Review: The Night Before (by Wendy Walker)

 My Rating: 4 stars

The Night Before actually won’t be published until next year (May 2019) but due to having read Wendy Walker’s Emma in the Night last year, I was given the opportunity to read and review this, her newest work, super early (so early that the cover isn't even available yet!).  Of course, as with all psychological suspense / thrillers, I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot, but this book especially, it is necessary to go into it knowing as little as possible (I suspect the publisher left the summary extremely vague for this very reason). Having said this, the few “teasers” I will give is that there are some recurring elements, themes, that are also found in her previous books, however the execution is very different.  With this one, the story also revolves around two sisters (Laura and Rosie) and a significant event that happened in their past which plays a huge role in shaping their present lives – but that is only scratching the surface of the story.  This was a thrill ride with quite a few twists and turns that left me stunned and surprised at the end – just when I thought I had everything figured out, the rug was pulled out from under me and of course, once again I was completely wrong. 

The way the story was told I thought was interesting and engaging to the point that I felt like I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!  Alternating between three different timelines – therapy sessions from several months ago, events from the night before, and events from the present day – the story also shifted between different viewpoints, with the “night before” chapters narrated by Laura in the first person while the “present day” was told from Rosie’s point of view in third person.  The format seems complex, but yet, not once did it feel confusing – in fact, only a few chapters in, it was easy to become so absorbed into the story that you stop noticing the shifts in format.  Of course, it also helped that the writing was excellent – as is to be expected from Walker – and the plot points were well thought-out as well as intricately woven into a captivating, twisty story. 

I will leave it at that and say only that this one comes highly recommended!  No doubt this book will generate a lot of buzz next year when it is released -- and deservedly so, in my opinion.  I definitely look forward to what Walker has in store for us next, though before that, I should probably make sure I go back and read her debut thriller (and probably her most famous book), All Is Not Forgotten (which I’m guessing I’m one of the few people left who hasn’t read yet). 

Received early copy / ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

Review: I Know You Know (by Gilly Macmillan)

 My Rating: 4 stars

The summary for this book describes it as an “original, chilling, twisty mystery,” which I definitely feel is fitting, however I would also add one more word to that description:  clever!   This is one of those books where it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible and let the flow of the story take you on a ride that is at once thrilling and completely unpredictable!

I’ve read my fair share of thrillers / psychological suspense novels the past few years, but none of them have been quite as unique as this one.  At the heart of the story are two murder investigations that take place 20 years apart:  human remains are found at a construction site where a new shopping center was to be installed and almost immediately, when it is discovered that the remains were excavated from the exact same spot where the bodies of Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby -- two 11-year-old boys from a nearby housing estate who had been brutally murdered -- were found 20 years ago, a long-closed murder investigation is brought back into the spotlight.  At the same time, the boys’ childhood best friend Cody Swift, who narrowly escaped the same fate that Charlie and Scott endured, returns to Bristol – the town where he grew up and also where the murders took place – in a search for answers after being haunted by the deaths of his two friends for most of his life. He decides to use his experience as a filmmaker to produce a true crime podcast documenting his search in the hopes that people who might have been involved or knew anything about the case but were afraid to speak up previously would now come forth and set things straight.  Presented as entire chapters interspersed throughout the story, each episode of the podcast was narrated by Cody and featured interviews with people who had been involved with the investigation several decades ago as well as residents of the housing estate that was forever changed after the murders.  The rest of the chapters alternated between the perspectives of two other central characters in the story – Charlie’s mother Jessica Paige, who tries desperately to keep long-held secrets about the case buried, and also Detective John Fletcher, who had been the lead investigator on the original case and coincidentally was also the one who discovered the remains in the new case.  In addition to these alternating perspectives, the narrative also features a dual timeline, with each chapter covering both the case in the present as well as the one that took place in the past. 

Despite the many threads to the story, the author Gilly Macmillan was able to tie everything together brilliantly, creating a tautly-written page-turner that I honestly found very hard to put down.  As with most books from this genre, I picked up the clues throughout the story and thought I had everything all figured out, but then I got to the end and, well, all I am going to say is that I was completely wrong.  I don’t want to say too much about the ending of course, but I was definitely floored by the “surprise twist” (though admittedly there was also some “follow up” to the ending that I was expecting but never got so in that sense, it was a little less satisfying).  The other unique aspect with this story was the way the characters were written – I’m not going to go into much detail on this for fear of spoiling the story, but I will say that this was not the typical “protagonist vs antagonist” setup that we are used to seeing with these stories…with this one, the roles were far from clearly defined, which, for me, added another layer of complexity to the story. A word of caution – don’t be surprised if, by the time you get to the ending, you end up disliking every single character in this story….

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this one, though I did have a slight problem with the way the transitions were done between the dual timelines, which confused me at first (and since I read an ARC version, it didn’t help that the formatting was already a bit off).  I had to read the first two non-podcast chapters twice, but after I figured out the pattern, I was able to plow through the rest of the book without much issue.  Needless to say, this one is highly recommended!  I have not read Gilly Macmillan’s previous works but rest assured that I will be adding her other books to my TBR to read at a later date!

