Before I go into my thoughts on this book, one thing I feel compelled to start with is that I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to books written by celebrities and/or other famous public figures who are very much “not” authors. Part of this could be because I’m a writer myself and understand how much work (blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice) goes into writing something worth reading – in a sense, writing is an activity bordering on “sacred” for me, so I can’t help feeling disappointed when I see celebrities attach their names onto books that they didn’t actually write themselves, but they are given all the credit for it (yes, I’m looking at you, ghostwritten celebrity memoirs). Now before I get attacked by any fans, I need to make it clear that I am not saying that’s what happened here, since, to Reese’s credit, she has been very forthcoming from the getgo about the fact that she did not write this book herself, rather it is a “collaboration” with established author Harlan Coben. Further, Reese has said in interviews (as well as in the Acknowledgements pages at the back of the book) that she provided the “seed of an idea” for the story and Coben was the one who turned it into “a fully fleshed-out, page-turning thriller” – so yes, I acknowledge that this situation is not on the same level as those ghostwritten books where the “real” author is given little to no recognition.
With that said however, I will be honest in saying that, after finishing this book, I can’t help but wonder about Reese’s involvement in its writing – specifically, did she write some of it or none at all? The reason I say this is because the entire novel felt very “Coben-esque” in the sense that it read very much like a plotty action thriller with too many macho male characters, too few underdeveloped female characters, and tons of action scenes involving gun fights, helicopters, car and motorcycle chases, death-defying stunts, etc. In other words, the book seems to be geared more toward Coben’s fans than Reese’s. I also can’t help but be reminded of a question that had come up back when the Reese Witherspoon/Harlan Coben collaboration was first announced: given that Reese’s Hello Sunshine media brand “puts women at the center of every story across all platforms” (this is from the blurb on the book’s back cover) and the books she chooses for her Book Club are all written by female authors, why would she choose a male author to collaborate with for her debut novel? Doesn’t this contradict what Reese tries to do with her brand? Indeed, judging from her book club picks (for the record, I’m not a Reese fan, but I do follow her book club because majority of the books she chooses to feature happen to fit my reading tastes), I was expecting Reese’s debut novel to be a collaboration with a female author (perhaps one she has featured in her book club) and more in the vein of a high concept literary suspense / thriller with a strong female protagonist at its center. Turns out I had the wrong expectations.
Don’t get me wrong – this book had an interesting premise and I would say that I did “enjoy” it overall, but it didn’t blow me away. There were the expected twists and turns (Coben is a seasoned suspense / thriller writer after all), though as usual, I was able to figure most of the plot points out early on, so the suspense portion was a little lacking. Also, the ending kind of left me scratching my head -- it felt anti-climactic to me given how “action-packed” the rest of the story was (though it could be that I just didn’t “get” the ending).
In any case, this was an overall entertaining read that I’m sure fans of action thrillers will love, but if, like me, you’re not keen on action thrillers, then you might want to temper your expectations if you decide to pick this one up. Also, one last thing to note is that, given the premise, there are a lot of details related to the medical and technology fields throughout the book – personally, I felt it was a bit much and at times, the technical jargon kind of bogged down parts of the plot, but again, this could just be me not being into the “science-y” stuff…my guess is that this won’t be a problem for most folks who decide to read this one.