A Book A Week

Sometimes things are just too good to be true. As an avid reader, I love to browse my local library's digital catalog. I usually listen to audiobooks on my daily commute, so I've grown to love the options my library has available. My only complaint with this free resource is that sometimes the wait to read or listen to newer releases can be unbearable. Even 5 or 6 people waiting for a book ahead of you can equate to months of waiting to read. Because of this, I was excited to see that Alice Feeney's latest novel I Know Who You Are was available to listen to. I've had her popular Sometimes I Lie on hold for months now, so I eagerly downloaded her latest. I thought it was my lucky day, but after finishing the novel I realize there may have been a reason no one else had downloaded it.

The novel alternates between two time periods. In the present day sections, we meet Aimee Sinclair, a budding actress who is on the brink of becoming a huge star. She comes home to discover that her husband is missing. His phone is still there and it doesn't look like he packed any clothes, but he is nowhere to be found. The couple's relationship had been on the rocks for a while, but he would never leave without saying something. As the investigation into his disappearance starts to mount, Aimee finds herself turning from worried wife to suspect number one. After years of pretending to be other people, Aimee isn't sure who she really is. Could she be responsible for her husband vanishing?

The flashback sections of the novel see Aimee as a six-year-old. She has an abusive father, so she often turns to her brother for refuge. One day as she is out wandering the streets, she encounters an older woman. The woman convinces her that Aimee is lost, so she should come with the woman to contact her parents. Aimee complies, leaving with the woman and never seeing her family again.

I Know Who You Are sees Alice Feeney play out two storylines into a thriller that tries too hard to shock. I was initially intrigued by the premise of the novel, a kind of Room meets Gone Girl setup, but Feeney seemed unsure of where her story was going. She kept throwing in new narrative darts seemingly hoping that any of them would stick. The end result is a story that moves at a rapid pace but with no clear direction. There's an obligatory twist at the end that really shocked me with pure disgust at the revelation. I'm all for the dark or taboo subject matter, but this one wasn't earned. Because I wasn't truly invested in the character or the narrative, the twist came off as simply distasteful. Clearly, I didn't love this novel. I'll hold out hope that Sometimes I Lie is as good as everyone says it is, but I Know Who You Are did not live up to my expectations.

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2019, 23)

One of the best and worst parts about writing a weekly book blog is the amount of books that I own. Each year, I get countless requests from authors and publishers asking me to read and review their books. Being the bibliophile that I am, I also can't help but enter into book giveaways. Who doesn't like a free book!? The only problem is that several of the books I win or receive for potential review end up lingering on my ever-growing "to be read"(TBR) list. There's simply not enough time to get to every book! One of those unlucky books happens to be Lie to Me by J.T. Ellison. I won a copy last fall from one of my must-read book blogs, A Bookworm's World. In an attempt to put a larger dent in my TBR list, I decided to begin my year by reading it.

Publishers love to proclaim that their book is "The next Gone Girl." Usually this ends up being nothing more than a cheap marketing ploy. I've yet to read one of these novels that has even the slightest similarity to Gone Girl. A thriller by a female author is not enough basis for an adequate comparison. When I saw the blurb at the top of the cover from author Lisa Scottoline declaring, "Fans of GONE GIRL will gobble up this thriller about a marriage from hell," I feared the worst.

To my surprise, Lie to Me truly does warrant comparisons to Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel. Ethan and Sutton Montclair are a married pair of authors living in Tennessee. Ethan writes critically and commercially acclaimed literary fiction while Sutton focuses more on historical romances. Like Gone Girl, the novel opens with the wife missing. Sutton has left a note telling Ethan that she has left and that he shouldn't try to find her. Oddly, she has left her wallet, phone, and computer behind. Ethan knows their marriage has been on the rocks since the unexpected death of their infant son, but he still fears for Sutton's safety. He also knows that in the case of a missing wife, the husband is also the number one suspect.

The first half of Lie to Me is told entirely from Ethan's perspective. Flashbacks of his marriage as well as present day dealings with Sutton's disappearance give the novel an ever-building suspense. My only problem is that neither Sutton or Ethan is particularly likable. They are equally complicit in their toxic relationship. Even when the novel shifts to Sutton's perspective in the second half and we gain a clearer idea of how the events have unfolded, I still didn't care for them.

Thankfully, author J.T. Ellison includes Holly, the lead investigator on the case. Holly is a young officer who has her eyes set on advancing through the field to get a government office job. The next step on that journey would be getting the title of detective. If she can complete the Montclair investigation without any hiccups, she just might receive that title. Holly gives the story a character that readers can latch onto and root for. Without her, the novel would simply be too dark and distant.

Lie to Me works quite well as a domestic drama. Ellison relishes in her deliciously deceitful characters and allows their drama to unfold at the perfect pace. The first half of the book maintains wonderful suspense and keeps the pages turning. When the novel shifts to Sutton's point of view, the book loses a bit of the tension that made the first half so enthralling. By that point, however, I was already invested enough in the story that I had to see it through. While I was a bit disappointed in the ending (the story just ballooned too far out of plausibility for me), I was happy to have made Lie to Me my first read of 2018. It is the first book I've read that justifies any comparison to Gone Girl, so I have no qualm in saying that fans of that book will enjoy this one. Go ahead and add it to your 2018 TBR list. You'll race through it in no time!

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.

(2018, 1)

"I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head."

There is no denying that one of last year's "it" books was The Girl on the Train by debut author Paula Hawkins. Everywhere I looked, it seemed people were reading the book! Amongst my fellow reviewers, reaction to the novel was pretty polarizing. They either loved it or couldn't even stand to finish it. I'll admit that I had a slight aversion to jumping on the band wagon. I've voiced my disapproval of book's that contain the word "girl" in the title just to draw a comparison to Gone Girl. I feared that this would be yet another subpar imitation of that novel. As I started reading it, however, I soon found that I couldn't have been more mistaken.

