Description from Amazon:
IT TOOK HER 10 MINUTES TO LOVE HIM...
AND 10 YEARS TO KILL HIM.
Another gripping thriller from the author of It Was Always You, The
Girl in the Fire, and The Good Life, I’ll Smile More When You’re Dead
will keep you guessing until the final twist!
When Lauren Hearst discovered her book club was special—as in,
they-can-rid-the-world-of-terrible-men-without-leaving-the-couch special—she
brought a bottle of Pinot Grigio and a list. But when their group of vigilante
feminists choose Lauren’s brother-in-law as their next target, she realizes her
book club might be more about causing trauma than healing it.
Professor Lauren Hearst is getting by just fine, thank you very much—if you
call being addicted to sleeping pills, avoiding your twin sister’s husband
because you’re in love with him, and bottling up an indeterminate rage ‘fine’.
When fellow academic Sybil Fellcourt invites her to join her book club, Lauren
considers it a good opportunity to expand her horizons. What she doesn’t
realize is these women chose her for a reason—and that they’re not a book club.
As violent men on campus start dying from supposed suicides, Lauren realizes
Sybil and her fellow book club members have a collective power born of their
own traumas. A power they believe Lauren also possesses, given her past. As the
book club’s goals become more destructive and Lauren considers leaving them
behind, Sybil discloses their next target: Lauren’s brother-in-law, Arne. The
man Lauren has secretly loved for ten years. As she sets out to exonerate him
from Sybil’s accusations, Lauren uncovers secrets long hidden in her town, her
family, and her own mind. When it becomes clear Arne isn’t the man she thought
he was, she must decide whether she’ll let her newfound power transform her
life or destroy it.
The premise sounded
very interesting, and while the idea of collective powers manifesting
physically isn’t entirely new, it was used here in a fresh way. It also pulls
you in two directions. Punishing wrongdoers can seem like the right thing to
do, but the way they went about it—and the fact that they took on the roles of
judge and executioner themselves—felt wrong.
Lauren’s past is laid
out well, and the incident that forms the basis of her anger sets the scene for
many of the decisions she makes. I liked the glimpses into her childhood,
particularly her relationship with her twin sister and their mom using the fact
that they were twins to help pay the bills, followed later by their involvement
in studies. It created an interesting foundation, and yet we find out how much
of it was manipulated.
None of the characters
are quite who you initially think they are, and my feelings about them changed
throughout the book, which I enjoyed.
I did find it very
odd, however, that Lauren kept jumping to the conclusion that women she had
only just met were sexually interested in her. The first time it happened it
felt strange, and when something similar happened again, it almost felt as
though the author had tried the idea once and then hurriedly decided to use it
again because it turned out not to be true. Neither interaction felt
particularly real to me.
The pacing also became
too frenetic at times. There were sections I wanted to settle into and enjoy,
but things kept happening so quickly that some scenes didn’t have the detail or
breathing room needed to round them off properly. Characters repeatedly told
Lauren that they would explain things later, and after a while the repetition
became frustrating. Although explanations eventually came, it often felt as
though Lauren was being brushed off—and, by extension, so was the reader.
I also found it
frustrating that Lauren’s twin, Claudia, so often seemed to know that things
were about to happen before they did. Twins are often portrayed as having an
almost magical connection, but for me this was pushed a little too far.
There are some very
dark aspects of human nature explored in the book, though, and I thought the
author did a good job of shining a light on them.
Unfortunately, there
were also quite a few typos and editing issues that let the book down. These
ranged from missing commas before direct address, missing quotation marks, to
ellipses being broken across lines, inconsistent use of “ok” and “okay,” and
words such as “breaks” being used instead of “brakes.” There were also
unnecessary hyphens in words or phrases such as “follow-me” and “pick-up,” and
occasionally even missing spaces between words. Individually these may seem
like small things, but together they interrupt the flow of the reading
experience.
Overall, this was a
mixed bag for me. There were parts I genuinely enjoyed and others that worked
less well. It was clearly a tricky story to bring together at the end, and at
times events seemed to have to be manipulated into place to make everything fit.
That said, the story ultimately ended the way I felt it should.
I received this prerelease from the author
as an arc read.
