Book Review GONE TONIGHT Sarah Pekkanen
Thank you to the author Sarah Pekkanen, publishers Macmillan Audio, and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of GONE TONIGHT. The narrator, Kate Mara gives an excellent reading for this book; it might actually be my favorite performance from her ever.
This is one of those books that had me making wild guesses the whole way through, and I was always wrong, and always wildly entertained! Red herrings galore, and twists and turns, which were entirely appropriate, given how far this story travels both in time and along the different character arcs. I was just astounded as I watched Pekkanen peel back the layers, a petal at a time, and I'm thinking the whole time she's taking me into the eye of a peony, but...it was something else altogether, not even a flower at all. More like a hurricane, all frilly and purple at the edges where she'd torn away to reveal the fury of her fiction.
My headlights shone on a black corvette tucked in the furthest corner of the lot. James was leaning against the rear bumper. He looked so good in his jeans and white t-shirt...The sight of him washed away the ugliness of the previous hour. I parked and walked toward him. I was a mess. I hadn't even brushed my hair....But James was smiling by the time I reached him....He...rubbed his thumb against my cheekbone. There was a dot of blood on my face, he said. It wasn't mine. It was [my little brother's.]...I told him everything. Before I was even halfway through, he reached out and put his arms around me; it was the opposite of how my father restrained me,...he drew me to him tenderly. It wasn't exactly how I planned to start our first date.... chapter 12
So much happens in this story. I enjoyed the plot because it kept making me drop my jaw into my lap. But also, because so much happens in this story, I think sometimes I had to be more willling to suspend my disbelief than I normally would. A few rabbits out of hats in this plot. But The author does take the time and effort to go back and stitch up every end she unravels, for those readers who love a very thorough denouement.
I have a big quibble with the major theme this book builds upon for its story logic, which is the idea that behavior can be congenital or hereditary.
Catherine has James's eyes. They're midway between round and oval. They're the shade of a favorite old pair of jeans. They radiate gentleness and calm, but I have never once kidded myself that they reveal every facet of her soul. There's this thing Catherine does when she's sleepy. She rubs her feet together, like they're giving each other a little massage. They move slower and slower as her eyelids droop, then they stop right as she drops off. James use to do the exact same thing. The first time I noticed it in Catherine, she must have been two or three... chapter 8
This scene is conflating a hereditary trait like eye shape or color with a learned behavior like feet rubbing, pure and simple. This is a stigma that harms mentally ill and other disabled populations, so it's not my favorite. Honestly, this book could have been written almost identically without that trope in place. If you read this book, I'd love to hear what you think about this!
This one is an intelligent, twisty slow burn that pays off multiple times throughout the narrative. Can't wait for more from Pekkanen!
Rating: ⚾️⚾️⚾️.5 / 5 baseball bats
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: June 27 2023
Format: Audiobook, NetGalley, narrator: Kate Mara
Read this book if you like:
👤 Psych thrillers
👮🏾♂️ Crime thrillers
🔥 Slow burn
🔪 Serial killer stories
This is one of those books that had me making wild guesses the whole way through, and I was always wrong, and always wildly entertained! Red herrings galore, and twists and turns, which were entirely appropriate, given how far this story travels both in time and along the different character arcs. I was just astounded as I watched Pekkanen peel back the layers, a petal at a time, and I'm thinking the whole time she's taking me into the eye of a peony, but...it was something else altogether, not even a flower at all. More like a hurricane, all frilly and purple at the edges where she'd torn away to reveal the fury of her fiction.
My headlights shone on a black corvette tucked in the furthest corner of the lot. James was leaning against the rear bumper. He looked so good in his jeans and white t-shirt...The sight of him washed away the ugliness of the previous hour. I parked and walked toward him. I was a mess. I hadn't even brushed my hair....But James was smiling by the time I reached him....He...rubbed his thumb against my cheekbone. There was a dot of blood on my face, he said. It wasn't mine. It was [my little brother's.]...I told him everything. Before I was even halfway through, he reached out and put his arms around me; it was the opposite of how my father restrained me,...he drew me to him tenderly. It wasn't exactly how I planned to start our first date.... chapter 12
So much happens in this story. I enjoyed the plot because it kept making me drop my jaw into my lap. But also, because so much happens in this story, I think sometimes I had to be more willling to suspend my disbelief than I normally would. A few rabbits out of hats in this plot. But The author does take the time and effort to go back and stitch up every end she unravels, for those readers who love a very thorough denouement.
I have a big quibble with the major theme this book builds upon for its story logic, which is the idea that behavior can be congenital or hereditary.
Catherine has James's eyes. They're midway between round and oval. They're the shade of a favorite old pair of jeans. They radiate gentleness and calm, but I have never once kidded myself that they reveal every facet of her soul. There's this thing Catherine does when she's sleepy. She rubs her feet together, like they're giving each other a little massage. They move slower and slower as her eyelids droop, then they stop right as she drops off. James use to do the exact same thing. The first time I noticed it in Catherine, she must have been two or three... chapter 8
This scene is conflating a hereditary trait like eye shape or color with a learned behavior like feet rubbing, pure and simple. This is a stigma that harms mentally ill and other disabled populations, so it's not my favorite. Honestly, this book could have been written almost identically without that trope in place. If you read this book, I'd love to hear what you think about this!
This one is an intelligent, twisty slow burn that pays off multiple times throughout the narrative. Can't wait for more from Pekkanen!
Rating: ⚾️⚾️⚾️.5 / 5 baseball bats
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: June 27 2023
Format: Audiobook, NetGalley, narrator: Kate Mara
Read this book if you like:
👤 Psych thrillers
👮🏾♂️ Crime thrillers
🔥 Slow burn
🔪 Serial killer stories
Comments
Post a Comment