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..."