Life has been hard on Rachel. The grief of not being able to conceive a child eventually took its toll on her marriage. As depression settled in, Rachel turned to alcohol to ease the pain. Her husband turned to another woman. Now, Rachel's life is nothing more than a mundane routine of work and self medication. Each morning she rides the train to work, passing the home she once shared. For a brief instance, she can see into the homes of her former neighborhood. One young couple in particular draws her attention, and she begins to fantasize about their seemingly perfect life.

This voyeuristic curiosity soon begins to take over Rachel's life. She looks forward to her twice daily glimpse into the couple's perfect relationship. Besides alcohol, the story of Jason and Jess (names that Rachel has assigned) becomes her escape from the depression that clouds her mind. Soon reality invades Rachel's fantasy and shatters the idealistic narrative that that she constructed. The Jess has gone missing and the Jason seems to be the primary suspect. Determined to help the couple and to preserve the one part of her life that is positive, Rachel contacts the police to tell them about everything she has watched. But how can the police trust the word of someone who has never even met the couple? More so, how can they seriously consider the word of a woman who gets blackout drunk every evening?

In The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins uses an unreliable narrator to cloud her otherwise straightforward thriller into a murky mirage of uncertainty. Through her consistently inconsistent recollections, Rachel attempts to string together a narrative that is mired in alcohol induced chasms. For her part, Hawkins does an admiral job getting us to care for Rachel. She is a character who seems to be the sole enabler of her misfortunes, but the backstory that Hawkins provides gives her both depth and sympathy. Even though I guessed the conclusion a few pages before it was revealed, the pulse pounding suspense that permeated every moment toward that discovery more than made up for that flaw. The Girl on the Train is a cleverly plotted novel that deserves every bit of the acclaim it has received. If this debut is any indication of things to come in Hawkins career, I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.

(2016, 19)

"She defines and eliminates problems. She's practical in an evil way."

Gillian Flynn, author of the bestselling Gone Girl, returns with The Grownup, a novella that features her signature suspense with a dark flair. The story centers around a young woman who has spent her whole life conning people out of their money. She spent her formative years on the street with her mother. Over time, she learned how to read people and to devise the perfect sob story to convince them to hand over some cash. As soon as she was old enough, the woman ventured out on her own and began to make a comfortable living off of her various crimes.

Now our unnamed narrator finds herself "servicing" men in the back room of a bogus fortune teller establishment. When carpal tunnel prevents her from effectively executing her job, she uses her natural intuition to earn a spot at the front of the building as a psychic. Susan Burke seems like an easy target for the narrator. She instantly gives the impression of a woman who is unhappy with her marriage and life at home. On her first visit to cleanse Susan's Victorian mansion of whatever is plaguing it, the narrator soon discovers that there may actually be some truth to Susan's claims of an evil presence. For the first time in her life, the narrator may be the one who is blindsided by the reality of the situation.

At less that a hundred pages, The Grownup is a quick read that easily held my interest. There is a genuine sense of dread that permeates the pages of the work, even when the story gets a little too overblown to be taken seriously. Flynn really plays up the genre to the point where it becomes unclear if she is intentionally making the situation outrageous or not. Just when I thought I had her end game figured out, Flynn turned the story on its head with an ending that completely caught me off guard. There is clearly a larger moral to the work that pertains to the narrator's special ability, but the short length doesn't allow this lesson to come to a convincing fruition. Ultimately, The Grownup is an enjoyable distraction that should whet appetite of Flynn's fans while paling in comparison to her other novels.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.

(2016, 16)

Nick and Amy Dunne seem like the perfect couple. Living a dream life in New York, the pair of writers appear to have it all. She, a stunning blonde, star of her parent's children book series, and writer of magazine quizzes, is the perfect mix of brains and beauty. He, good looking, smart journalist, with the perfect wife to match, is the stereotypical all American boy. Together, they live their perfect life in their perfect home. But all that changes when both are laid off from their journalism jobs. With no viable job prospect in the city, Nick decides that they should move to his childhood hometown in  Missouri, where both of his health stricken parents and twin sister Margo live. Amy reluctantly agrees.

On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick is at the bar that he owns with Margo. He is contemplating the inevitable anniversary scavenger hunt, a quirky and romantic tradition that has Nick retrace the steps of the couple's relationship, when he receives a courtesy phone call from his neighbor alerting him that his front door is ajar. Concerned, he comes home to discover that some furniture has been knocked over, and that Amy is nowhere to be found. Immediately, the police are notified, and an investigation ensues.

Through Amy's diary entries, we learn that their picture perfect marriage was anything but. These entries alternate with accounts of the ongoing investigation from Nick's perspective. As the authorities and 24/7 news networks delve deeper into the case, Nick's story begins to break down, making him the prime suspect in Amy's disappearance. With Nick continuing to profess his innocence, the entire community begins to question how well they know the people who surround them each day.

This is a first rate thriller from top to bottom. Each character is crafted with the kind of gray morality that both mimics real life and provides plenty of natural misdirection throughout the story. Flynn reveals  the flaws in everyday people, and places them into situations that bring horror into their mundane lives. Many reviewers have found the ending to be disappointing. I also was a bit taken aback by the way the narrative wraps up, but after contemplating it for a while, the ending seems to be inevitable. In the end, Flynn does not give us the tidy package that we have come to expect from similar novels. Instead, she maintains the dark and twisted nature that reality too often provides. This novel definitely deserves all the hype and acclaim it has received, and I highly recommend it.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and GoodReads.

(2014)