Anna Herrington

Creepy

Revisado: 01-26-24

Creepy and disturbing, but interesting and a good story. Not my usual choice, psychological thriller, and thankfully it's not gruesome, but it does have some disturbing moments in the midst of a fairly vanilla story. An odd combination, but... a fairly decent time spent listening.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Loved, loved, loved this book.

Revisado: 12-21-23

See for yoursefl ~ I loved this book, think you might, too.
This story stole my heart.
(And listening by audiobook enhanced the experience, I do believe.)
Warning: I did sob.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Enjoyed it 'til the knives came out

Revisado: 03-07-23

Listened enjoyably to most of this book, even knowing there was an estrangement between these two friends ahead. Eventual distance, even estrangement, is not all that uncommon between longtime friends, especially friends with childhood trauma and adult alcoholism... although only Conroy is spoken about in this book as an alcoholic, as far as I recall. I may be wrong.

The book became wildly uncomfortable, though, and frankly, pissy, during the last hour and a half, as the author seems to take Conroy's supposed suggestion that Mewshaw write about this period of estrangement between the two - and runs with it, resulting in private letters between Conroy and one of his daughters being included, and threads of seeming bitterness and possibly professional jealousy from Mewshaw growing stronger and stronger. Is there vindictiveness, too? I began to wonder... to the point the whole thing begins to feel tainted with... ick, and a wish I'd not bothered with this book at all.

Want to hear about horrible behavior from a later-stage alcoholic who is also a beloved public figure to many, and is no longer here to reply or defend? It's all here.

Also a trauma warning: only a small bit, and it's later in the book (two thirds through, maybe?), but there's incredibly graphic content of child sexual abuse described within. Did it belong and was it necessary to include this? I don't know. I hope permission was given by this now grown child, but if it were my family, I'd be horrified a friend - godparent? - included any of it in his own memoir.

I do wish the tone of this book had steered clear of the murky, distressing swamp it eventually fell into. A good portion of this book was interesting and enjoyable. As someone once said to me after a close friendship grew estranged: "Just work on processing and letting go, and for gawd's sakes, don't blab around about how awful your former friends are. The mud always seems to cling to the teller, no matter how innocent/victimized they feel they are."

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Halfway thru, wondering how much more I can take..

Revisado: 01-27-23

The cover couldn't be more misleading.
Had no idea by the book description, either, that this story suddenly veers into wildly depressing and distressing territory, after a kind of bland beginning - so far, anyway...
I tend to finish books I start but not sure I can take much more of it, unless maybe the main character suddenly wakes up from her horrible nightmare.
Unlike any other Susan Wiggs book I've read, sadly.
I choose this author for escapism and a light read; this book delves deeply into dark issues - which would be fine if that's what one is expecting when starting the book. Not the case, here.

Have finished the book now, can't say I feel differently about this book, although I'll say again I've always liked Susan Wigg books. My biggest issue is the cover being so misleading; the cover makes the wildly-different-from-her-norm, heavy-issues inside become a terrible shock.
If you want to read about important and distressing issues facing women, poor women, who've experienced a terrible trauma, then this is a decent and informative one.
If you're looking for a lighter weight 'woman starts a restaurant and falls in love' story that the cover seems to illustrate, then - *warning.*

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Enjoyed parts of this story... but not enough.

Revisado: 01-04-23

Tried not to have spoiler alerts in this review, not sure if I succeeded very well. If only I were as vague as the author.

This is the first Jodi Picoult book I've read or listened to, so her apparently trademark vague non-endings I wasn't familiar with and likely wouldn't have chosen to listen to at all if I'd known. I like an actual ending.
That said, I did enjoy parts of the story, the realistic complexities of love and loving through the years, building a life together, what keeps a relationship together and what may break it apart. In my own experience, secrets are never going to enhance a relationship, they only create a wedge. Would've been good of the main character to be up front in the first place about her past, but then, there'd be no story to write about. The main character's keeping secret about her past, and the lingering emotions from that secret, made this reader lose respect for her before I ever had the chance to gain any respect for her, so that kinda' wrecked the book for me.
As someone who has an interest in ancient history and archaeology in general, that's what was interesting about this book, but the Egyptology aspect certainly isn't meant to be the main point of the story, nor what keeps the reader's interest. Clearly for many readers, reading comments, this was the worst part for them. For me, the archaeology and the death doula part was what kept me going, plus the potential for her to re-find her old love. The main character's eventual waffling around without a firm willingness to either leap into a new future or re-commit to her old one, lost me.
And the ending - the vague non-ending - was wildly disappointing. There are clues to which choice she makes, but, it's not supposed to be the reader's job to make up your own choice, it's the writer's. Too much like the main character, the author seems to be waffling along, unwilling to commit to a choice.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña