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A review by obsidian_blue
Gone Tonight by Sarah Pekkanen
1.0
Not a great thriller. It felt like Pekkanen was going through the motions. And a lot of the things that are revealed as twists, you can see coming a mile away. Though it was interesting to read about a book taking place so near to me (Maryland and Virginia) I just wasn't that invested in this story after we get through the first few pages.
"Gone Tonight" follows two women, Ruth and Catherine, mother and daughter respectively. Catherine is scared that her mother is going through early onset Alzheimer's disease. Her mother has increasingly become forgetful and all of the signs are there. Catherine had plans to start at John Hopkins, but now she worries about her mother. Ruth though we find out, has other plans and is worried about something from her past that may destroy not just her, but Catherine too.
Eh, I don't know. The main plot to this one does not work. Probably because even we find out the "truth" about Ruth, I had a hard time even believing it. And most of what she does/did does not show her in the best light. Because of that, you are rooting against her for the most part through the whole book. I think that Pekkanen lost interest in the tension between Ruth and Catherine, because we start to shift mostly to Ruth's point of view and also we spend the most time with her. No other characters are really developed in my opinion.
I also think it wasn't a great idea to have part of the story to be a diary/journal that Ruth was leaving for her daughter. That segue ended up ruining the book's flow so it reads very disjointed for the most part.
The ending just left me shrugging. I think we are supposed to be shocked/horrified, but I kept going, this is so unrealistic, I can't even dwell on this too much. One star.
"Gone Tonight" follows two women, Ruth and Catherine, mother and daughter respectively. Catherine is scared that her mother is going through early onset Alzheimer's disease. Her mother has increasingly become forgetful and all of the signs are there. Catherine had plans to start at John Hopkins, but now she worries about her mother. Ruth though we find out, has other plans and is worried about something from her past that may destroy not just her, but Catherine too.
Eh, I don't know. The main plot to this one does not work. Probably because even we find out the "truth" about Ruth, I had a hard time even believing it. And most of what she does/did does not show her in the best light. Because of that, you are rooting against her for the most part through the whole book. I think that Pekkanen lost interest in the tension between Ruth and Catherine, because we start to shift mostly to Ruth's point of view and also we spend the most time with her. No other characters are really developed in my opinion.
I also think it wasn't a great idea to have part of the story to be a diary/journal that Ruth was leaving for her daughter. That segue ended up ruining the book's flow so it reads very disjointed for the most part.
The ending just left me shrugging. I think we are supposed to be shocked/horrified, but I kept going, this is so unrealistic, I can't even dwell on this too much. One star.