What You Did

What You Did
by Claire McGowan

Blurb:

A vicious assault. A devastating accusation. Who should she trust, her husband or her best friend? 

It was supposed to be the perfect reunion: six university friends together again after twenty years. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so shocking that nothing will ever be the same again. 

When Karen staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatised, she claims that she has been assaulted—by Ali’s husband, Mike. Ali must make a split-second decision: who should she believe? Her horrified husband, or her best friend? With Mike offering a very different version of events, Ali knows one of them is lying—but which? And why? 

When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect.

My Reaction:
I chose this for something to listen to while doing dishes, cooking, etc., because it was convenient and free (through Amazon Prime). After a while, I started noticing that I was in a worse mood after each "session" of listening to it than I was before. That's probably because just about every character is infuriating in his or her own special way. (Mostly that was due to how they were written, but this was an audiobook, and the whiny "baby voice" given to the 10-year-old was also excruciating. The voice alone made me hate that nearly superfluous child character, and I don't even feel guilty about it. It's a voice made for hating.)

I grew to dislike every character, by the end of the book; even Mr. Perfect (Bill) annoyed me. I continued listening simply because I couldn't be bothered to find something else to listen to. Pure laziness. Well, maybe not pure laziness; there might've been a dollop or two of stubbornness mixed in there, too.

It was just... blah. I didn't really even care what happened to the characters, by the end. I disliked them, so who really cared who lived or died-- who went to jail or was exonerated-- who ended up shacking up together-- and whether or not these utterly crappy "friendships" survived? (Seriously, with friends like these...) There was a twist or two that I hadn't predicted (coming out of nowhere), but I couldn't find it in me to care. Very much a feeling of, "Meh, whatever..."

I Am Watching You

I Am Watching You

by Teresa Driscoll


Blurb:

What would it take to make you intervene?

When Ella Longfield overhears two attractive young men flirting with teenage girls on a train, she thinks nothing of it—until she realises they are fresh out of prison and her maternal instinct is put on high alert. But just as she’s decided to call for help, something stops her. The next day, she wakes up to the news that one of the girls—beautiful, green-eyed Anna Ballard—has disappeared.

A year later, Anna is still missing. Ella is wracked with guilt over what she failed to do, and she’s not the only one who can’t forget. Someone is sending her threatening letters—letters that make her fear for her life.

Then an anniversary appeal reveals that Anna’s friends and family might have something to hide. Anna’s best friend, Sarah, hasn’t been telling the whole truth about what really happened that night—and her parents have been keeping secrets of their own.

Someone knows where Anna is—and they’re not telling. But they are watching Ella.

My Reaction:

Two and a half stars rounded up to three. Some of the characters grated on my nerves, and I feel like I've heard a certain phrase ("You disgust me, Dad.") a bazillion times. I didn't see the twist coming (probably because it just popped up out of nowhere), and the story kept me interested.  It's not ground-breaking, but if you like the genre, you could do worse.

The audiobook was available for free through Amazon (well, it was included with a subscription to Kindle Unlimited), and it made for convenient listening entertainment while doing dishes and light housework.  

Lying Next to Me

Lying Next to Me
by Gregg Olsen


(Edited) Blurb:

It's a husband's worst nightmare: Adam Warner watches helplessly as his wife is abducted from their vacation spot in Washington State’s Hood Canal. A hundred yards from shore, in a boat with their three-year-old daughter, Adam struggles to get to Sophie, but by the time he reaches land, she's nowhere to be found.

For Adam, at least there’s comfort in knowing that Mason County detective Lee Husemann is an old friend of his. She’ll do everything she can to help. She must.

But as Adam’s paranoia about his missing wife escalates, Lee puts together the pieces of a puzzle. Lee suspects that not everyone is telling the truth about what they know—or they have yet to reveal all the lies they’ve hidden from the strangers they married.

