Dysfunctional Family or MC

The Woman in Cabin 10

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by Ruth Ware

...nothing short of divine intervention would save me, and I’d had bad luck enough these past few days to make me think that if there was a God up there, he didn’t like me very much.

I was not a fan of the one other book I read by Ruth Ware, The Death of Mrs. Westaway. I was generous in giving that one 3 stars. I’m not going to go into the details of this mystery/thriller except to say that it’s about an unstable young woman on a private cruise who thinks she witnesses a murder in the next cabin. Except the cabin was supposed to be empty and there is no evidence that there was ever any such person on the ship. Kind of like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. This one though, I thought was a pretty good part mystery part thriller. I didn’t guess what was going on until it was revealed. It was a good little surprise, and there were more surprises to come. The main bad guy/girl made sense as did the motive. I was constantly going back and forth revisiting characters and timelines, which wasn’t exactly something in the book’s favor. There were a lot of characters/suspects and the timeline was somewhat confusing. If I had listened to it on audible, I would have been completely lost. Some have compared it to Agatha Christie, and I understand that, as there is a large pool of suspects in a confined space. Who is the killer? Who is the victim? What is the motive? We’re pretty sure our heroine, Lo, did witness a murder even though she was not firing on all 4 cylinders at the time (or, let’s face it, what would be the point?). It was also a thriller as our heroine’s life is in danger, nobody believes her, and threatening things continue to occur, mostly in the form of evidence disappearing, no safe place to be had, and no way to communicate with the sane safe world. At one point, life-threatening danger moves from vague and suspected, to immediate, sure, and certain. I loved the ending and the twists at the end though it was always a hoped-for possibility.

I didn’t really love the heroine, but she improves after she stops drinking. Before that, I almost put it down because I have read too many stories with female alcoholics as the main character. They are hard to avoid. Maybe I should make more of an effort. Even sober however she is not the crispiest chip in the bag. There is a lot of dwelling on her sufferings as well which got tiresome, mainly because they were mostly of her own making. Not that she was entirely without some gumption and smarts. A lot of unanswered questions and things that did not make sense or pass the sniff test have been noted. I did not have a lot of problems with the plot, but I will mention two things that bothered me. A lot turns on Lo borrowing someone’s mascara. Who borrows someone’s mascara let alone a complete stranger’s? The other problem was the identity of one of the two bodies found. An identifying characteristic* proves the body is one person and one person only but then it turns out to be not that person, and the identifying characteristic that was false is not explained. So that was a big no-no.

The ending made up for a lot though, and it was a clever premise. And the writing mostly kept me engaged. I appreciated the flashes of humor in this one which were singularly lacking in “Westaway.” However, if she hasn’t already, Ms. Ware should try harder to plug up inconsistencies and make things just a little more air-tight. Mysteries are inevitably going to be scrutinized, and they need to stand up and bear it. It wouldn’t be that hard. The mascara thing might take some thought though.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

*Spoiler*

*(head shorn, not bald)

Hello Stranger

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By Katherine Center

So funny. So witty. So romantic. So enjoyable. I had read two Katherine Center books before this one, and enjoyed them but with reservations. The stories and concepts were good, but I found the heroes boring and almost nondescript although they were both lovely. The heroines were, in one case, flat-out annoying and in another just meh. In both cases, their situations seemed intriguing and the stories full of possibilities but they ended up seeming a bit contrived to me. They were both immensely popular highly rated books, so it was a personal problem, apparently.

But this one! Yes, the heroine was flawed and frustrating at times and had some major issues to conquer and grow past. At first, I found her a little off-putting and I had a hard time getting a handle on her. But I liked her. She really spoke to me. Literally. Sadie tells her story in the first person and she establishes a close relationship with the reader. It is as easy and natural as if she is talking to her best friend (you). I was drawn in immediately. You listen to her telling you her side of the story, but you can also see her flaws and things she may be wrong about. Early in the book, I thought we might be dealing with an unreliable narrator situation. As it turned out, she wasn’t really, but confirmation bias is a theme.

