhuman?), and her lack of remorse made her very unsympathetic to me.
Spoiler
When her husband finally finds out about the affair, she doesn’t even apologize to him. Instead, she apologizes for keeping a secret that is small compared to adultery.Where this book does succeed is in shining a spotlight on the intricacies of marriage. You know the expression there are two sides to every story? It couldn’t be more true than in this case. I found myself taking one character’s side only to gain a little more information and then take the other person’s side. I went back and forth so many times I got whiplash. The story emphasizes how lack of communication can snowball into the death of a relationship. The book also raises some thought provoking questions. Do people really change after marriage? Is the intention behind the way in which we show love outweighed by the quantity of loving acts? When do you fight for your marriage and when do you give up?
This book in no way glamorizes adultery and if it’s a sensitive subject for you, I’d pass. Cheating aside, my inability to connect with the characters made this a less than stellar read for me.
**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.**