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A review by mfeibel
What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan
2.0
This so easily could have been a 3/3.5. A fairly average thriller. I've read and enjoyed Gilly Macmillan before.
However. Even with the reveal that the teacher took Ben and it had nothing to do with Rachel's sister's desire for a son, I found myself pissed off.
We meet Miss May's parents and they say she was always "off" as a child, manipulative, mean. And it started to look like we had a female sociopath or psychopath who took Ben because she was evil. And then...it was really because she was infertile. My least favorite trope of all time (or at least top 5). We couldn't just have an evil woman, oh no, she had to be evil because she couldn't have kids. Eye roll.
And then! We spend the whole book thinking Rachel's friend Laura must be colluding with the journalists. Only to find out it was Emma (the FLO). But Rachel still is glad to have Laura out of her life. Why? Because Laura "voluntarily gave up a child" when she had an abortion. I was iffy on their fight in the first place but Rachel thinking of Laura's abortion alongside her kid being abducted made it borderline not as offensive? But then we reach the end and, again when we find that Laura's only faults are an abortion and perhaps too much drinking, Rachel is like "good riddance, I don't need her."
What the fuck.
And then Rachel waxed poetic about how she shouldn't have been upset when her husband left her for another woman because that was simply her lot in life. Again, I say, what the fuck.
Also the book was just rambly and took forever to wrap up. And DI Clemo was just annoying as a character.
Basically...it wasn't a great one. Low 2.
However. Even with the reveal that the teacher took Ben and it had nothing to do with Rachel's sister's desire for a son, I found myself pissed off.
We meet Miss May's parents and they say she was always "off" as a child, manipulative, mean. And it started to look like we had a female sociopath or psychopath who took Ben because she was evil. And then...it was really because she was infertile. My least favorite trope of all time (or at least top 5). We couldn't just have an evil woman, oh no, she had to be evil because she couldn't have kids. Eye roll.
And then! We spend the whole book thinking Rachel's friend Laura must be colluding with the journalists. Only to find out it was Emma (the FLO). But Rachel still is glad to have Laura out of her life. Why? Because Laura "voluntarily gave up a child" when she had an abortion. I was iffy on their fight in the first place but Rachel thinking of Laura's abortion alongside her kid being abducted made it borderline not as offensive? But then we reach the end and, again when we find that Laura's only faults are an abortion and perhaps too much drinking, Rachel is like "good riddance, I don't need her."
What the fuck.
And then Rachel waxed poetic about how she shouldn't have been upset when her husband left her for another woman because that was simply her lot in life. Again, I say, what the fuck.
Also the book was just rambly and took forever to wrap up. And DI Clemo was just annoying as a character.
Basically...it wasn't a great one. Low 2.