“Anyhoo.” (and I quote.) As a result of minor brain surgery, Sadie develops face blindness. When she looks at a human face the features do not come together as such. It is as if they are “puzzle pieces spread out on a table.” Difficult and disconcerting for anyone, but alas she is a struggling portrait painter who has secured a place in a prestigious contest and is on a deadline to complete a traditional portrait. Even being asked to compete is an honor. Doing well will finally give her choice of profession much-needed validation. Sadie had a very painful childhood thanks to the death of her beloved mother, who was also a painter, and her subsequent relationship with her father, stepmother, and stepsister. She was victimized. It has caused her to always put on a brave face, never admitting vulnerability or need for others’ help. As Sadie works to deal with her new disability and complete the portrait to enter the contest, she learns and grows. Unfortunately, The North American Portrait Society folks cater to the Norman Rockwell set rather than the Pablo Picasso crowd. Her condition forces her to treat other people differently and accept help. The self-protective layers start to peel off. Meanwhile, we meet some interesting characters, both good and bad. Her long-term friends and landlords, the Kims, their daughter Sue, her wise doctor, her beloved old dog, Peanut, and his veterinarian, who she decides will be her future husband. Her troublesome family arrives on the scene and we learn that some step-sisters really are evil. And we meet Joe, who turns out to be the, at first, unlikely love interest. He is quirky, funny, and adorable.

Near the conclusion, there is a surprise appearance and an interesting twist I did not see coming but probably should have. But no, I take that back. It was so well disguised that when I started to suspect what was going on, I went back to review some parts to see if it could be true. Yes, the clues were all there, but I still didn’t see how it could be. To Katherine Center’s credit, the exposition of all of the reasons I (wrongly) didn’t believe it made sense. I bought it. Or chose to buy it. It made the ending even more satisfactory and joyful. No, her life and family relationships weren’t all perky sparkles, but as I’ve said before in a previous review, Katherine Center really knows how to end a book. My ratings of both of her books I read previously were bolstered by her climaxes and wind-ups. This one didn’t need bolstering.

There are two Author’s Notes at the end. One is about acquired prosopagnosia. The other is a defense and appreciation of The Romance Novel as a genre. Any reader who has ever felt belittled or apologetic about their tastes in reading such novels needs to read this. Anyone who has thought less of someone’s tastes in reading “Chick-Lit” or romance needs to read this as well. Though they probably wouldn’t. Brava Katherine Center.

Thank-You to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an uncorrected digital galley of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The House Across the Lake

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By Riley Sager

Wow, this one sure took a turn. I thought it was one kind of book, and then it turned into another!

It is a dual-timeline story. In the “Before”, We meet Casey who is staying by herself in her family cottage on Lake Greene in Vermont. She is a well-known stage actress, who is recovering from the tragic drowning death of her beloved husband, a successful screenwriter, which took place at the same lake. She was fired from her last gig because of her drunken behavior and the ensuing bad press. She had been in despair since her husband died and has continued with her heavy drinking. The lake is very secluded, and her only neighbors are few. There is the newcomer Boone, an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic whose own wife died a while back. Directly across the lake are the Royces, who live in a modern house with lots of windows. He is a successful tech entrepreneur and she is a famous model. Next door to them is 70-year-old Eli, a longtime resident and family friend. He is the one who keeps her in alcohol (why?). Casey spends her days on her deck with a pair of binoculars surveying the lake, watching the doings of the Royces across the water, and drinking to excess. She really likes Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. One day, she sees someone struggling in the water, rows out, and ends up saving Katherine Royce’s life. They become friendly. The more she gets to know Katherine and the more she guiltily continues to spy on them with her binoculars, the more concerned she gets for her friend’s well-being. Then one day, Katherine disappears. Meanwhile, she has gotten to know Boone, who has reason to have the same concerns about Katherine’s welfare. They team up together to investigate and hopefully find Katherine, or at least find out what happened to her.

