Annie Wilhite

So many red herrings you just end up choking on fish bones.

Revisado: 01-19-25

This book contains twice as many characters and twice as many plot twists as it should. You are not allowed enough time to feel connected to the players in the racing narrative, but you cannot follow the narrative because the players driving it are so unfamiliar you're focusing on keeping them straight instead of paying attention. Aa result, the crazy "reveals" are more like fallen branches on a trail that you trip over and then turn around to point at and say, "Here are all the details about that branch I tripped over!" before turning around to continue on the trail and immediately tripping on another.

There are several featureless, wooden men in this book that live irrelevantly in the background until all of a sudden you are told in great detail why they matter, right before they stop featuring altogether. (This is not to suggest the book needs more male representation or dialogue, only to indicate it feels like the first couple episodes of a new season of The Bachelorette, when there are just way too many men to notice them individually.) I legitimately couldn't remember the differences between Liam and Tony prior to Liam becoming the focal point in the last 10% of the novel. Victor Guul had one scene over about two pages in the whole book, but then in the conclusion Columbia takes 3 whole sentences to inform us that he actually played a major familial role in her life-- and now we are expected to be as emotionally connected to him as a beloved uncle. Sorry, but I don't know who the guy is!

The four main characters, the women around whom the story unfolds, are unfortunately also not given enough time or energy for readers to connect with them. The development of Darryan and Kira particularly suffered from this treatment. I cared most about Riley and Columbia but even so, by the end felt I weirdly emotionally excluded from the reunion narrative because their relationships didn't feel fleshed out. All the time they would have needed to process and talk and get to know each other for us to connect to their ending was taken up by the untangling of plot twists. I almost want four novels, one from each woman's perspective, and a much more subtle weaving of danger and drama over time. In reality I think telling the story with only two or three vignettes-- Riley in the present and Columbia in the past, with maybe shorter Sutcliffe chapters to get the police procedural angle in there-- would have done all the characters far more justice.

As for the performance score, the acting in this version of the book was too flat and the production lacked appropriate cadences. A crazy chapter would end with a reveal and the next title card would play immediately, as if no chapter break was occurring. A couple seconds of rest between breaks makes a big difference in how chapter-ending punches land. Readers need a second to absorb the full impact of a blow.

Despite a frustrated story, this book was nice to have on in the background while I worked on crafts, and I never considered making it a DNF. Riley in particular was a great character-- I just wish she wasn't held back from becoming a true heroine by the background noise and cluttered plot devices she had to wade through.

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Oof.

Revisado: 11-11-24

Put-upon middle-aged man is smarter than everyone else and uses his superior brain power to see through the facade of wealth and privilege unlike the simpering yokels who surround him. He's unpleasant, presumptuous, and condescending, and his moods shift faster than a teenage girl's. The writing is cliched and self-indulgent. The voice actor was miscast and should be woodenly narrating a business memoir written by the fictional villain of the story instead of a shallow action novel. Found it extremely rich that the main character would presume to raise another child after seeing how his first turned out. Two stars instead of one for the story because I did want to know what happened, after all, and chose to spend 11 hours of my time finding out. Can't really recommend you do the same, though.

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Good story idea but not as well-executed as hoped

Revisado: 04-08-22

I started off really liking the writing as well as being intrigued by the unique plot. Good suspense in the beginning but diluted toward the end by unexplained shifts in character personalities and motivations. The vignettes were often in an awkward order and side characters popped up as first person out of nowhere. Weirdly on the nose with female empowerment at the end after building up suspicion using stereotypical assumptions about women the entire novel up to that point... I felt like the conversation between Jill and Bridget at the end was a scripted segment on Oprah. I did guess the twist, but not too early-- it was just uncertain enough to still be exciting up to the moment of the reveal.

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Loved this so much.

Revisado: 05-30-21

Took a little bit to adjust to the leapfrogging vignettes but it was so worth it. I love these characters more than I've loved a character in a good long while. Ms. Ivey as the narrator brought them to life. Thank you!

