AUDIBLE EDITOR

Emily Cox

Emily has been an Audible Editor since 2008. She balances her devotion to British Classics with lots of dark speculative fiction, young adult novels, and the occasional Regency romance. She also has intense love for parentheticals, books that make her ugly cry, and the serial comma.

Emily's Recent Reviews

Product List
    • A Novel
    • By: Rachel Joyce
    • Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
    • Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
    • Release date: 11-03-20
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,123 ratings
    • Humor, beauty, and rich revelation
    • I was so thrilled, as I always am, to hear that a new Rachel Joyce work was coming our way. What I love about her stories is they are each so different: her premises are varied and quirky, she writes protagonists of both genders, and she hasn’t spent too much time in any one historical period, and yet no one can write about the lasting impact of childhood like Rachel Joyce. It's the one truth all adults share; we were once children—and then we grew up—but the micro-traumas, the small hurts, the little scars, they stay with us. In Miss Benson's Beetle, we meet Margery Benson, a lonely, older woman whose life has been underwhelming, and who feels her last chance at meaning is to find a—possibly fictional—creature that has quietly obsessed her her whole life. But as the story of her adventure, along with her very unconventional assistant, unfolds layer by surprising layer you come to realize it's much more about the unpacking of grief and memory with a once-in-a-lifetime friend than it is about the Golden Beetle of New Caledonia. Humor, beauty, and rich revelation thread throughout this story, and you won't want to miss Juliet Stevenson's multiple voices that bring a madcap, but ultimately hugely sympathetic, cast of characters to life.
    • Women on the Verge of a Breakthrough
    • By: Cheryl Strayed, Roxane Gay, Caroline Kepnes, Lisa Ko, Emma Donoghue, Mary Gaitskill, Kate Atkinson
    • Narrated by: Kristen Bell, Samira Wiley, Lea Salonga, Margo Martindale, Gwendoline Christie
    • Series: Out of Line collection
    • Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
    • Release date: 09-01-20
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
    • Last year I was completely wowed by Amazon Original Stories' Forward Collection—a group of edgy sci-fi shorts from best-selling authors that perfectly tapped into my love of Black Mirror (the one by N.K. Jemisin went on to win the Hugo for the best novelette). So I was thrilled to learn that this year they've followed it up with a new collection that seems perfectly designed to appeal to my love of The Handmaid's Tale. Though not all dystopian, each of these seven stories—by such amazing authors as Emma Donoghue, Cheryl Strayed, Roxane Gay, and Caroline Kepnes—simmers with the anxiety inherent in being a woman in the world. The title Out of Line is a reference to what happens when a woman steps 'out of line,' which comes in many forms, and how that inflection point is both a moment of rebellion and one of power, where she wrestles control of her own story. Each story is sharp and gripping in its own way, and performed perfectly, with the all-star lineup of narrators including Samira Wiley, Kristen Bell, and Lea Salonga. These stories felt like sisterhood, like companionship, and that's what I've been sorely needing these days.
    • (Astrophysically Speaking)
    • By: Katie Mack
    • Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Katie Mack
    • Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
    • Release date: 08-04-20
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 953 ratings
    • Contemplating our doom (the far-off distant kind) is weirdly refreshing
    • I love to get my mind boggled by big science, but I really struggle to make my way through dense nonfiction (Bill Nye the Science Guy is more my speed). But I've been following Katie Mack on Twitter @AstroKatie ever since we started hearing about Betelgeuse dimming and potentially going supernova (the coolness of which I appreciate even more after listening to this book). Starting with the Big Bang for background, she proceeds to take us through the five scientifically most likely ways the world will one day meet its end—and make no mistake about it, it will end. Charming and humorous, and peppered with enough pop culture and sci-fi references to keep listeners like me grounded in our reality, Mack approaches the inevitability of our doom with the kind of levity I just really, really needed right now.
    • By: Bren MacDibble
    • Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
    • Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins
    • Release date: 03-03-20
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
    • To bee or not to bee