Interspersed are the “Now” sections, in which it becomes clear that Casey has someone secretly imprisoned and tied down in one of her upstairs bedrooms and is trying to force them into revealing what became of her friend. Sometime between “Before” and “Now”, the police have become involved.

Right about in the middle of this book, I thought I had the twist figured out. Since I was so smart, my sense of urgency to turn the pages faded a bit. It was still a very well-written book, and there were still other mysteries to uncover, so I continued with it happily. I was invested in the fates of Katherine and Casey, despite Casey’s constant drunkenness, which got on my nerves. I feel there were way too many references to her struggles with alcohol. Especially when Katherine’s fate, if she wasn’t already dead, may have depended on Casey’s ability to think and function. She was consuming so much booze that I honestly didn’t see how she could get out of bed every day. She was so committed to helping Katherine (if it wasn’t too late,) that her prioritizing drinking over even trying to remain lucid didn’t make sense and was frustrating. I felt this aspect of Casey really wasn’t even necessary and has become a cliche for the genre, so it brought the book down a bit for me.

I had one small sliver of the twist correct, but nothing could have prepared me for the full truth of what was going on with the Royces, and unnamed others. After the first twist, the shocks continue to come thick and fast. Some were so incredible, that I had to look back and review to make sure the author had played fair and didn’t lie to us. But he did play fair. I could see no plot holes. I did have a few questions at the end, but the author did a great job of tying everything together. So great that I was willing to ignore some aspects.

This book is a wild ride, and part of Sager’s talent is getting the reader, me anyway, to be willing to jump on the crazy train and hang on.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Moorewood Family Rules

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By Helenkay Dimon

If there is one word to describe this book, it would be “fun.” Right off the bat, I loved the authorial voice: It flowed easily and drew me right in with the funny remarks and quick immersion into the plot. The idea of the story was intriguing and unusual. It set up a lot of anticipation as to who, how, and what was going down. Because make no mistake, our heroine was going to see that the bad guys (her family) were, indeed, going down.

We meet Jillian, fresh from 39 months in prison, ready to literally and spectacularly descend upon her unsuspecting family who put her there. She debarks from her helicopter on the family mansion’s spacious grounds in the midst of a party where they are laying the groundwork to swindle and con their latest victims. They are not happy. But Jillian is less so. They had promised to go straight in return for Jillian taking the fall for them with the FBI. Now she’s back, she has their number, she holds all of the cards, and she’s had 39 months to contemplate her revenge. And maybe, just maybe, set them on the straight and narrow. Nah. Not happening.

It turns out that her family are not only professional grifters and con artists, but that in an emergency they will not stop at murder. And Jillian’s arrival is definitely an emergency. If some may balk at murdering a family member (that would be against the family rules) they won’t hesitate to send her back to prison. Enter Beck, a very grumpy, sexy, and intimidating bodyguard, hired by one of her loyal allies.

Although the romance is nice and provides a topper to the satisfying ending, the main focus is the battle of wits between Jillian and her family. In the process, we also get the occasional point of view of one of her half-sisters. There are, of course, some twists and turns and surprises. Some of her family are revealed to be truly perfidious, others not so bad in spite of themselves. The book did seem to lose a little steam about halfway through as we learn that Jillian is not quite so “together” as she first appeared. Having Jillian gaining insight and having to work on her own issues provided some depth and layers to her character. But it did seem to stall the narrative a bit. I missed the implacable focus of her mission to teach her family the lesson they so richly deserved to learn.

Fortunately, the sensational set-up was matched by a strong conclusion and the book regained most of the momentum it had lost towards the end. All in all, it was light and entertaining and I enjoyed it.