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Impactful book, inconsistent narration

Revisado: 10-28-20

The crime and criminal are truly disturbing in so many ways but I'm very thankful for the author's emphasis on Erin's life and personality as well as the dedication of those who brought the family justice. I was deeply moved by this book. Unfortunately I had to remove a star because the audiobook performance contained many pronunciation errors and vocal inconsistencies which distracted from the narrative too often to ignore in an honest review.

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Life-changing.

Revisado: 10-06-20

I'll read this one again and again when I need it. The narration was amazing.

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OK story, poor acting and production

Revisado: 02-17-17

The story is fairly good-- there are some annoying plot holes and slow, repetitive sections, but the climax is quite suspenseful and thrilling, which made up for a lot of it. I enjoyed the repeated theme of women in the stories knowing more than they appear to. However, the voice acting and production quality is horrendous. The male actor rushes over his words, turning periods into commas and making run-ons of whole paragraphs. The female actor sounds lovely in her normal Rachel narrator voice but literally everyone else she voices sounds like they have a head cold. Super nasally, super raspy... the voice of Katrina is so quiet you have to turn the sound up and down whenever she has dialogue with another character. The timing of the sound mixing is awful. During Rachel's story, characters take far too long to begin their dialogue-- a full 1.5 to 2 seconds too long sometimes-- throwing the flow off completely. It's almost as if the narrator recorded all the voices at a different time and they were layered in but with too much time in between. Then there was too little time at the ends of chapters. Rachel would finish a significant-sounding, dramatic sentence on her chapter and then you'd immediately hear the next narrator say "Jim!" with no time between like there usually is. Very awkward overall. I wish I had read this book on paper instead of in audio format.

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Needs more fleshing out

Revisado: 11-23-16

This book is like a combo of 50 Shades with Liane Moriarty. It was definitely an addicting read and nicely told in vignette style, but lacked any subtlety whatsoever. Within the first few paragraphs you knew essentially what the conflict was and although some twists were added, this felt like a first draft. Jack's character, who was essentially a copy of Christian from 50 Shades, needed way more motivation and development. This book is fewer than 9 hours long-- most fiction books on Audible run 13-18 hours. Needed more in order to make the characters and situation more believable. The narrator did a great job!

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Too many cliches and plot holes

Revisado: 10-06-15

I finished this book through sheer willpower. The author had very lazy writing, repeating phrases like "our prefab home in ogallala" and "as only a preteen girl can do" until I wanted to throw my phone across the room.

Willow was also very poorly written, with either too much or too little knowledge for a girl shut away from the world at age 8. She doesn't know what Matthew means when he says "This is our stop"????? She was 8 and in school, presumably riding a bus or at least aware of them, when she went to Joseph's. She knows what a freakin bus stop is!

And discontinuity abounds, like how Willow thinks Matthew left home when she was "14, maybe 15," yet she's 16 in the book. If an event took place fewer than 2 years ago you shouldn't need to cast about for the context as if it's a long lost memory.

The performances were okay, but the hushed tones of both female narrators really grated on me.

So glad this book is finished. I won't buy another Mary Kubica book!

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Let down by the third act

Revisado: 09-10-15

5 stars for performance. The narration is PHENOMENAL and I will be looking for more books read by this actor!

2 stars for story. I was so into this story during the first 2/3rds that I could barely stop listening. It was engrossing and disturbing. However, the ending fell completely flat and boring with everything tied up nicely in a bow like a rom-com.

**Spoilers follow** Ani is supposed to be this mysterious, disturbed soul and constantly mentions that she puts on a front to everyone she knows, never tells the truth, and essentially her whole life is a lie. This (not to mention all the industry comparisons to Gone Girl) leads you to believe she is not a reliable narrator and we will get a mind-blowing twist or reveal.

Nothing of the sort happens! She is exactly what she appears to be and all the story lines (with the exception, unbelievably, or Andrew Larson) are neatly resolved. Even so, we're left hanging going, "Huh?! That's it?" because of all the ominous, dark setup. It's like if a horror movie villain acts creepy the whole movie but never actually kills anyone. All the jump scares but no monster.

It was very disappointing. I listened to this book in less than 2 days because it was so good but by the end I was sad I took the time.

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