He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly
My rating: 4/5 cats
fulfilling my 2019 goal to read (at least) one book each month that i bought in hardcover and put off reading long enough that it is now in paperback.
this is a slight deviation from the goal, because it was a present, not one i bought myself. the lesson i’m trying to teach myself with this project is DON’T SPEND MONEY FOR NO REASON, DUMMY! WAIT FOR PAPERBACK! LEARN RESTRAINT!
but it is equally shitty a character trait to not read books when they are prezzies.
my composition = 20% bone and skin matter, 80% garbage human.
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”How did it come to this? How did we get here? How will it end?”
erin kelly is very good at writing ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances which, for an author of psych suspense, is the best thing you can do, as it forces the reader into that ‘this could be meeeee’ position and makes it even more suspenseful.
this one is slow and sinuous, taking its time to get to the truth of why a young married couple has been living off the grid under assumed names for fifteen years; of what—and who—they fear.
true to the genre, there are many twists n’ reveals to make the reader gasp with surprise, but for me, the best work kelly does here is in the writing of kit and laura’s relationship; the way their experiences changed them as individuals and changed the way they function as a couple, in both big obvious ways but also subtler ways that a lesser writer wouldn’t consider or bother to write. it’s definitely more ‘suspense’ than ’thriller’ when it comes to the pacing, but it’s an undeniably gripping story of secrets and lies and trust and slippery slopes.
i don’t think this book wants me to say any more about it. it just wants you to read it.