Thank-You to Net Galley and Avon Books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

September 28, 2022

Gone by Midnight (Crimson Lake #3)

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By Candice Fox

“So you didn’t do it?” “No,” Amanda said. “But I’m going to. I’m gonna smack that bitch so hard her grandkid will be born with my handprint on its face.”…“Aman-duh,” she imitated me. “You’re the one who told me I wasn’t angry enough about her pushing my bike over. I don’t get angry, Ted. I just sear my visage deep into my enemy’s brain with the flaming cattle brand of my devilish trickery. Then, in their nightmares, it’s my name they hear whispered on the winds of darkness.”

This is the third in the trilogy. I skipped the second one and cut right to the chase. I loved the characters and wanted more of Ted and Amanda, but the anxiety of Ted being unfairly hated and hounded by virtually the whole country of Australia took too much away from my enjoyment. In the second one, that I skipped, the true perpetrator of the heinous crime that Ted was imprisoned for was caught and Ted is no longer a suspect. Since the pervert was killed by the father of the girl though and was not tried in the courts and the court of public opinion, his innocence is not cut and dried. But it was enough to officially remove Ted as a person of interest. Even though he still has to deal with some ignoramuses, much of the cloud has been removed from over his head so I was able to concentrate on the case Ted and Amanda are investigating and enjoy them as characters and the side stories that involve them. Amanda on the other hand got herself into some hot water in the second one, so the tables are turned as far as being a target of the local police force. She is not vulnerable like Ted was so it wasn’t a huge worry.

The case that Amanda and Ted are called in to assist with was much more interesting and suspenseful than the case in the first book. An 8-year-old boy is missing so the stakes are high. As in the first book some aspects of the case were pretty outlandish or just wrong.

A character is arrested for going to the police for reporting a crime against children and in the process told them he too was a pedophile. But he never acted on his impulses. Can you be arrested in Australia for just wanting to do something illegal? I don’t think so.

**a little spoilery**

The crime is planned out in advance but the perpetrator has to rely on his/her ability to brainwash a group of children. A child psychologist with that deep knowledge of child behavior might know this might be possible, but there would be no way for even them to be sure enough to bet their life on it. It would only take one kid’s refusal to go along with the crowd to ruin everything. Yet the culprit has no doubt or worry about it. 

Towards the end of the book after a shocking event, the author gets mixed up as to who was a witness to it and who wasn’t. 

**big spoiler**

Ted saw the croc take Sara. Ted was the witness, not Amanda. Amanda was nowhere near. But Ted is allowed to go home and Amanda is kept at the scene to help the cops look for her body “because you know exactly where Sara disappeared from.” **end spoiler**.

This has huge consequences as to how everything played out.

As in the first book, the police obstinately ignore logic and evidence, (proof actually) that contradicts what they want to believe. And boy are they sorry in this one.

So apparently Candice Fox really really does not like local law enforcement. But for one exception, every one of them was either the scum of the earth and/or really really stupid. Especially as they are the bane of our dynamic duo’s existence, not to mention a menace to everyone else. Ted and Amanda keep getting work throughout the series because of their incompetence. It was bothersome and I think the books would have been better if there was some balance there.

But the mystery of the missing probably dead boy, Amanda’s relationship with the bikers, her confrontations with a crazed policewoman, the investigation itself, and the shocking twists and turns carried me through the book. Amanda is fascinating and priceless. Ted makes a sympathetic hero most of the time. Although justice was not fully served for everyone in the end, it was served enough to satisfy me. If this is the last in the series, I will be sorry. But it does make a fitting conclusion if it is. It looks like things are going to work out pretty well for both Ted and Amanda, and I wouldn’t want a continuation of the series to ruin that hope.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

August 14, 2022

Caroline?

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More Than I Expected

This movie came to my attention thanks (many thanks) to a comment on one of my reviews. Thank-you Sally Silverscreen of https://18cinemalane.com/. In reading the brief synopsis I thought I was in for a juicy soap opera/romance along the lines of The Scapegoat or Barbara Stanwick’s No Man of Her Own. The first scene challenged my preconceived expectations when it opens as two adults are discussing the death of someone who appears to be the eponymous Caroline. The rest of the movie is told in a flashback beginning 2 or 3 decades earlier.

