The Good Girl (Mary Kubica)

I've been wanting to read Mary Kubica's The Good Girl for a long time, but I just never got around to it. When I finally picked it up, I was sucked right into the story. However, the predictability set in pretty quickly, and the ending was not much of a surprise.

One night, Mia Dennett goes to a bar to meet her boyfriend, but when the boyfriend doesn't show up, she leaves with someone else, Colin Thatcher. Colin has been tasked by the guy he is working for to deliver Mia to a specific location. But he can't bring himself to do it and takes her to a secluded cabin in Minnesota instead. The book is told from three different points of view and goes back and forth between before she is returned to her family and after.

The reader doesn't hear directly from Mia until the epilogue, which I found wise. It was interesting to hear the story instead told from Mia's mother, Colin, and an investigator on the case. When we do finally hear from Mia, what she says, to me, is a big letdown but not really surprising. This book has been recommended for fans of Gone Girl, but except for similar titles, there is not much of a comparison.

MY RATING - 3

Our Kind of Cruelty (Araminta Hall)

Gillian Flynn, otherwise known as the Gone Girl priestess, wrote a blurb for Araminta Hall's Our Kind of Cruelty.  In it, she stated that the novel was disturbing but that she loved every minute of it. It seems every dark and twisted thriller nowadays is judged on how it compares to GG, but I will put myself out there to say that this outranks it in the need to "feel like you must take a shower afterwards."

That's not to say it's not a great read -- I couldn't put it down!  Our narrator is Mike Hayes, who is totally, completely, and blissfully in love with Verity Metcalf.  Mike and Verity do a sick and twisted role play game called the Crave.  While they were once together as a couple, Verity breaks it off over Mike's one night stand and rebounds quickly into a happy marriage with Angus.  But Mike sees Verity's new stage of life as just a part of their "game," and eventually goes deep into stalking her, with things taking a very dangerous turn.

You won't find the twists in Our Kind of Cruelty that you found in GG, but the suspense is the real "killer" here.  From the very first page, the reader knows that Mike and Verity's story will not end well.  It's getting to that point that keeps you turning the pages fast.

MY RATING - 4

Luckiest Girl Alive (Jessica Knoll)

When we first meet Ani, the main character in Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive, we think she's going to be another wacky Amy from Gone Girl.  Knoll throws in sentences that make us gasp, probably to make us think that Ani is a nutjob.

We know that she has a big secret, but it's only until later in the novel that we learn what it is by her own recount.  Until then, all we really know about Ani is what's in front of us, namely that she has a high-powered job at a national women's magazine and that she's engaged to a seemingly nice guy from a wealthy family.  I couldn't turn the pages fast enough from the beginning straight through Ani's secret telling, but then the story takes a quick downturn.  None of the characters are particularly likable, and the reason for the end result (even though you knew it was the inevitable end result) seemed ridiculous to me.

All in all though, Luckiest Girl Alive is an entertaining read, but I don't agree at all with blurbs/reviews that say if you liked Gone Girl, you'd definitely love this one.

MY RATING - 3

The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins)

As new books go, the buzz surrounding Paula Hawkins’s debut novel The Girl on the Train was practically deafening.  I was unable to get a review copy since it’s a UK book, and there were hundreds of people ahead of me on the library’s waiting list.  But when my book club calls, I must read, and when it finally arrived, I excitedly sat down to begin…

And I must say, I’m not quite sure what all the buzz is about.  Hundreds of 5-star reviews can’t be wrong, but calling it the next Gone Girl is a bit of a stretch.  For one, I loved GG and was fully engrossed in Nick and Amy’s story.  While this one definitely had its share of suspense and I liked Hawkins’ writing style, I was slightly let down by the ending.

The Girl on the Train is about – wait for it – a girl on a train.  We’re speaking about Rachel, a woman who rides the commuter every day, passing the same houses and seeing the same people.  But Rachel is definitely not all she appears to be, and the reader is left disoriented throughout her story (which involves periods she can’t remember), as well as Megan’s, a woman who suddenly disappears. I really enjoyed the way Hawkins interwove each character, all while muddling the readers’ perceptions of each one. 

I rapidly raced to the finish, but this is another book that really didn’t surprise me.  Hawkins leaves plenty of clues about what really happened to Megan along the way, so by the time I got to the ending, it was predictable. However, that doesn’t mean that getting there wasn’t a lot of fun!

MY RATING – 3.5 (can’t quite reach a 4, but above average enough not to get a 3)

Dear Daughter (Elizabeth Little)

I was excited to devour Elizabeth Little's Dear Daughter, as before-publication reviews were calling it the next Gone Girl. Um...not quite. There are a multitude of reasons why I just didn't care for this book, but I'm only going to mention a few of them.

Dear Daughter is narrated by Janie Jenkins, a woman convicted of murdering her mother but released from prison on a technicality.  Since Janie was considered a socialite and an IT girl, the trial transfixed the country.  Janie is determined to find her mother's "real" killer, and in so doing, finds herself in a small town in the middle of nowhere.  The American media is just as determined to keep tabs on her since they are convinced she got away with murder.

A.) I pretty much hated every character in this book.  None are likable, and it is extremely hard to feel any sympathy for any of them.  From Janie herself to her horrible mother to Leo the cop, I would not give any one of them the time of day in real life.

B.) Since Dear Daughter is narrated by Janie, the reader is forced to see the unfolding mystery through her eyes. Therefore, we are treated to such doozies as Janie getting shot in the shoulder and saying that red is just not her color. What???? What about screaming? Crying? Passing out? Which is what 99.9% of people would do if they were shot in the shoulder.

