"The Couple Next Door"

"The Couple Next Door" 
Written by Shari Lapena
Review written by Diana Iozzia



I have very mixed feelings about this book. I borrowed it from the library, read it last night, and finished it five minutes ago. This book is very complex with many different characters, lies, and plot twists. Are they all fantastic? Well, you see my rating out of five. I enjoyed this for the fast, intriguing pace, but this was predictable. And repetitive. And by the last few pages, the final plot twist just felt normal to me. It's similar to a bag of Halloween candy for me. You eat all of the boring ones first, and by the time you get to your favorite candy, it's really great. Then, you have three more and it doesn't feel special anymore.

Anne and Marco visited their neighbors for a little birthday dinner, leaving their six month-old daughter, Cora, asleep in her crib. They return, she's gone. Wow. I think the best part of this book is the investigation completed by Detective Rasbach. It's very reminiscent of the detectives Boney and Gilpin from "Gone Girl" or the actual crime story of Laci and Scott Peterson. I enjoyed that Detective Rasbach was very thorough and investigated all of the right people, places, and events. It bugs me in books when the detectives aren't that thorough, and they may make mistakes. Rasbach was just the right level of intelligent, where he didn't figure out the entire plot magically.

This book is very well-written, but the story wasn't as impressive as I hoped it to be. We have the scary truth of the kidnapping told to us half-way through, which I appreciated, but it wasn't interesting. The people involved in the kidnapping were very obvious. The eventual main villain in the book wasn't as obvious, but yet again, this wasn't a great reveal. I think I need to stay away from psychological thrillers involving kidnappings of children, because they don't interested me as greatly as other p.t. crimes. I also think this book had a little of a tendency to bite off more than it could chew. Which I don't say lightly. I wasn't impressed by the side characters, I mainly only felt sympathetic towards the women characters, and Anne's dissociative identity disorder seemed all too convenient for the plot and twists. Lastly, I do recommend this, but I just felt a little disappointed. I would definitely read another novel by Shari Lapena in the future. I'll check out "A Stranger in the House" and report back.

"The Lying Game"

“The Lying Game”

Written by Ruth Ware

Review written by Diana Iozzia

           

            As a fan of Ruth Ware, I found it only fitting to pick up her third book, the brand-new “The Lying Game”. I thoroughly enjoyed “In a Dark, Dark Wood”, but a relative unfortunately gave away my copy, so I couldn’t look back on it, and compare. Over the summer, I read “The Woman in Cabin 10” in a span of maybe three hours. I wasn’t expecting to breeze through “The Lying Game” so quickly, since it was a significantly larger book. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately, so I took my time reading this, but I relatively enjoyed it.

            This book felt very similar to both other books by Ruth Ware, but it also really reminded me of “Sharp Objects” by Gillian Flynn. In both, the main character returns to a very important place in their child hood, Camille returns to her hometown, and in this book, Isa returns to the town in which she went to boarding school. Isa Wilde returns to Salten, England to meet with her three friends after years of being apart, because a body washes up on the Salten Beach. Naturally, you soon realize that the four friends, Isa and Thea, Kate, and Fatima are involved.

            Isa is a very arrogant and aggressive character, but in the beginning of the book, you only see her as a really protective mother of her little Freya. She’s certainly not a likable character, which is often Ruth Ware’s signature. Isa lies to Owen, who is honestly the sweetest husband and character Ware has written so far. He’s absolutely loving and cute, and he does not deserve any of the BS that Isa puts him through. Regardless, we jump back into the boarding school days, which I really enjoyed reading. Something about being a middle class, American public-school kid always made me long for boarding school. To be fair, the exposure I had was the Blue is For Nightmares series and Harry Potter to blame. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Isa’s younger narrative, of the girls being rascals and jumping out their window at night.

            Of course, we have to jump back to the complicated friendships of these girls. Kate, the guarded, isolated artist. Fatima, the lovely but concerned NHS worker. Thea, the alcoholic and possibly anorexic woman, I don’t even know what she did as a job. And then Isa, our main nuisance. As I mentioned, before the half-way point, I relatively liked Isa, until she started being cruel and dishonest to her husband. Yes, and “almost cheating” is still repulsive and terrible. Isa just isn’t a great character. Smoking and then breast-feeding, taking Freya to a crowded pub. She’s so concerned one second, then forgetting actual mothering skills the next.

            I like that this book does have quite a few bits of foreshadowing, and it doesn’t reach the last chapter to figure out everything. You have a pretty good idea what’s going on from about half-way through, which I appreciated. I liked that Ware’s “In a Dark, Dark Wood” was a bit final chapter plot-twisty, but I couldn’t stand the reveal in “The Woman in Cabin 10”. Personally, “Cabin 10” is one of my least favorite mysteries I’ve read this far. But anyway, back to “The Lying Game”. The reveal throughout this book takes a while to unfold, which I appreciated and didn’t appreciate. It wasn’t that great of a reveal, what happened to the body, who helped kill the person, and why. I mean, if you’re up for *possible* pedophilia, incest, murder, suicide, heroin, and other stuff, go for it… However, if for some reason I had been spoiled the ending prematurely, I wouldn’t have read the book anyway, if that helps you understand.

            In conclusion, I liked this, and I didn’t like this. It played out beautifully in my mind. I could picture every scene, every character flawlessly. I think this would be a fantastic film. That being said, Ware’s first book would also be a great film. Something about these psychological thrillers, you know. I would rate this as maybe a 3.75. Almost a four, but not quite. The dialogue and narrative were fantastic, but you had frequent moments that shouted, “No, in no way is this possible or realistic”. Lots of red herrings, lots of almost red herrings, where you are kind of right, but not exactly. I would recommend this to people who enjoy Gillian Flynn and B.A. Paris!

"Gone Girl"

“Gone Girl” 

Written by Gillian Flynn

Review written by Diana Iozzia

            "Gone Girl" is a caper like no other. The book starts out as a mushy gushy love story told by Amazing Amy Dunne, in dual perspective contrasting with ego-maniac and possible alcoholic Nick Dunne, who has discovered that Amy has gone missing. Frankly, the first half of her narrative is boring, endless, and I struggled through it, but you read on to realize it's purposely written like that.

            It's likely you may already know the twist behind Amy's disappearance, but if you don't, read this book. If you do, read this book immediately. It's not often I encounter a book that completely warps my mind and makes me doubt everything. This unreliable narrative could make Edgar Allan Poe green with envy.

            I am a very picky person, and find it very difficult to rate my favorite things in top ten forms, but this easily could be one of my top three book choices. I really, really love this.