An attractive young woman appears at the door of a mansion and claims to be the long-believed dead daughter of the house. Suspiciously just in time to claim her part of an inheritance. Is she an imposter and a scammer? Seems likely. And yet it isn’t really about that. Whether she is or isn’t it becomes clear as she interacts with the rest of the family that she is a good person and very smart and capable. Further, she seems to be on a mission to improve the lives and futures of her two young possible step-siblings. The young daughter is stricken with cerebral palsy and spoiled and overly protected by her mother. She is treated like a pet or a baby to the point that her parents don’t even know she can read let alone put her own coat on. They expect her brother to be her constant companion. He is destined to be her caretaker when their parents are no longer able to. So he is trapped and isolated as well, with no friends, future prospects, or chance of happiness.

Caroline’s developing relationship with the children and with the other family members, her conflict with the mother’s wrong-headed ignorant notions of how to treat her children, her brave strategies to help the young kids, and the complex relationships among the family members add up to a compelling drama. To add to this we have deeply interesting and complex characters (especially the children) and the overarching mystery of who is Caroline really, and how and why did she come to this family. The answer is revealed near the end in a letter to the boy and it is not shocking but quite touching. The final bookend scene in which all is revealed as to Caroline’s accomplishments up to her death, the impact she made on the 2 children, as well as the entire community and beyond, is poignant and beautiful.

Of course, the whole plot is wildly implausible, and there are certainly some unanswered questions.   There was some drama and suspense created at the expense of common sense and established characterization. There is a whiff of Lifetime Movie Network about this Hallmark Hall of Fame production. But so many positives completely outweigh the flaws and make it very deserving of its 1990 Emmys for Best Direction and Best Made for Television Movie. Not to mention Patricia Neal and Dorothy Macguire adding their considerable cachet in small but key roles. I highly recommend seeking it out. It isn’t hard to find and is free on YouTube and Amazon Prime.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

July 11, 2022

One-Hit Wonder

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by Lisa Jewell

I wanted to give Lisa Jewell another try after the first book I read by her. Like the previous novel, I was intrigued by the concept behind this one.

Ana, a bonafide card-carrying ugly duckling is 25 years old. She is repressed and bullied by everyone around her, especially her abusive psycho mother. She thinks she is ugly because she is tall, thin, and has a big nose. Her beautiful and dynamic half-sister, whom she barely knew, has died suddenly and she must go to New York to put her affairs in order. Bee was a wild child and ex-pop star whose celebrity faded quickly. A One-Hit wonder in fact.

When Ana gets to New York she is saddened and disturbed to see how Bee lived and died. She falls in with her two best and apparently only friends, Lol and Flint. Together, they are determined to get to the bottom of what happened to Bee. It is soon apparent that Bee had been living a double life with many secrets. In the course of her investigations, and away from her mother, Ana blossoms into a swan, finds inner strength, confidence, and self-esteem, and falls in love. By the end, there is plenty of redemption, happiness, and hope for the future for our main character, Ana, and others we meet along the way. But the happiness and hope that is found are in the ashes of Bee’s tragedy.

I liked Ana but didn’t love her. She was kind and good. I guess I can’t blame her for being a doormat to her mother and others, because the primary focus of the book is how she gets herself up off the floor. However, her constant poormouthing herself and failing to see her striking beauty that is obvious to everyone else was irritating. I listened to this on audio, and I liked the reader’s characterizations of everyone except two other main characters: Lol (short for Lolita, we are finally told) and Flint. The accent and voice tone was over the top with these two, and actually gave me a bad impression of them throughout most of the book. Flint’s character really turned me off and his voice just exacerbated my initial dislike. I just didn’t see how he could be the love interest but there wasn’t anyone else. As the book went on, and we learn more about him, my feelings did change, but it was slow going.