    • Bren MacDibble's enchanting children's tale, a best seller in Australia, is a hard one to size up. In this dystopian future the bees have almost completely disappeared and "farm children" are enlisted to scramble from tree-to-tree, pollinating flowers to grow fruit, most of which ultimately gets shipped off to the city and the richer "Urbs". But as oppressive as this sounds (and if you're looking for a way to explain indentured servitude to your children this might be the place to start) the family we meet—our heroine Peony, her sister Mags, and Gramps—are content and filled with a deep love for each other. The moral of the story seems to arrive on the bus every month, when Peony's mother returns from the city for a visit, bristling with anger and wanting, and the more-than-occasional black eye (a warning for parents: domestic abuse is present here). And in a Willy Wonka-esq twist, the happily ever after isn't delivered as a rescue from one's circumstances but in the promise of a lifetime of hard but fulfilling work. There's a lot going on, and I'm still ruminating on this one weeks after listening but ultimately our heroine Peony is one that will stay with me forever. Brave and fearless, and utterly in love with her life, she's everything I hope my child to be, even as her world is a humbling reminder of what we must not let our future become.
    • Stories of Tomorrow
    • By: Veronica Roth, Blake Crouch, Amor Towles, Paul Tremblay, Andy Weir, N. K. Jemisin
    • Narrated by: Evan Rachel Wood, Rosa Salazar, Jason Isaacs, David Harbour, Steven Strait, Janina Gavankar
    • Series: Forward Collection, Book 1-6
    • Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
    • Release date: 10-08-19
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 1,554 ratings
    • This is exactly how I like my techno-anxiety
    • While I've watched a few Black Mirror episodes over the years, I've generally found them to be too much to binge, and (confession) I have to have my husband test-watch them first to weigh in on whether or not he thinks they will keep me up at night worrying. I'm fascinated by these kinds of near sci-fi stories with dystopian themes, but I struggle to take them in on screen. So I'm LOVING the Forward Collection—it brings the vibe of Black Mirror, but it walks that perfect line that allows me to engage my inner nerd while keeping my inner stress-case at bay. Each story in this collection is served up by big name writer (I was so intrigued to hear the author of Gentleman in Moscow tackle this genre, and N.K. Jemisin, who tends more towards fantasy, may have written the smartest sci-fi story I’ve heard all year!). As a bonus, this collection is performed by an all-star cast including Jason Isaacs and Evan Rachel Wood among others. Happy bingeing!
    • A Novel
    • By: Ann Patchett
    • Narrated by: Tom Hanks
    • Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
    • Release date: 09-24-19
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 56,604 ratings
    • This narrator = The best news of the season!
    • As editors at Audible we often can't get an early "read" on a new title coming out until we know who the narrator is, because—of course—that can really make or break the experience. So I was over the moon to hear that the newest novel by the brilliant Ann Patchett, (unorthodox opinion: The Magician's Assistant is my favorite of her works) would be performed by Tom Hanks, I knew I already had my top pick of the fall lined up. Having listened to the collection of short stories he penned a few years ago, I knew that Hanks would balance the honest with the sweet, blending levity with gravitas. And that balance is critical because The Dutch House, like many of Patchett's novels, delves into and wrenchingly describes the sensitive intricacies of a very singular family, serving up humor, cynicism, and immense pain in a way that is completely unique to the players at hand.
    • A Novel
    • By: Beth O'Leary
    • Narrated by: Carrie Hope Fletcher, Kwaku Fortune
    • Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
    • Release date: 05-28-19
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,999 ratings
    • Way more than fluff
    • When I first heard about Flatshare it was billed as a light and happy beach listen about roommates who fall in love through post-it notes, and I thought "Perfect! I'll take this one on vacation." But wow this was not what I expected. Don’t get me wrong—there's a lot of joy here, but despite the rom-com premise, Beth O'Leary's debut is way more than fluff, and her two leads are both incredibly complex characters, with uniquely developed baggage. Actor and first time narrator Kwaku Fortune (is there a better name?) delivers a fabulous performance of what was doubtless a difficult role: Leon is so much a man of few words that he often simply drops needed articles and pronouns, but Fortune's deft treatment rounds out his awkwardness into something real and relatable. Carrie Hope Fletcher on the other hand brilliantly embodies Tiffy - a character so sparkling and bold that you almost miss the fact that her ex-boyfriend is continuing to gaslight her. So yes, take this one to the beach and revel in its sweetness and the heartwarming love story, but stick around for the depth and intelligence that emerges from the amazing performances.
    • By: Kristen Roupenian
    • Narrated by: Aubrey Plaza, Jayme Mattler, Molly Pope, Will Damron, Jasmin Savoy Brown - introduction, Emily Tremaine - introduction, Finn Wittrock, Amy Ryan, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Corey Brill, Gibson Frazier
    • Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
    • Release date: 01-15-19
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 303 ratings
    • With the daring and agility of an acrobat
    • I was recently in Las Vegas for business and I had the chance to take in a Cirque du Soleil performance for the first time. I found it bizarre and unsettling, but it was without a doubt one of the most astonishing displays of absurd talent I have ever experienced. That's also pretty much how I felt after finishing Kristen Roupenian's debut collection, You Know You Want This.

