"A Good Marriage"

“A Good Marriage”

Written by Kimberly McCreight

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia 

“A Good Marriage” is the first book written by Kimberly McCreight that I have read, but it will be the first of many. McCreight’s piercingly clever writing style allowed her to creative a precise and intelligent novel. For some time, I have loved books within the psychological thriller genre, so I was delighted to pick this up, learning of this new author. Her stylish yet realistic prose and dialogue acted as sharp tools to help perfect this masterpiece.

 

The plot centers around a woman named Lizzie, who decides to be the lawyer of her old friend, Zach, who has been accused of killing his wife, Amanda. “Don’t they always blame the husband?” Lizzie, Zach, and Amanda’s flashbacks complete a narrative unparalleled to other authors within this genre. I found myself absolutely glued to the book, which truly has not happened with many thrillers. We also begin to wonder why Lizzie’s alcoholic and strange husband Sam has been behaving so bizarrely.

 

As I continued to read, I enjoyed the red herrings, the constant switch of suspicion, and the doubt we readers cast over every character. Reminiscent of “Sharp Objects”, it became entertaining to eliminate each character after their innocence was proven. Long have I been a fan of mysteries and thrillers. Unfortunately, I have never liked the type of mystery that provides no hints to the true villain. I find it incredibly unsatisfactory to have the true murderer revealed, but only because other characters figured out the information by talking to other people. Lizzie’s solving the murder was a disappointing deus ex machina. The true murderer’s motive and choices fell flat, because only the writer anticipated it.

 

To conclude, I did really enjoy the story, until the ending was revealed. I enjoyed the twists and turns, but I could not help myself feeling disenchanted by the true villain. The motive was not strong enough to be acceptable. On the bright side, I absolutely loved the author’s writing, in its style, dialogue, plot creation, and characters. I highly recommend this story, because the reveal did not ruin the story for me. I will be racing to read McCreight’s next novel and previous ones soon.

 

I rated this book at four out of five stars.

 

Thank you to Harper Books for sending along a finished copy for me to review. Thank you again for the opportunity.

"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!

"The Roanoke Girls"

“The Roanoke Girls” by Amy Engel

Review written by Diana Iozzia

            My goodness. I don’t even know where to begin with this book. I just finished it about ten minutes, and I’m trying to gather my thoughts. I engulfed this book in about a span of 7 hours, four hours last night and three today. “The Roanoke Girls” is the best book I have read in about a year or so, and I truly think it’s worth every second you spend on it.

This book is about a woman named Lane who returns to her grandparents’ house eleven years after she spent a summer there, to help look for her missing cousin. Lane and her cousin, Allegra, were almost fused together, in dramatic, happy, and terrifying sync that summer long ago. This book is told through Lane’s young perspective at 15-16 years old, then her perspective at 27 years old.

This book is full with unexpected suspense, thrills, chills, and more. Many have said this is a modern day “Flowers in the Attic”.  It is very similar with eerie grandparents and (LOTS of) uncomfortable incest. Be warned. There are very strong and possibly triggering scenes and moments. However, this book is not just about incest and a missing woman, this is about how Lane grew up and is reflected by the summer she spent. She revisits all of the haunts she once knew. I also found some similarities to the book “Sharp Objects” by Gillian Flynn, which I enjoyed as well.

I do warn about the incest and other sexual moments. Other than that, there isn’t too much violence or profanity. However, this is an adult book, so I don’t know if it’s wise to think that a thriller/suspense/drama for adults would be PG. It’s sickeningly sweet and intriguing.

There isn’t much I can say about this book that I didn’t like. It’s interesting to see Lane, Allegra, and their friends and how they’ve changed as adults, in comparison to their childhood personalities. I think this would be a fantastic film or mini-series. There isn’t room for a sequel, which works fine by me. This book is very complete, concrete, and very well-written. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

//I received an advance reader’s copy through BloggingForBooks.com//