The Girl Before

Book Review: The Girl Before by JP Delaney

I noticed this on one of my streaming services and realised I already owned the book, so I thought I’d quickly read it before I watched but… Hopefully it comes across better on screen. I found a lot of The Girl Before mostly cringe-worthy and convoluted.

The premise is that Jane, suffering from PTSD following a stillbirth, moves into an architecturally designed mansion with affordable rent on the proviso she agrees to a long list of rules. These rules focus on minimalistic living so that no mess or clutter is on display — no books, photos, kids, pets, blah blah. This is ridiculous but even more silly is the controlling way the house is set up – you wave your bangle to obtain everything from running water to gas on the stove – with apparently no manual override.

Jane is one of a series of women who have lived in the house. Emma is the girl before of the title who was killed in suspicious circumstances. The story is told from both Jane and Emma’s point of view, and most of the plotline is their relationship with the house’s designer owner, Edward, and Emma’s boyfriend, Simon.

To be blunt, I can really tell this book was written by a man. The women either manipulate the men to get what they want or rely on the males to ‘save’ them. There’s some sex scenes and nearly all of them are tedious and distasteful. Then, I realised Delaney was writing them this way deliberately as a sort of plot/characterisation point and this put me off further – judging people’s characters because of their sexual tendencies is just as degrading.

There’s more than one twist; some worked, some definitely did not. The ending too was convoluted.

I suppose some might enjoy this book but I was not a huge fan. Maybe it’s another one which could work for the younger reader who hasn’t read a lot in the genre as yet. 2 ½ out of 5

Other People’s Houses

Book Review: Other People’s Houses by Kelli Hawkins

Hawkins’s debut is, on the blurb, compared to Woman in the Window and Girl on the Train and, for once, I must agree. There are a lot of similarities between the leads of those two books and Kate, the [perhaps unreliable] narrator of Other People’s Houses.

Kate is more than a bit of a mess. She’s an alcoholic. She works in a mind numbing job. She spends her spare time going to open houses where she fantasises not just about living in these houses but being part of the families of the current inhabitants. While attending one of the open houses, however, Kate witnesses something that makes her get far too involved in the personal lives of the house’s owners. And while Kate thinks it’s her duty to assist the family, the reader realises Kate is setting herself up to become the police’s prime suspect for a murder, or the killer’s next victim.

As the story progresses, we get to learn about Kate’s past in a series of ‘before’ chapters which, obviously, explains why Kate has spiralled into self loathing mode. I did like this part but, I will admit, at times I wanted more details and a bit more build up to the event which broke Kate.

I find a lot of books in this genre, especially those written in the first person, are pretty lacking when it comes to descriptive passages. Hawkins, however, shines here. I was viewing the palatial North Shore Sydney homes along with Kate, driving in her brothel of a car, waking up disoriented and hungover. Actually, overall, the writing is much better than the aforementioned Woman in the Window (which gets the award for most overhyped book ever). Her dialogue isn’t clunky and she never relied on the dreaded info dumps.

I still wanted more though. I felt that the climactic scenes were too short and I never felt quite as tense as I should. I also thought the twist was pretty obvious and kept waiting for something else which never eventuated. There were also a few plot holes. Why would a police officer called in to settle a pub fight be the same police officer investigating a murder, for example? Only the one copper in Sydney apparently…

Overall though, it was a pretty strong debut and a good fast paced read. If you’re a fan of domestic thrillers, I recommend giving it a go.

4 out of 5

The Girl in Kellers Way

Book Review: The Girl in Kellers Way by Megan Goldin

Aussie Megan Goldin has found a fair bit of popularity with her later books, The Escape Room and The Night Swim, but I found The Girl in Keller’s Way to be a pretty solid debut.

Okay, it’s not perfect. It follows too many of the ‘rules’ of this genre for my liking. That is, we get two different narrators, possible victim/suspect Julie West and detective Mel Carter; one of the narrators may or may not be reliable; and one of the narrators is obsessed with sex. (Is there anyone in real life who truly thinks the only indicator of a happy marriage is constant wild sex? Ack!)

My other big beef is the title. Why, oh why, do publishers insist on copying each other’s titles (and covers) ad nauseam. We do not need any more ‘girls’ in titles. Neither Mel or Julie are girls. Nor is the victim found in Keller’s Way.

But I should get onto the good points. Goldin’s writing style was excellent. The whole book was really easy to read and the narrative flowed well. Everything made some sort of sense and there was no overkill when it came to flashbacks or other corny techniques. The leads were not carbon copies of each other either, which can often be an issue when multiple narrators are used. And there are enough twists, turns and cliffhangers along the way to keep the reader turning pages.

Even though Goldin is Australian, she set the book in the US. I was torn on this point. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t just set it in Aus, apart from our strict gun control. The setting, in the end, didn’t influence the story much at all.

Although it didn’t have the Gone Girl type bombshell, I quite enjoyed the ending. It was unexpected and made me pause and question some plot conflicts and their resolutions. Oh, and Goldin never had to resort to my most-loathed book fail – the info dump at the end. So, bonus points for that!

Overall, I would recommend the book, especially for fans of the genre. It’s just as good, if not better, than a lot of the most popular books in the domestic noir/psychological thriller arena. It certainly never put me off Goldin and I will definitely pick up her other two titles soon.

4 out of 5

The Gilded Cage

Book Review: The Gilded Cage by Camilla Lackberg

I’ve read one Lackberg book previously, The Ice Princess, and had found it a little hit and miss. And, unfortunately, I finished this book with the same mindset.

The Gilded Cage is a domestic psychological thriller which in many ways reminded me of Gone Girl, especially in the way it started out strongly but the ending didn’t really work for me.

The book follows the life of Faye who’s an ambitious and intelligent young woman who’s married to Jack, the co-owner of one of the most successful companies in Europe. However, we soon learn, there’s a lot of darkness in their seemingly perfect marriage. Lackberg also, gradually, reveals the truth about Faye’s life before she met Jack and the lengths she is willing to go to keep those details secret.

Like in Gone Girl, the leads are not particularly nice people and neither has any real idea of what romantic love is. Jack is one of the most abhorrent characters I’ve read about for a while. I seriously can’t think of one redeeming feature he possessed at the moment. The times I sympathised with Faye and cheered her on were about equal to the times I disliked her and thought she was a psychopath.

I did enjoy Lackberg’s style. The book had a bit of a surreal quality about it. I’d even say it had a Hollywood feel to it. As I read I could imagine most scenes being played out like a movie, with the characters flaunting their wealth.

I remember The Ice Princess’s writing was pretty clunky and I assumed this had to do with the translation. There seemed to be no such issues with The Gilded Cage.

The book was also fast paced. I never felt bogged down with the writing or bored with the plot, and I finished it in a couple of days. I couldn’t say the twists were a surprise though. I guessed two of the major ones early on. One problem I did have was there was no explanation as to how the one twist was achieved by the character in question. (This was my issue with the ending, which felt really rushed.)

If you like to read books which are relatively clean, I don’t think this would be the book for you. There was a lot of sex scenes. Some really unnecessary ones too and none pleasant or sexy. They were more about power and control than love and I’d actually classify a lot of them as rape and/or domestic abuse. I don’t want to spoil too much but, apart from the sex scenes, there’s also another couple of unpleasant abusive moments which some readers might find upsetting.

Overall, the book had some really great moments that I liked. It seems a shame that there were also those parts I’ve mentioned here that lessened my enjoyment. I will still probably read Lackberg again and I would still probably say that if you like this type of book (especially, as I said, if you’re a fan of Gone Girl), you should give it a go.

3 and ½ out of 5