C.) The mystery is just plain boring, and the ending (when we finally find out who the killer really is) borders on a Scooby Doo revelation.

So Gone Girl this is not, but I'm going to give it a 2. Read it if it's the only book in the house.

MY RATING - 2

Reconstructing Amelia (Kimberly McCreight)

After reading the last page of Kimberly McCreight's extraordinary Reconstructing Amelia, I felt exactly like I did after finishing Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl -- like I had just been put through a washing machine on the spin cycle.  However, while I couldn't wait to exorcise Nick and Amy Dunne from my brain (even though I loved Gone Girl), I found myself thinking about Amelia's story long after I turned the final page.

Reconstructing Amelia is the story of bullying to the extreme.  Kate is a high-powered lawyer who one day gets a call out of the blue to come pick up Amelia, her daughter, from school.  Amelia has been caught up in a cheating incident, which is very hard to believe because she is a perfect student.  Upon arriving at the school, Kate is told that her daughter has jumped off the roof of the building; it is ruled a suicide.  However, when Kate begins to get texts that her daughter did not jump, she becomes obsessed with learning the true story of what happened. Through Kate's narration, Amelia's narration, Facebook posts, and texts, the reader is slowly given the entire picture...as heartbreaking as that is.

I cannot even imagine being a middle school or high school student in today's world of social media.  No longer is bullying limited to a physical altercation in the schoolyard; now it is much more sinister.  McCreight effortlessly pieces together Amelia's story until the reader is left with the unforgettable conclusion.

MY RATING - 5

The Silent Wife (A.S.A. Harrison)

For the first time in over four years of book reviewing, I am about to give an in-between rating.  I’m not going to make a habit of doing this, but this particular novel did not deserve to be rounded up or down to either whole number.  So A.S.A. Harrison…your newest book forced me to do something against my blog rules!

First, do not for one minute listen to those people who are comparing this to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.  That does not continue to be a bestselling phenomenon just for the heck of it; it’s an extremely well-written tale of a marriage gone horribly wrong and gave me a cloying sense of claustrophobia while reading it.  As I stated in my December 2012 review, “I strongly suggest to Ms. Flynn that she lock herself in a room with puppies, rainbows, apple pie, and other happy things.” I am not in any way comparing the writing of Flynn and Harrison, as they are both very strong.  However, Flynn knew when her trainwreck (in the best possible way) of a story was done; Harrison fills her tale with needless psychobabble, a pointless delve into the main character’s past, and an ending that just won’t quit (in a not-so-good way).

The Silent Wife is told in two viewpoints, HIM (being Todd) and HER (being Jodi).  Todd and Jodi have been together for decades, never marrying or having kids, until Todd begins to have an affair with his friend’s daughter.  When he learns that he is going to be a father, he “leaves” Jodi, coming back once or twice for the night only when he misses her.  The final straw is when he sends her an eviction notice, forcing Jodi to think about her future.  Even though Jodi is “The Silent Wife”, not standing up for herself until Todd leaves, the reader learns that she is actually astonishingly calculating.  Her emotionless, horrifying actions made my blood run cold.

I couldn’t put The Silent Wife down…until I could.  Harrison would have earned a solid 4 if not for filling her pages with things that didn’t need to be there.  This book would have been excellent if Harrison whittled things down about 25 pages.

MY RATING – 3.5

The Dinner (Herman Koch)

The past few years have seen books trending towards the psychological thriller.  Some, such as William Landay’s Defending Jacob and S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep are like giant puzzles, just begging for the reader to put them together.  Others, like Gillian Flynn’s phenomenally successful Gone Girl, practically make the reader feel queasy inside and want to take a shower at the end.  Herman Koch’s international bestseller The Dinner is a hybrid of the two styles.

We start off with Paul and Claire, a husband and wife, getting ready for to go to an exorbitantly expensive restaurant with Paul’s brother and sister-in-law, Serge and Babette.  As Paul is the narrator (and he becomes an increasingly unreliable one at that as The Dinner progresses), we quickly learn that he does not want to go, but we're left to think that it’s because he does not get along with Serge.  Before they leave, Paul goes to his son’s (Michel’s) room to search for something on Michel’s cell phone.  We know that Paul found what he was looking for but do not quite know what that is until the real reason for the dinner becomes horrifyingly clear. 

Koch wisely fills the book with minutiae that lulls the reader almost into a false sense of complacency.  He describes the food ad nauseam, brilliantly naming each section after the dinner courses.  Then, without warning, Koch pulls the rug out from under us; the serene meal descriptions stop so he can get into the real “meat” of the story, and we are reminded that, unfortunately, things are rarely what they seem.

MY RATING - 4

Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)

I strongly suggest to author Gillian Flynn that she lock herself in a room with puppies, rainbows, apple pie, and other happy things.  The bestselling author of Sharp Objects and Dark Places has done it again with the enormously successful, grotesque (in a good way) Gone Girl.  When I say enormously successful, I was 895th on the library’s waiting list.  It’s the heartpounding account of a marriage gone bad, and like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away and always came racing back for more.

It's impossible to say much about Gone Girl without giving key parts of the plot away.  What I will say is that Flynn has created a mindboggling tale, which is dripping with suspense and twists you never see coming.  I felt a cloying sense of claustrophobia while reading Nick and Amy's story, but that didn't stop me from coming back to it night after night.  The key characters are realistic but over-the-top at the same time.

I apologize for this being short and sweet, but the less I say about this book the better, lest I give too much away.  But Gillian Flynn, seriously...puppies.

MY RATING - 5