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kaylameaux's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Toxic friendship and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism
burnyayhayley's review against another edition
1.5
The best characters, the ones who were the most sympathetic (Mara and Rebecca), do not get enough page space, and their stories both end incredibly ambiguously, to the point of the book feeling unfinished. The other two protagonists are unlikable and irritating and seem to chronically make terrible decisions, with little to no consequences. Every single marriage in this book is fucked up, and it creates an incredibly cynical overtone to the book (as someone who is in love and thinking about the future, man this book was a fucking bummer).
Also, there were no thrills or good reveals. I feel like given her previous book, this is marketed the same, as a thriller with plot twists, but everything is really obvious, and the ending is incredibly anti-climactic. There is no good build-up, no shifting from the main uncomfortable tension, and no happiness or solid resolution to be found on any of the pages.
Terrible stuff. Happy I finished it, but unhappy that I read it.
Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, and Miscarriage
princessxnicole's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content, Medical content, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol
thespinystacks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Blood, and Vomit
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma
thatswhatshanread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
WOW!!! An incredibly fascinating second novel from Ashley Audrain. I was immediately invested in the deep tangle of suburban domesticity between the three families at the helm of this story, and even the fourth family’s insights sprinkled throughout. Audrain commands your attention with every page, every insane detail that feels hot in your hands, like juicy but disturbing neighborhood gossip you’re only so lucky to be privy too. Like you are one of the periphery moms, whispering about only the surface of the twisted, mangled iceberg.
This is as much a novel about marriages and parent-child relationships under pressure as it is a novel of suspense. Which is to say, this isn’t exactly a thriller, but very much so an intense domestic drama that leaves you clutching at your pearls, as they say, as the characters’ lives unravel. A child in a coma, due to mysterious circumstances. His parents, his neighbors, none of them quite who they seem. Rumors everywhere. Lies as abundant as a cup full of sugar.
I throughly enjoyed this one. I loved the intensity, the explicitness, the shock, every character interwoven into another in the most unexpected ways. This is a deliciously spiraling novel that makes you think a whole lot about the lives of those acquaintances around you that may be entirely different from what you only see from the end of the driveway. Or overheard from an open window…
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Abandonment, and Alcohol
znvisser's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Classism
mysterymom40's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Racism, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Classism
amandalorianxo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I do wish Mara had been given a little more of a central role but everything’s picks up during the second half of the novel. Audrain was also great at giving us a red herring when it came to the affair that occurs. We initially assume it’s one devious couple when it’s actually someone else.
Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Child death, Death, and Infidelity
laurenabeth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I won’t go into a summary, but while I find this book to be raw and insightful, I didn’t find it especially well written or constructed. There are too many voices, too many timelines, too many unnecessarily jarring scenes that come off gratuitous for shock value. If the book is about womanhood and how hard it is, about motherhood and what defines it, about escaping what we thought we wanted for what we think we can live with… I understand the purpose of the book but found it poorly executed.
Whitney and Blair are both monstrous, the husbands are all unfit, and the kids are uniformly forsaken for their parents’ petty whims.
The ending was predictable and no one emerges from the text unscathed. So what was the point? What I’m sure started off as a character study ended up being more of a grueling race to the finish, which is actually where the story begins.
I’m befuddled and let down, frankly.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Self harm, Abortion, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
liblibby's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
IMPORTANT: note the content warnings.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship