A review by tessa_talks_books
A Likeable Woman by May Cobb

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 

What's it about (in a nutshell):

A Likable Woman by May Cobb is a psychological thriller about the main character, Kira, returning to her hometown with the hope of proving her mother was murdered and her quest to figure out who did it.

Bullet Point Review:

• I loved Sadie's memoir detailing her marriage and life in the small town. It's written to her daughter Kira. It is a tightly focused story that engaged me when I started reading those particular chapters. It makes up the past timeline in this dual-timeline story.
• As much as I loved Sadie's story, I struggled with the current-day story from Kira's eyes. It's just bogged down in unnecessary details that failed to hold my attention.
• I did like that the truth behind Sadie's death came out and that the suicide story died. It needed to be cleared up. I don't care for that device in stories. It's been done too many times. There are quite a few literary devices used in the telling of this story that just frustrated me.
• Kira reads a bit of the memoir and then goes and runs around asking questions when I just wanted her to sit down and read it from cover to cover because that would feel much more authentic. She was sent threatening texts, but it never dawned on her to block the number. 
• Everything was happening not now but later. "I need to tell you something, but later." There was no immediacy to the story, which hurt the tension level.
• The mystery was, at worst predictable and, at best, just not shocking or developed in a way that created any type of emotional response behind it.
• Kira is a main character that I really wanted to like, but I found that the story got in the way of that. I did, however, appreciate that she is named for Olivia Newton John's character in Xanadu. That was a fun little detail.
• Kira tells the current-day story, and her mom tells her own story in a memoir written for Kira. I liked how the memoir was written in almost a letter format. That personal touch makes all the difference.
• The pace was medium, but the story needed more focus and borders on overwriting, so it was a very frustrating read for me. I prefer a tightly constructed thriller. It would have been better if the focus had been on the mom's story through her memoir, with the current day dotted in on an as-need basis.
• The story is set purposefully in Texas, but, reading the story, it felt like it was used for the stereotypes of small-town life in that state. It made the characters too surface for me, and I only like stereotypes used when it's for comedic relief.
• Read if you're in the mood for:
  • A tense, dark, and mysterious psychological thriller
  • A dual timeline tale with complicated characters
  • A medium-paced story that develops slowly