      While "Cat Person" (the New Yorker story—also included here—that earned Roupenian a reported seven-figure advance after it went viral) has a humanistic, is-this-even-fiction feel to it, this collection shows range, restlessness, and a need to experiment. Her opening gambit moves from warped friendship, breezes past sex, and rapidly ends in horror film territory. One story presents an exhilarating #MeToo revenge fantasy, while another lays out an explanation of Morgellons disease more clearly than any scientific journal. And a romantic fairy tale (perhaps my favorite of the bunch), evolves into a dark fable before ending on a meta note of archeological melancholy.

      Each entry presents a bizarre challenge that Roupenian, with deft trickery, consistently pulls off. A daring leap taken. An elegant landing. Despite her insane talent, I'll leave the jury out on whether this collection is capital I Important, but that's okay. These stories are unsettling for sure, but also playful, ambitious, and very, very fun.

    • Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump
    • By: Michiko Kakutani
    • Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
    • Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
    • Release date: 07-17-18
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 241 ratings
    • Parsing fact from fiction
    • I started listening Carlo Rovelli's book The Order of Time narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch (because who wouldn't listen to that?!) and it was lovely and poetic, but I had to put it down because he was arguing that time isn't absolute. Apparently time moves faster at higher altitudes, so if one twin brother lives on a mountain and another on a plain, the mountain brother ages faster...and then my head exploded. It seems I'm both fascinated and horrified by relativism, so this brilliant book-length essay from Michiko Kakutani helped me recalibrate after my adventure into physics. The former chief book critic at The New York Times deals with her subject deftly: how do we hold onto facts and the idea of absolute truth in a land that seems to be built on the shifting sands of narrative creation? It turns out a literary critic is the perfect person to parse fact from fiction and give us a whopping lesson in how storytelling works in the process.
    • By: Elena Favilli, Francesca Cavallo
    • Narrated by: Alicia Keys, Ashley Judd, Danai Gurira, Janeane Garofalo, Phillipa Soo, Esperanza Spalding, Samira Wiley, Mozhan Marnò, Rowan Blanchard
    • Series: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, Book 1
    • Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
    • Release date: 06-19-18
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 151 ratings
    • Now with a fierce, female multi-cast!
    • When the print version of this book released in 2016 it immediately topped all my holiday gift lists. I can't tell you how many copies I bought of this puppy, but wow, have I supported Timbuktu Labs (the children's media company that published it), for good reason. My seven-year-old daughter LOVES this book. Many a night she picks out a story to read together, often informed by the beautiful pictures (Frida Kahlo's eyebrows are a huge hit), and I love the empowering message behind each true story. Now I'm so excited to take this groundbreaking book on the go, and can't wait to share the all-star multicast—which features such powerful women as Alicia Keyes, Ashley Judd, Janeane Garofalo, and Samira Wiley—with my little fierce little lady.
    • A Novel
    • By: Julian Barnes
    • Narrated by: Guy Mott
    • Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
    • Release date: 04-17-18
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 209 ratings
    • The limits of love and memory
    • I've spent the last few months immersed in sci-fi, romance, and other genre fiction, so I was hankering for this new book from Julian Barnes. The Only Story—a meditation on the limits of love and memory—was exactly the literary palette cleanser it promised to be: bright and pungent, with a bitter finish. It begins in 1963 when 19-year old Paul (student, home from Uni) and 48-year old Susan (married, mother of two) meet playing mixed doubles at the tennis club and fall face-first in love. Promises are made instinctively and with little foresight, setting in motion the greatest conundrum of Paul's life. Love, though arriving swiftly and never fully dispersing, ultimately proves to be incomprehensible. Throughout the narrative Barnes moves almost randomly between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, but narrator Guy Mott's deft transitions are so seamless that it's not immediately apparent to the listener. And this struck me as exactly how self-reflection works: you view yourself from every angle, and here this shifting vantage point creates the room for moments of granular honesty, both beautiful and gruesome. Paul worries the problem in his hand like a stone, searching it for clues until determining that his attachment is flawed but unbreakable. At one point he claims death is the only closure. Well then…palette cleansed.
    • The Illuminae Files, Book 3
    • By: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