Received ARC from Harper Collins / William Morrow via Edelweiss.

Review: The Coordinates Of Loss (by Amanda Prowse)

My Rating: 2.5 stars

This is the second book I've read by Amanda Prowse and just like the one I read last year (The Idea of You), I struggled with getting through this and once again, very nearly DNF'ed it.  I'm not sure what it is, but I find it hard to connect with this author's books, even though the subject matter she writes about are things that women in my age group are usually able to identify with.  In this, her newest book, the main character is Rachel Croft, whose happily married, blissful life with husband James comes crashing down when they lose their 7-year-old son Oscar in a boating accident – this happens within the first few pages of the book and from there, the entire rest of the story (300+ pages) is about how Rachel attempts to deal with her grief and eventually embarks on a path to healing after reading letters of encouragement from her housekeeper Cee Cee.  That is basically the entire plot (no, I am not exaggerating – I'm struggling with finding things to write about the plot because literally nothing much else happens)…

Given the subject matter, I was expecting an emotional, heart-wrenching story, one that would move me emotionally and even make me shed a tear or two…but that didn't happen.  In fact, I found it difficult to get into the story at all and after the first chapter, my attention already started to wane – about a quarter into it, I felt the urge to skim and by the halfway mark, I was in full-on "speed-skim" mode….by the time I got to the end, I was relieved that I FINALLY finished the book.  The biggest issue for me (which was actually the same issue I had with this author's previous book) is that the story dragged way too much – over the course of the first 150 pages or so, page after page was of Rachel either 1) repeatedly denying that her son had died and trying to justify her theories about her son's whereabouts in every way possible, or 2) constantly arguing with and resenting her husband.  The second half of the book was basically of Rachel's healing process and eventually coming to terms with her son's death.  Now don't get me wrong – I have no problems with the subject matter being heavy and yes, I do understand that the slowness of the plot was perhaps intentional in order to mirror the real life process of grieving and healing that occurs when we lose a loved one, but for me, the execution was too drawn out, to the point that I felt it diminished the significance of the story.  While the writing was good overall, there were parts that were tremendously wordy --  also, the dialogue was repetitive in that every conversation felt drawn out for the purposes of justifying and explaining Rachel's every thought, feeling, action, etc.  Perhaps the purpose of writing the character this way was to make us as the readers feel sorry for Rachel and sympathize with her struggle – I hate to say it but for me, it had the opposite effect in that I grew increasingly irritated with her character as the story wore on.  I honestly feel like the story would have been better told if it had been several hundred pages shorter, with tighter writing and less repetition. 

Reading this book confirmed for me that, plain and simple, this author's works just aren't my cup of tea.  I will give her future works a pass going forward but since mine is the lone negative review amongst the dozens of positive ones, I would once again recommend checking out the other reviews for a more balanced perspective.  This one clearly didn't work for me, but perhaps it will for others.

Received ARC from Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley.

Review: Lies (by T.M. Logan)

My Rating: 3 stars

For me, this book was a chore to read, one that I struggled through and pushed myself to finish, not because it was a difficult read or anything like that (in fact, I found the writing on this one a bit too simplistic), but rather, I felt that the story never really took off.  The premise had potential, as there aren't too many books out there nowadays that incorporate modern technology (in the form of smartphones, tablets, laptops) and social media (i.e. Facebook) into a crime thriller – the technology in this case was front and center and in some instances, even became one of the focal "characters" in the story.  Unfortunately, the execution didn't really work for me – I felt that the plot was a bit all over the place (especially in the second half of the book), the characters were one-dimensional and written in a way that made all of them unlikable (with the exception of the kid William), and too many elements of the story just seemed implausible.  Throughout most of the story, there just seemed to be way too much "explaining" going on by various characters, especially as it related to aspects of technology and social media, things that I felt were common sense enough in this day and age that such thorough explanations felt unnecessary.  Parts of the story were also bogged down by what I felt were details that didn't matter (for example, one of the characters taking out their smart phone, swiping over to an app, opening file manager, going through each folder, pulling up a file, closing it out, etc.) – it felt tedious, and for me, detracted from the telling of the main story.

I went into this book initially expecting it to be an "edge-of-your-seat" thriller and admittedly, the first couple chapters did pique my curiosity.  However the story slowed considerably and started to drag quite a bit in the middle, to the point that by the time I got to the "twist" at the end, it felt anti-climactic (though it probably didn't help that I already figured out most of the ending already by then so the surprise element wasn't there).   I also felt like I had to suspend disbelief a bit too much throughout the story – yes, the title of the book is Lies and there are plenty of them in the story, but it seemed like only the main character Joe was the one constantly being lied to….he came across as a little too naïve and clueless until the end when he suddenly figured everything out, which seemed just too implausible to me.  Joe's reaction to things that happen in the story also felt a little off, emotionless almost, which made it hard for me to connect with that character (technically all the characters to be honest), though I think this has to do more with Joe also narrating the story from his own first person point of view.  I guess I'm just not a fan of fictional stories that are told in 1^st person because the viewpoint is so limited and unless the author is trying to achieve a particular purpose with the story, it's a skill that I feel is hard to get right.  