The gradual solving of the mystery and anticipation of closure on several fronts were what kept me going with this one. There were some interesting characters, particularly the difficult mystery boy and the cruel neurotic mother. The final outcomes with these two came too easily and were too pat for me.  As welcome as they were. The author had to put a pin in an ugly problem looming on the horizon to get to a satisfactory conclusion. Not that I didn’t appreciate it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

May 19, 2022

The Guest House

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by Robin Morgan-Bentley

Heavily pregnant Victoria and her husband Jamie are trapped in a house with no way out when Victoria starts having labor pains. The couple who welcomed them into the guest house is nowhere to be found. Until they are.

I spent about 2 to 3 hours with this book. I started reading it and got to about the 7% mark, and I did something I haven’t done with a thriller in, like forever. I skipped to the end to make sure the baby was alright. I have a similar problem with dogs. Then I went back and started reading towards the end to understand what happened and what was going on. Then I wanted to learn more so I read randomly. I guess this just wasn’t the book for me. At least not for me at this time. For those with more fortitude than I had, I think this was an excellent, suspenseful thriller with some legitimate shocks for most readers. While it was very well-written, the justifications as to why the main couple felt so trapped with no way out didn’t hold water with me. The story the other couple expected the authorities to believe was inconceivable. And it seemed there was less and less reason not to take action as events occurred. I’m still giving it 4 stars. The fact that the suspense was just too much for me at this time, probably speaks well for the book. The problems I had with the plotting might not have been so bothersome had I read it cover to cover.

Thank-You to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

April 28, 2022

Again, Rachel

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by Marian Keyes

‘ “The truth must dazzle gradually, Or every man be blind.” Emily Dickinson.’

I loved much of this book. First, The Walsh family is a main character here, with each of the sisters maintaining the personalities that we have come to know and love or not love as the case may be. I hate it when an author does a sequel or a series and personalities that were interesting and intriguing, that made you want to come back for more, have vanished and we have reconstituted versions. The people we were introduced to and came to know throughout the Walsh family chronicles are the same people, yet some have been allowed to grow and mature. And some haven’t.

Confidence was usually seen as a positive. But Mum was from that generation of Irishwomen who prided themselves on raising children with rock-bottom self-esteem. Nothing galled them as much as an offspring with confidence.

 I definitely need to re-read Watermelon and Angels. And maybe skip through Anna’s story to find references to Angelo. After the last book, my favorite sister is Helen and I loved her role in this.

Rachel is back. She is 20 years sober and the head counselor at The Cloisters, the rehab center that saved her life back in the late 90s. Marian Brings back the patients and their heartbreaking yet entertaining stories that I found so involving in Rachel’s Holiday.

In here, clients gave only the most sanitized, tragic version of themselves. To get the full picture, you had to talk to everyone who knew them. It was a little like investigating a crime.

Readers of previous books know that Rachel and Luke got married, and now we find out they have now been divorced for 6 years and he lives in Denver, Colorado. She is in a happy relationship with another man, Quin, who is not easy, but he is interesting and complex.  In the beginning, Rachel is told that Luke’s mother has died and of course, Luke will be back for the funeral and to take care of his Dad’s affairs. Told largely in flashbacks we learn that, according to Rachel, Luke deserted her (but how can that be?) and we are taken through their heartbreaking story that led to that surprising circumstance. Meanwhile, we explore Rachel’s present life, her relationships, her work, and catch up with the Walsh family. And of course, Rachel and Luke are in the same country again. Rachel wants an explanation and apology from Luke but he is distant. It can’t be over for them, can it? But what about Quin? And what’s up with Luke’s long-time partner who came with him to Ireland?