    • Narrated by: Olivia Taylor Dudley, Olivia Mackenzie-Smith, Ryan Gesell, Carla Corvo, MacLeod Andrews, Erin Spencer, Andrew Eiden, Lisa Cordileone, Matthew Frow, Full Cast
    • Series: The Illuminae Files, Book 3
    • Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
    • Release date: 03-13-18
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 2,076 ratings
    • Is this the most satisfying YA trilogy conclusion ever??
    • Harmless spoiler alert: yes it is! Obsidio is the third and final book in Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's groundbreaking YA sci-fi series, The Illuminae Files. Presented as a dossier of evidence submitted during a trial, the series takes the jury (and the listener) through the story of a planetary invasion gone wrong, ultimately making a case against a greedy corporate entity. As such, the print versions of these books are highly graphic: complete with redactions, transcripts, maps, charts, and drawings. In translating this to audio, the producers faced a huge challenge in communicating not just the story but also the drama and emotion inherent on the pages. Through a vast multi-cast of more than 40 actors, rich sound design, commissioned music, as well as original content devised by the authors specifically for the audiobook, the series becomes a completely transporting, immersive, and not-to-be-missed experience.
    • A Novel
    • By: Rachel Joyce
    • Narrated by: Steven Hartley
    • Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
    • Release date: 01-02-18
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,881 ratings
    • Another thing of beauty from Rachel Joyce
    • How I love Rachel Joyce. In The Music Shop we meet Frank, an eternal optimist who knows about almost nothing except music, and who believes his vinyl record shop—which is struggling to remain relevant amidst the rise of CDs in 1980s Britain—is his venue by which to help the world. He has the intuitive ability to know what records people need to hear, and has even saved a marriage or two through his almost magical curation skills. Music geeks will eat this up (who doesn't want to hear Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata described as "punk?"), but as in all of Joyce's stories, the true elegance comes through her identification of the turning points in a person's life. What are those micro-traumas that set a child on their seemingly accidental path in life; what was that moment of (in)decision that changed everything? As a parent, Joyce's prescience terrifies me, but I also can't look away. As a bonus track (pun!) Steven Hartley's narration—Google him, you know this guy—is masterful: in turns obsessively enthusiastic and heartbreaking, especially amazing given that it’s his first turn behind the mic.
    • By: Matt Haig
    • Narrated by: Mark Meadows
    • Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
    • Release date: 02-06-18
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 3,241 ratings
    • Immortality is a bummer
    • One of my favorite YA trilogies (I won't tell you which) is awesome until the very end when the heroine beats the bad guy by acquiring immortality. While my colleague Katie loved this ending, it always majorly disturbed me, and How to Stop Time is the perfect illustration of why. Immortality is a bummer, guys. Matt Haig's protagonist, Tom, though not technically immortal—just looking forward to a 900+ years—is depressed. Everyone he's ever dared to love is dead, and he can't really settle into a home for more than a decade or so without raising serious—and dangerous—suspicions. In his current identity he's based in London and teaching (of course) history, and this is why, despite Tom's glumness, I just LOVED this book. I may not wish for immortality, but I do wish I could travel back in time. Tom's narration whisks you back to the Tudor period, the Jazz Age, the Gold Rush, and there's something truly remarkable about looking at history from a bird's eye view: Tom has our (and by "our" I mean "we mere humans") number, and we aren't the smartest of beasts. We are quite literally repeating ourselves. And While Tom may be exasperated and even a bit bored by our antics, this is the least boring book I've devoured in quite some time.
    • A Novel
    • By: George Saunders
    • Narrated by: Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, George Saunders, Carrie Brownstein, Don Cheadle, Lena Dunham, Bill Hader, Kirby Heyborne, Keegan-Michael Key, Julianne Moore, Megan Mullally, Susan Sarandon, Ben Stiller, Various
    • Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
    • Release date: 02-14-17
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 10,382 ratings
    • My favorite listen of 2017
    • Lincoln in the Bardo is one of the most extraordinary books I have ever listened to—and make no mistake—this one is meant to be listened to. 166 individual narrators (led by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, author George Saunders, and the incomparably sweet Kirby Heyborne as Willie) came together to voice this wildly surreal audiobook. While that might sound like a production stunt, the breadth of voices is necessary to create the immersive cacophony effect—almost a Greek chorus of Americana—that washes over you, ultimately leaving you with a stark and devastatingly accurate portrait of grief told by the clamoring voices of the dead.

