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A review by the_cover_contessa
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Thank you to Simon Element and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I was excited to get a book by Dave as I've really enjoyed the other books I have read by this author. In all honesty, I didn't even read the blurb because I know I like her writing and figured whatever it was I'd enjoy it. I was expecting a mystery perhaps with a little bit of thrill to it, but that's not really what I got. Is it a mystery, for sure. But not in the most common sense of the genre. This one is filled with a lot of family dynamics that the characters worked through and I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the story. There is a lot of heart-wrenching family drama which the characters work through.
Dave has a way of writing characters that are deep and emotional. I get sucked into them and their development. I loved watching the ones in this book morph and change a bit while still maintaining who they are. I find them very relatable and it's easy to feel their emotions through the words on the page. The characters come together through tragedy. Despite being family, they have never truly been connected. But their father's death brings them into each other's paths and they find they have more in common than they thought. It was nice watching Nora build a relationship with her brother.
The timeline alternates between present and past giving us a glimpse at the character who is no longer with us during the present chapters. Nora narrates the present chapters while the past chapters are seen through her father Liam's eyes. The past progresses towards the present as the author slowly builds the characters towards what they are in the present.
The writing is really great in this book. It grabbed me right from the starts. I was eager to turn the pages and learn what would happen in the next chapter. I would say this was definitely fast paced as I finished it in two days.
If you're looking for what Dave gave you in her book prior to this one, you're not going to get quite as much mystery. It's there, but this book really is more about the family and how they learn about each other through their pasts and their presents. This is a slow burn mystery with family drama. Dave will continue to be an auto-buy/read author for me in the future.
I was excited to get a book by Dave as I've really enjoyed the other books I have read by this author. In all honesty, I didn't even read the blurb because I know I like her writing and figured whatever it was I'd enjoy it. I was expecting a mystery perhaps with a little bit of thrill to it, but that's not really what I got. Is it a mystery, for sure. But not in the most common sense of the genre. This one is filled with a lot of family dynamics that the characters worked through and I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the story. There is a lot of heart-wrenching family drama which the characters work through.
Dave has a way of writing characters that are deep and emotional. I get sucked into them and their development. I loved watching the ones in this book morph and change a bit while still maintaining who they are. I find them very relatable and it's easy to feel their emotions through the words on the page. The characters come together through tragedy. Despite being family, they have never truly been connected. But their father's death brings them into each other's paths and they find they have more in common than they thought. It was nice watching Nora build a relationship with her brother.
The timeline alternates between present and past giving us a glimpse at the character who is no longer with us during the present chapters. Nora narrates the present chapters while the past chapters are seen through her father Liam's eyes. The past progresses towards the present as the author slowly builds the characters towards what they are in the present.
The writing is really great in this book. It grabbed me right from the starts. I was eager to turn the pages and learn what would happen in the next chapter. I would say this was definitely fast paced as I finished it in two days.
If you're looking for what Dave gave you in her book prior to this one, you're not going to get quite as much mystery. It's there, but this book really is more about the family and how they learn about each other through their pasts and their presents. This is a slow burn mystery with family drama. Dave will continue to be an auto-buy/read author for me in the future.