While I don't regret reading this one and some parts of it truly were entertaining, it just wasn't enough for this to feel like a satisfying read to me.  Overall, I felt the content was good, just didn't really like the execution.  With that said, I do appreciate all the research that went into the book and I actually did learn a bit more about social media and technology than I knew before, which is why I decided to rate this 3 stars, even though it was technically closer to 2.5 stars.  It looks like I'm in the minority with this one though, as everyone else seemed to like it more than I did, so I would recommend checking out those reviews to get a more balanced opinion.

Received ARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley

Review: Sold on a Monday (by Kristina McMorris)

My Rating: 4 stars

A Goodreads friend had introduced me to Kristina McMorris's works awhile back ago and I even added a few of her books to my TBR at the time, but unfortunately never got around to reading them – so when I found out that she would have a new book out in August, I immediately requested an ARC (and happily got approved right away).  Even without that though, taking one look at the cover made me already want to read this book.  Honestly, who wouldn't be moved even a little bit seeing a little boy on the cover, seated on the grassy floor, his head down, arms over his knees, waiting all by himself with a lone suitcase by his side, the title Sold on a Monday written right above him?  As the saying goes, pictures speak a thousand words, and that cover picture, along with the ones described in the book (as well as the original picture in the Author's Note which McMorris explains actually inspired this story), are ones I can't stop thinking about.  I don't have any kids of my own, but I have an 8-year-old nephew whom I adore and absolutely can't imagine living without, so it is unfathomable to me to think that a parent (or parents) could sell their children so willingly, regardless of the situation.  Looking at those pictures, I was curious and wanted to know more – yes, I wanted to know the story behind the pictures, but beyond that, I wanted an explanation, one that would help me understand the heartbreaking scene in the photographs.  Going into this book with these pre-conceived thoughts, I was expecting the story to be deeply emotional, despite the fact that I already knew this wouldn't be the "real" story behind the original photograph, but rather a fictionalized version based on McMorris's own research and interpretation.

Set in the early 1930s in Pennsylvania and later New York, against the backdrop of the Great Depression and its after effects, we follow society reporter Ellis Reed as he tries to scope out a satisfying story to earn his keep at the local newspaper he works for.  While on assignment, he snaps a photo of two boys next to a slightly rundown house and only later notices the sign in front that says '2 children for sale'. It is this photograph that becomes the catalyst for the entire story, putting Ellis on a path of events that unfold in the most unexpected of ways.  By his side is Lily Palmer, a young mother working as a secretary to the chief at the same noticeably male-dominated newspaper – she befriends Ellis and eventually becomes involved in his story after the haunting image of the children being put up for sale in the photograph triggers memories of her own past.

I was captivated with this story from the start.  Compelling and well-written, this story is not simply about Ellis getting his big break in the cutthroat world of a fast-paced and often unforgiving newspaper outlet, nor is it simply about Lily's struggle as an unwed mother who is trying to rise above society conventions and make a life for herself as well as her child.  The story is more complex and through the fate of the children, leads us to an exploration of morality and ethics in journalism, but more importantly, pushes us to think about our own perceptions and biases as well as our natural tendency to judge others and at times formulate a quick opinion based on limited knowledge.  McMorris did a really great job with the historical aspects of this story, with establishing time and place and relaying with vivid detail various aspects of the newsroom environment, as well as what was going on in society as a whole during that era.  I also liked that McMorris tried to incorporate an element of suspense by ending each chapter with a cliffhanger of sorts, which kept me as a reader engaged and continuously turning the pages in an effort to find out what happens next and the eventual fates of the children at the center of the story – Calvin and Ruby – both of whom captured my heart from the beginning.  Character-wise, both Ellis and Lily were well-drawn and were characters that I liked as well as rooted for – however for some reason, I found it difficult to connect with either character on an emotional level, which bothered me a bit.  Perhaps I was just never convinced about Ellis and Lily's relationship from the getgo, plus my focus from the beginning was on the story of the children, so the romantic element that was added, though not overwhelming, did become a little bit of a distraction.  Therefore, while I enjoyed this book overall and it was a good as well as necessary read for me, I didn't "love" it the way I thought I would.  

Regardless though, I still highly recommend this one, as it is well worth the time – the insights into society as well as the newsroom politics during that era were wonderfully captured and the story itself also left me with some interesting food for thought.  At the back of the book, there is a section entitled "A Conversation with the Author" where McMorris details some of the things that she considered while writing this book and one of things she said about truth in journalism that really resonated with me, but also makes this a very timely read given what we are going through currently in our society: "[I] think it's really important to remember in today's world of viral post and images and sound bites that we all bring our own perceptions to the table.  And that inevitably these are skewed by our past experiences or even an unconscious desire to see what we want to see.  More than ever, quick judgments based on those snippets, and certainly pushing the moral line in reporting, too often can have devastating consequences to others – as Ellis learned the hard way."  

Though this was my first time reading Kristina McMorris's work, it certainly won't be my last.  I am definitely looking forward to reading the rest of her books at some point down the line, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Received ARC from Sourcebooks Landmark via NetGalley and Edelweiss.