Having fallen in love with Gillian Flynn while reading "Gone Girl", it didn't take much to convince me to read this one. A coworker read it before I did and let me take her copy. I was so excited.
As soon as I started reading it, I was reminded of why I love Gillian Flynn so much. She is a superb writer and her attention to detail is simply astonishing. Part of this book takes place in 2009 from one character's perspective while the rest takes place in 1985 from the perspective of two other characters. There are so many little jokes and sayings that pass between two characters in one chapter and then show up in another character's thoughts in another chapter. It did a wonderful job of demonstrating how we're all connected, especially to our family and how things (including sayings, attitudes, etc.) get passed down from one generation to another.
The ending actually kind of disappointed me. I saw it coming from MILES away! And I'm not good at mysteries. I'm not supposed to be able to figure out who dunnit half way through the book. I want to feel like the author is more clever than I am, but I just didn't get that here (not to say that Gillian Flynn is less intelligent than I am. The woman has sold millions of copies of her books and I haven't even published one yet). My favorite part of "Gone Girl" was how utterly shocked I was when I started reading Part II (if you've read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about). That thrilled me and I was hoping to get that again here. Instead, I think Flynn showed her hand way too early in this book. On the other hand, it's only her second book, so I can forgive her for it.
The ending was also disappointing because two characters really let me down. One of them I was pissed at for taking what I think of as the easy way out. The other sat by and did nothing in an extreme situation. I just didn't believe it. He was portrayed as a passive person throughout the book and that was supposed to be his excuse, but I didn't buy it. I'm a pretty passive person, too, but in THAT situation, you'd better believe I'd do something!
Image taken from http://moondreamin.blogspot.com/2011/04/see-through-trees.html
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