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livcoyy 's review for:
Before She Knew Him
by Peter Swanson
At times I think I tend to conflate thrillers and mysteries, expecting both to follow a 'whodunnit' path. Before She Knew Him is a thriller through and through. We're not here to solve anything but rather to explore characters and actions.
Our main character Hen and her husband Lloyd have just moved into a new area and are invited to dinner by Matthew and Mira, their next door neighbors. While there, Hen spots a fencing trophy in Matthew's office that she feels positive is connected to the murder of a young man that she was obsessed with during a manic period in her life. Her bipolar disorder is under control, but she still feels certain that Matthew is the killer. She falls into something of a cat and mouse game with her new neighbor which jeopardizes her relationships and safety. TW for violence and mentions of rape.
The distinction between thriller and mystery here is that we know Matthew is the killer by page 13, if the blurb didn't already make it clear, and so all of the tension in this novel derives from Hen learning more about the extent of his crimes and Matthew welcoming us into his twisted psyche. I don't think that set-up dooms this novel from the start, but I looked down at around page 200 and realized most of the novel had felt like fluff so far. There are so many chapters dedicated to characters thinking and reflecting- Matthew, Mira, and Hen all have plenty of these moments. This can be effective and intriguing, but in this novel it just felt a little meandering and useless. The most interesting parts of this novel were simply told to us, rather than displayed for us to experience.
I suppose Matthew was meant to intrigue and challenge us as we learn more about how he justifies his crimes but for the most part he oscillated between fairly likeable to sort of neutral. Maybe it's because his type of killer feels a little played. I didn't find anything new to explore in his character and all his time spent reflecting didn't make me more intrigued. And I never cared about his victims! I didn't feel satisfied or horrified by their deaths, just again somewhat neutral. The author tried to deepen his motivations in a way that just felt clumsy. Without spoiling anything as well, there were aspects of this novel that felt a little problematic. Hen was a decent lead, but again her character felt squandered. She has bipolar disorder, makes fascinating art for children's books, and is essentially being gaslit by her husband and detectives, and yet none of this felt like it was explored to its fullest extent.
As the novel went on, it felt like the plot became messier and messier and sort of fell apart. There were a few too many points of views and 'shocks' at the end for it to feel coherent. A subplot is developed with Hen and her husband Lloyd that was at best pointless and at worst really irritating. I hated that character- I mean, I was supposed to, but the hate didn't feel productive to the story or, again, useful, so I just stewed in hate for awhile. There was a twist at the end that did make me gasp quite a bit and gave the novel some extra life. And I will say that I can see how some clues were sprinkled throughout, so it wasn't completely random. But still, it felt a little unearned and in my opinion cheapened the novel somewhat. I wasn't expecting or looking for a twist, and I would have preferred to see the story that was "promised" all the way through.
clearly this novel is fairly well liked, so I'm in the minority! Maybe I would have liked it more if I hadn't read some other thrillers this month. This just paled a little, unfortunately.
Our main character Hen and her husband Lloyd have just moved into a new area and are invited to dinner by Matthew and Mira, their next door neighbors. While there, Hen spots a fencing trophy in Matthew's office that she feels positive is connected to the murder of a young man that she was obsessed with during a manic period in her life. Her bipolar disorder is under control, but she still feels certain that Matthew is the killer. She falls into something of a cat and mouse game with her new neighbor which jeopardizes her relationships and safety. TW for violence and mentions of rape.
The distinction between thriller and mystery here is that we know Matthew is the killer by page 13, if the blurb didn't already make it clear, and so all of the tension in this novel derives from Hen learning more about the extent of his crimes and Matthew welcoming us into his twisted psyche. I don't think that set-up dooms this novel from the start, but I looked down at around page 200 and realized most of the novel had felt like fluff so far. There are so many chapters dedicated to characters thinking and reflecting- Matthew, Mira, and Hen all have plenty of these moments. This can be effective and intriguing, but in this novel it just felt a little meandering and useless. The most interesting parts of this novel were simply told to us, rather than displayed for us to experience.
I suppose Matthew was meant to intrigue and challenge us as we learn more about how he justifies his crimes but for the most part he oscillated between fairly likeable to sort of neutral. Maybe it's because his type of killer feels a little played. I didn't find anything new to explore in his character and all his time spent reflecting didn't make me more intrigued. And I never cared about his victims! I didn't feel satisfied or horrified by their deaths, just again somewhat neutral. The author tried to deepen his motivations in a way that just felt clumsy. Without spoiling anything as well, there were aspects of this novel that felt a little problematic. Hen was a decent lead, but again her character felt squandered. She has bipolar disorder, makes fascinating art for children's books, and is essentially being gaslit by her husband and detectives, and yet none of this felt like it was explored to its fullest extent.
As the novel went on, it felt like the plot became messier and messier and sort of fell apart. There were a few too many points of views and 'shocks' at the end for it to feel coherent. A subplot is developed with Hen and her husband Lloyd that was at best pointless and at worst really irritating. I hated that character- I mean, I was supposed to, but the hate didn't feel productive to the story or, again, useful, so I just stewed in hate for awhile. There was a twist at the end that did make me gasp quite a bit and gave the novel some extra life. And I will say that I can see how some clues were sprinkled throughout, so it wasn't completely random. But still, it felt a little unearned and in my opinion cheapened the novel somewhat. I wasn't expecting or looking for a twist, and I would have preferred to see the story that was "promised" all the way through.
clearly this novel is fairly well liked, so I'm in the minority! Maybe I would have liked it more if I hadn't read some other thrillers this month. This just paled a little, unfortunately.