My Reaction:
It's probably damning with faint praise, but I'd say this is a "serviceable" mystery.  There isn't much out of the ordinary for the genre, and nearly all the characters are unbearable in one way or another.  Even the most sympathetic character (Lee) is sometimes frustrating. (I'd go into the details of why, but they're fairly spoilery...) The emphasis on fertility (or lack thereof) and parenthood is a bit wearing, too.  All told, it wasn't a bad story, but it also wasn't a standout.

I chose this book primarily because it was free through Amazon, with the audiobook version also available for free.  I listened to maybe a third of it, at random points in the book, and confirmed that I tend not to like audiobooks. 

I do like being able to progress through a book while my hands and eyes are otherwise occupied, but apparently I don't enjoy the experience of listening to other people read. (I am fond of reading aloud myself, however, and sometimes read aloud when I'm alone, simply because I enjoy it... That's probably strange, but oh well!  You may be thinking that I just like the sound of my own voice, and that might be true, but I'm generally very quiet around other people.  It's mostly only to myself, my dogs, and my husband that I may "jaw" a bit too much. ...Anyway, back to the review, such as it is...)

So often, audiobook narrators emphasize things differently than I would or use an irritating vocal affectation for certain characters... I know that many listeners enjoy readers who "do all the voices", but most of the times I've come across it, it just bugs me! 

I'll probably keep trying audiobooks, every so often, but I may be too persnickety for the format.

Good Omens

Good Omens
by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman


Blurb:

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. 

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

My Reaction:
Donald and I wanted to read the book before watching the recent miniseries based on it-- so this is a continuation of the unplanned, unintentional "tradition" that I only read Pratchett with him and never on my own.  It's also the first thing I've read of Neil Gaiman's, but since it was a joint effort, I'm not sure which aspects were contributed by each author... However, the fact that we enjoyed the book may mean that we (or just I) should try something he wrote on his own, at some point.

As is usually the case with shared reads, I don't really have any specific observations to make.  It's pretty simple: We enjoyed the book, and now I'm looking forward to seeing the adaptation.

...Okay, I thought of one specific observation.  I didn't enjoy the parts with Adam and the Them that much. Occasionally "their sections" of the book would offer up something truly amusing (and I did like Dog), but generally, I found their discussions a bit wearing, and I was glad when the story left them again. I could have done with less of the Them, to be honest.

The Lair of the White Worm

The Lair of the White Worm
by Bram Stoker


Blurb:

In a tale of ancient evil, Bram Stoker creates a world of lurking horrors and bizarre denizens: a demented mesmerist, hellbent on mentally crushing the girl he loves; a gigantic kite raised to rid the land of an unnatural infestation of birds, and which receives strange commands along its string; and all the while, the great white worm slithers below, seeking its next victim...

My Reaction:(First, let me state that this was another 372-Pages podcast book club selection-- a shared read with Donald.)

I read and enjoyed Dracula at some point in high school, I think.  Possibly middle school. It's been so long, I can't remember exactly when, but I know I found it entertaining and a page-turner (by the period's standards).  I suspect that if I read it now, I'd be nit-picking at it like I do everything else I read these days, but still-- it's considered a classic for a reason.

Keeping Dracula in mind, it's amazing to me that this horrible novel was written by the same person. Admittedly, I read the abridged version, but unless the person doing the abridging purposefully set out to make the book worse, I can't imagine that more pages would improve on what I read.

The blurb makes the book sound better (or at least more interesting) than it is, but it also contains what I'd consider to be spoilers. (Tell me you expected a gigantic kite to appear in this novel!) I briefly considered writing my own blurb, but that would require too much work. It's genuinely not worth the effort.

As is typical of books selected for the 372-Pages podcast, this is an awful book. The writing is atrocious (not merely lacking in style, but frequently self-contradictory and at times almost incomprehensible). The pacing is bizarre-- achingly slow most of the time, but occasionally cramming in major developments in a single stingy sentence. The plot is so Swiss-cheese flimsy that it's almost nonexistent-- more hole than substance. Character development is a joke. As other reviews point out, the book contains several incidents of casual racism, but honestly, even leaving those out, it's still horrible.

I can't understand how anyone actually enjoys reading this book. That's how bad it is. It is certainly no classic!