      The listener finds himself in a Georgetown Cemetery where young Willie Lincoln has just been laid to rest. The Civil War has only just begun, and Willie's grieving father (the president) returns to the graveyard in a state of stumbling and stricken shambles to look at and hold the body of his boy. This unorthodox behavior from a visitor triggers shocked confusion among the self-unaware deceased who wonder what it means for their own fates. In rounding out his tale, Saunders depicts the real events of the time (those things happening outside of the graveyard) entirely through historical snippets and citations, some real, some imagined, all poignant in their disembodied wisdom. The effect is quite literally otherworldly, but the concerns of the voices seem recognizable and real, as you'll feel history rise up to meet the present, the echoes of the Civil War in conversation with today.
    • By: Margaret Atwood, Valerie Martin - essay
    • Narrated by: Claire Danes, full cast, Margaret Atwood, Tim Gerard Reynolds
    • Series: The Handmaid's Tale, Book 1
    • Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
    • Release date: 04-04-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 36,200 ratings
    • Critical Listening
    • Full disclosure: The Handmaid's Tale is my favorite book. It is my number one all-time pick among books, the book of my life, having topped my list since I first read it in 2008. (I actually picked it up on the recommendation of someone I met while interviewing for my job at Audible!) In my opinion this book is absolutely critical (perhaps especially today): Atwood draws deep on history to expose how humans have again and again subjected women, and she illuminates our continued culpability in this. Offred's inner monologue untangles that messy dichotomy of wanting to remain independent, but feeling the urge to submit in the face of love. And it's completely humbling. No other work of literature slaps us so hard in the face with the fact that we are all just fragments—or moments in time—and we're all destined to become mere historical footnotes if we're lucky, completely forgotten if we're not.

      So when The Handmaid's Tale was originally produced in audio in 2012 I was ready, like a fan girl clutching a movie ticket on opening night, to be let down. I was worried that no narrator could live up to my expectations given my belief in the importance of this book. But Claire Danes is just vivid. She doesn't act, and she doesn't need to. She recounts. She breathes out the tale as if she is living it. Resigned, beaten down, traveling through hell by putting one step ahead of the other. I was utterly convinced by her performance.

