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A review by paulabrandon
The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances
2.0
Another book that sells itself as a psychological thriller, but really isn't. I'm getting a tad tired of this! Am I dumb and gullible, or is it possible that publishers are lying to me?!?
This was basically a story about two horrible women trying to out-awful each other and the poor man caught between them. Cherry is 24 and eager to break away from her poor existence. At her real estate job, she is asked out by Daniel, and their relationship develops very quickly. Daniel's mother Laura is devoted to her son, to the point of it being creepy. She quickly comes to suspect that Cherry is only after Daniel for his money.
After a tragic accident leaves Daniel in a coma, Laura is told that the end is nigh. Wanting Daniel all to herself in his last days, she fibs to Cherry and tells him he's already dead and that he was cremated. However, Daniel miraculously recovers, Laura fibs to him and tells him Cherry ditched him. And then Cherry finds out he's still alive, and plots her revenge.
It's an admittedly loopy and enjoyable soapy plotline, and it would work - if it were in a soap opera or a more digestible 90 minute made-for-TV movie. Not a 460 page book. I did find myself skimming a fair bit with the internal monologues of Cherry and Laura that simply went on too long.
I was also troubled with deciding on who I was supposed to like. Laura's life would have been much easier if she had just backed off and let her son live his life! Yes, Cherry was a sociopath, but she loved Daniel in her own way, and would actually have made a pretty decent wife! The plot requires an extreme action on Cherry's part to definitively spell it out to us which character we should be getting behind. If Laura is that unlikable that the author needs to step Cherry's awfulness up that extra degree, then the book has problems.
The psychological mind games were mildly interesting, but there was a lot of padding in between all of that. This was S-L-O-W going. I also had difficulty believing that Cherry would be unwise to the fact Daniel wasn't dead in this day and age of social media and the fact that Cherry isn't dumb. It would have been easy to find out the truth!
Ultimately, while this did provide some passing interest, and the two lead women were well-developed as characters (although thoroughly awful people), it didn't really tick the "suspense" or "thriller" boxes that I'm after when I read this sort of thing.
This was basically a story about two horrible women trying to out-awful each other and the poor man caught between them. Cherry is 24 and eager to break away from her poor existence. At her real estate job, she is asked out by Daniel, and their relationship develops very quickly. Daniel's mother Laura is devoted to her son, to the point of it being creepy. She quickly comes to suspect that Cherry is only after Daniel for his money.
After a tragic accident leaves Daniel in a coma, Laura is told that the end is nigh. Wanting Daniel all to herself in his last days, she fibs to Cherry and tells him he's already dead and that he was cremated. However, Daniel miraculously recovers, Laura fibs to him and tells him Cherry ditched him. And then Cherry finds out he's still alive, and plots her revenge.
It's an admittedly loopy and enjoyable soapy plotline, and it would work - if it were in a soap opera or a more digestible 90 minute made-for-TV movie. Not a 460 page book. I did find myself skimming a fair bit with the internal monologues of Cherry and Laura that simply went on too long.
I was also troubled with deciding on who I was supposed to like. Laura's life would have been much easier if she had just backed off and let her son live his life! Yes, Cherry was a sociopath, but she loved Daniel in her own way, and would actually have made a pretty decent wife! The plot requires an extreme action on Cherry's part
Spoiler
killing a puppy and mailing it to the proposed star of Laura's TV seriesThe psychological mind games were mildly interesting, but there was a lot of padding in between all of that. This was S-L-O-W going. I also had difficulty believing that Cherry would be unwise to the fact Daniel wasn't dead in this day and age of social media and the fact that Cherry isn't dumb. It would have been easy to find out the truth!
Ultimately, while this did provide some passing interest, and the two lead women were well-developed as characters (although thoroughly awful people), it didn't really tick the "suspense" or "thriller" boxes that I'm after when I read this sort of thing.