In all of Marian Keyes’ books, The heroines go through horrendous times before getting to the happy and uplifting. Sometimes through no fault of their own, sometimes of their own making, or circumstances out of their control but exacerbated by bad decisions and self-delusion. Rachel part II was more heartbreaking than usual. I had some problems with some aspects of Rachel’s story and some of it was a little hard to swallow. Yes, it was long and drawn out, but in order for everything to come right, it had to be. Could Rachel have had her epiphany a little sooner? Maybe. could there have been a little more fair play with the reader? Hmmm. Not sure. But the book was as insightful, involving, and hilarious as usual. Marian is a master at balancing tragedy and comedy. And with a writer this good, the more words we are given, the better. So not too long for me.

After Anna’s story, Is Anybody Out There and Helen’s, the last sister’s, story there was an over 5-year gap.  Right before Marian came out with The Mystery of Mercy Close, she wrote a refresher to catch everybody up with the Walshes and kind of get them up to speed. If like me,  you have read Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family,  you can forget about what she told us about Luke and Rachel. This book completely retconns what we thought we knew about them. This is by way of fair warning. I wish I had had one.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

April 27, 2022

Rachel’s Holiday

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by Marian Keyes

**Spoilers**

As much as I enjoyed listening to Rachel’s Holiday, a book I have previously read several times though many years ago, I’m a little bit pissed. After I had finished it, I noticed it was the Abridged Version. Gaaaahhhh! I wanted to refresh my memory of Rachel’s journey in preparation for the debut of  Again, Rachel, Marian Keyes‘ new sequel to my long-time favorite of her novels, When I searched for it on my Audible account a few months ago, this one popped up and when I saw that it was almost 12 hours long, I bought it. It never crossed my mind that it could have been abridged at that length. Now that I have listened to it, and investigated further, I see that there is an unabridged version, not available until tomorrow, February 3, that is almost 15 hours long. Now that I have finished it, and looking back in the foggy mists of my memory, I do seem to remember scenes and aspects of the book, that weren’t in this audio version. It seems like Rachel had more than one relapse, or almost relapse, than the one depicted in this. It seems like there was more about Chris in the world outside of Cloisters. It seems like we get more of her background with Luke, primarily her mistreatment and hatefulness towards him. Also, in my first read of this novel, It never really hit me how serious Rachel’s problem was until I found out the job she was fired from was as a maid in a seedy hotel. And I seem to remember that we learn that one of the addicts Rachel meets in the Cloisters ends up dying of an overdose in the outside world. These may be memories in my imagination, but I am spurred to get a book version of this to see if those were real happenings in the full book or not. I may have mixed things up in my memory.

So all that said, on to the book. The narration was great, and I enjoyed my “re-read”. It was as funny, witty, painful, and shocking as I remember. As I said, I did not get the sense that anything was missing at the time except one thing. Rachel doesn’t seem to go through any withdrawal symptoms or struggle with craving drugs and alcohol in this version. Does she struggle in the full novel?

Having it told in the first person made the book very effective as we see the truth according to Rachel and the real truth at the same time. That is, once you realize that Rachel is the definition of an unreliable narrator, and nothing she says can be taken at face value. If I’d read it for the first time today, I may have realized how bad her situation was right away. But I didn’t when I first read it. I really liked Rachel. The dawning realization that Rachel was not a likable character at first was a large part of why the book had such an impact on me. Even when she is on the road to recovery she still sees things from a skewered viewpoint until well towards the end. Her continued rage against Luke’s (and Bridget’s) “betrayal” is the primary example. It is only when she lets that go and sees that their visit to The Cloisters was an act of love rather than a betrayal that we know she sees her past behavior clearly and is truly and firmly on the road to recovery.

Apparently, the sequel, due out this spring in the U.S. (and in a couple of weeks in the U.K-not fair!), finds Rachel in her late 40’s and a drug counselor at The Cloisters. It sounds like she doesn’t stay with Luke but meets him again in this one. But yet in Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family, they did get married and had a little boy. Also, he is mentioned in Helen’s story, The Mystery of Mercy Close. So it will be interesting to see what happened there. But whatever, she is happy and healthy. Yay!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

February 2, 2022