      But for all my love of The Handmaid's Tale, and my belief that it's a perfect book, I've always been—again like a fan girl—a little irked by one aspect of it: its ending. "Are there any questions?" may be the most wonderfully frustrating last line ever conceived. YES I have questions— MANY of them. In producing this special edition, we proposed that Margaret Atwood answer some of those long standing questions. So what was it like to ask a Booker Prize-winning author to amend the ending of her most famous work? I felt pretty presumptuous to say the least. But Margaret’s response—and I think I’m quoting this correctly—was, ‘Sure, this sounds like fun.’ And indeed it was fun. The ten audio-only questions included in this production present a teasing look at the world beyond Offred, and a glimpse of what Atwood might have up her sleeve next.
    • By: Alan Gratz
    • Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom, Kyla Garcia, Assaf Cohen
    • Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
    • Release date: 08-01-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,525 ratings
    • Timely Lessons From the Past
    • This heart-wrencher of a tale chronicles three separate journeys of children experiencing what none should have to: fleeing a home that is no longer safe. We meet Josef, a Jewish boy leaving Germany in 1939 as he boards the ill-fated ocean liner St. Louis; Isabelle, who, along with her family, flees Cuba as a 1994 rafter, and Mahmoud, who departs Aleppo in 2015, bound for (bringing us full circle) Germany. The stories, unfolding in alternating points of view, are benchmarked at the start of each chapter with a subhead: xx days from home, demonstrating that from a kids' vantage point, home - or lack of - is the only landmark that really matters.

      The three accounts really took me into the heart of these historical moments in a way that news reports rarely do, each depicting a unique version of desperation, tragedy, and longing. But while I was on the edge-of-my-seat throughout, the ultimate conclusion is one of hope - that the sins of our collective past do in fact have the power to positively impact the choices we make in the future.
    • An Audible Original Drama
    • By: Jane Austen, Anna Lea - adaptation
    • Narrated by: Emma Thompson, Douglas Booth, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ella Purnell, Jeremy Irvine, Lily Cole
    • Series: Jane Austen's Novels
    • Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
    • Release date: 07-18-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 5,930 ratings
    • A High-Spirited (and Very Funny) Dramatization
    • Northanger Abbey has always been one of my favorite Austen stories (along with Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and… oh). Anyway—it ranks WAY higher than Mansfield Park, at least. But I’ve always loved that it’s Austen’s most obvious play at satire, demonstrating, perhaps ironically (or maybe, given Austen’s own life, not at all) what kind of trouble a wild imagination can get a young woman into. So it lends itself beautifully to this new high-spirited, and very funny, dramatization. It even seems that Austen has herself been cast as the omniscient and wise narrator (and who else more fully embodies those qualities than the brilliant Emma Thompson?). If you love a good comedy of manners, don’t miss this delightful audio-only treasure.
    • A Novel
    • By: Sarah Pinborough
    • Narrated by: Anna Bentinck, Josie Dunn, Bea Holland, Huw Parmenter
    • Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
    • Release date: 01-31-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 19,992 ratings
    • A Book that Will Haunt You
    • The publicists for Sarah Pinbourough's breakout novel love to point to a hashtag that arose from early reads of the book, #WTFthatending. It's a great hook: "this book has such a batsh*t insane denouement that people took to twitter to OMG about it!" So of course I was intrigued, but I generally assumed that this was more PR gimmick than anything… But as it turns out, "WTF" is pretty much how I've been feeling since I finished listening last month. In fact I'm only writing this review because I need to bleach my brain and I'm hoping this will be the catharsis I'm looking for. After the initial five minutes (performed from the vantage point of a never-to-be-heard-from-again narrator) left me appropriately baffled, I was quickly sucked in and found firm footing within the dual-narration of the two main characters and their disparate personalities. We meet Adele, the naïve (but obviously not really), mistreated weakling of a wife, and Louise, the single mom who is both Adele's new insta-BFF and the woman sleeping with Adele's husband. The web of lies among the two, as well as the man in the middle, gets more and more tangled before it unravels, and you are never quite sure who's pulling which strings. Fair warning: there is an element within the premise of the story that you stumble upon about midway through that's admittedly a little farfetched, but by then you're so engrossed that you just go with it. Without revealing too much, I'll just say that as someone who loves a good multicast performance, I was fully aware that there was a fourth narrator in that casting line-up, and I felt - rightfully so it turns out - an immense amount of dread as I waited for them to show up.

      Despite how insane this book made me feel, I still wouldn’t trade in the experience (though I'll let you know how I'm feeling in another month). If you're in the mood for a book that will haunt you this might be a good candidate, just be prepared to need a prompt mental palate cleanser. Can I recommend Her Royal Spyness, perhaps?