I read this a few months ago and am just now reviewing it for CBR10 Bingo. I think it fits best in the ‘Brain Candy’ slot, as I quite like reading psychological thrillers for the ‘escapism’ value–I read them fast and enjoy them then forget about them. This one also fits best under ‘candy’ because it requires no intelligent thought to read. The basic premise is thus: Laura is super posh and a super ‘devoted’ (read: overbearing) mother to her son Daniel, whose only personality […]
Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women)
CBR Bingo entry: And so it begins. And BINGO was his name-o! I originally considered reading this novel for the CBR Bingo square “The book was better?” because I have seen both the American and Swedish versions of the film. In fact, I saw them both on the same day. My husband and I went to see the 2011 Hollywood production starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara and appreciated it, so we decided to come home and watch the original Swedish version on Netflix. Because nothing […]
FRAMED FOR MURDER!!! (Yawn)
The Guilty Wife was an okay book. That’s where I’d like to leave this review, but I guess that’s against the rules. The Guilty Wife, like all books labeled a “psychological thriller” post Gone Girl attempts to be sly and have at least one (possibly two or three) twists. And quite frankly? I’m sick of the twists…especially when you can see the big old twist a mile away down the road. I teach a fiction writing course and I always tell the kids that […]
If you figure out the secret before the reveal, is it still a secret?
Tessa Markham arrives home on a rainy Sunday night to find a young boy sitting in the kitchen of her locked, and otherwise empty, London flat. Instead of calling the police, she calls Scott – her estranged husband and father of her dead twins. The Secret Mother by Shalini Boland tells Tessa’s story as the boy Harry is picked up by the police and returned to his father. As the story unfolds we learn of the tragic loss of Tessa’s children, her mental breakdown, and […]
At first intriguing, then merely infuriating
I’m super behind on reviews (tbh, I feel like I’m super behind on life right now as I try to finish the PhD) but I read this one last night and it annoyed me SO MUCH that I had to write a review. Summary: Daniel and Laura are your typical middle-class British holidayers, backpacking around Europe before they decide to settle down, get married, and have a baby. While traveling through Romania, they hit trouble: kicked off a train with only another Romanian woman for […]
A book whose reviews might be more entertaining…
I think I read this one while I was on maternity leave and in a post-partum fog. I say that only to warn you that yeah, this review will kinda suck. Not only is it a year-ish overdue, but I probably wasn’t in my right mind as I read it, delirious from trying to keep a three year old and newborn from killing themselves or each other. Speaking of killing people, this story begins with a deadly fire in Sarah’s neighbor’s house. She is able […]
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