pages: 248
isbn: 978-1503938717
read: 4/25-26/2017
rating: 1// didn't like it 2// it was okay 3// i liked it
4// i really liked it 5// it was awesome 6// I loved i
SYNOPSIS
Evelyn Tester is sleepwalking through her suburban life—until a late-night phone call startles her awake. Her husband, a prestigious psychiatrist, has been in an accident. And he isn’t alone.
Suddenly Evelyn’s world isn’t as tidy as she thought. And in the midst of it all is Juliette, not only her husband’s secret lover but also his patient. If news of the affair were to get out, it would ruin more than just Evelyn’s marriage. Although it’s a bitter pill for Evelyn to swallow, protecting her family means staying silent—even if, as she begins to discover, the night of the accident has consequences far more dangerous than the unmasking of an affair.
But the more Evelyn learns about Juliette’s picture-perfect life—complete with a handsome, unsuspecting husband—the more she yearns for revenge…and satisfaction. Her growing obsession fuels her rage, burning away her complacency. What will be left of her after it flames out?
MY THOUGHTS
i found a list on facebook about the top something 56 books to read. thrillers maybe? i duno a lot of those on the list were thrillers.
this one was on the list and for some odd reason, i had another free month of that amazon e-reads things and of course this book was on there (which is good cause unless you buy the book on Amazon, good luck finding it) so i gave it a go.
honestly, i only read it because of the title (because my boyfriends brothers gf is named Evelyn so i was giving her shit about it lol. Hi Evelyn! 😚)
but I'm glad that i did.
i thought i was in a book funk but it turns out I've just been trying to force myself to read books i wasn't crazy about (the light between oceans & station eleven).
i liked this book.
it did what a good book is supposed to do; it got me hooked.
i read this book so fast! from the moment i started i was hooked. i kept thinking to myself "what could possibly happen?!" all of the plot twists i thought were going to happen didn't so that was good.
when i thought i had it figured out, BOOM! another possibility entered my mind and then, none of them ended up being it.
there was a change between Evelyn and another character that i didn't really see coming but once it happened i wasn't all that surprised. i mean, i don't know. i think if that wouldn't have happened then we wouldn't have had half of the book so i guess i understand it but then there was another little twist so it made up for it i guess.
overall, i liked Evelyn. she was dealt a shitty hand and she took a little bit figuring her shit out but she got there. (and i think it was all in a couple of months so overall, she got it together pretty fast.) yes her husband cheated on her and she ultimately found out BUT there is another plot twist in there that i wont mention here so, a) its the guilt and betrayal from her husband that she's dealing with but its also b) the situation that got them all there and how it can alter their entire family for the worse (but let's be honest, its only temporary.)
so i can definitely see why she was a hot mess.
the whole sleeping and hating the world deal, i can agree with. there were just a couple of things that were a little ahh!
when i first read the synopsis on that list i was thinking to myself "this suburban bitch will put up with her husbands lie just to keep up the fancy life!" but it wasn't even that, ahh!
i don't know why i play it down that i didn't like it as much as i did, because i liked it a lot.
it was around page 100 that i kind of lost momentum because of what happens with her and another character like i mentioned above, but it had me emotionally everywhere.
betrayal is a son of a bitch.
and then add the other thing her husband did on top of that.
take a break Evelyn!!!
i also liked that the story is told in a before / after format (kind of like the girl before & behind closed doors) BUT what i liked about this format, its that it starts with the before, walks you through it and ends it with the after, however, before the final after, it brings the story full circle.
she talks about how she feels like she's falling apart and the penultimate chapter brings you right back to the beginning.
does that make sense? i don't want to mention the subject of it because i don't want to give away spoilers here.
overall, it was a good quick read which is what i needed because i had been lagging.
i will say this (and I'm super sorry if it sounds shitty because i do not mean it that way!) if you run across this book at the library or for sale cheap, get it. just, don't go out of your way. like it's a good read but not super break your back, be on bed rest for a month and have someone hunt this book down for you so you can read it first good. i tried finding it for my nook; no dice. a copy at B&N; no dice. at the library; not even in the system. i liked it but if i would have gone through the trouble of all of that to get a physical copy, i would have been pissed. (that's just me though!)
if you want to know if its worth all of that work to find a copy, and you want to know what its all about, jump on over to the spoilers!
thanks for reading!
SPOILERS
are you sure?
okkkkaaaayyy!!!
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.
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Evelyn is at home passed the fuck out (drugged basically because those pills work a number on her) when she gets a call from her husband, Gary (kinda hated the name. too basic for how pretentious, erm, stuck up he was.)
he was in an accident on an old highway and he needs her to go to him in her range rover so she can bail him out of the ditch.
she's foggy and groggy but makes it.
then, some white ghost appears out of nowhere. its Juliette wearing a white sweater.
he tells her that shes a patient who's car broke down so he was driving her home because well, she was also unstable.
she buys it, leaves it alone.
the end.
ayyy....just kidding.
she's watching the news one night and they broadcast that right where she bailed Gary from, a few miles away, they found the body of a dead teenager who appeared to have been in a hit and run situation.
she puts two and two together and confronts her husband.
he finally admits to an affair with Juliette and how that night she had been driving because he had had too much to drink at the dinner that he took her too to end things (uhm, no.)
because it was so dark, they didn't see Haley (i think that's her name, too lazy to verify) and it was too late once they had hit her. she was dead on the spot. (she was on the road cause she was hella drugged the fuck out. she was a constant run away who was living in a shitty little dying whatchamacallit....not a cabin. shack? i cant think of the word...in the forest near by...and well she was on one the night she was hit. also she was dressed in black in the middle of a dark road. not justifying, just stating.)
so now that Evelyn knows that she loses her shit (i mean, more so.)
she becomes OBSESSED with Juliette and finding out about her since she ruined her marriage.
in her snooping she finds her that her husband owns a gallery.
she goes to his gallery to feel him out and then, well, a romance starts. no. not a romance. that's too "sweet". they start hooking up. just straight up sex. well, she thought it was romance.
i mean the first time she runs away when he's being nice to her.
then she comes back with coffee as an apology and then they just get into the art. its when she shows him her art that he makes a move.
for a while they hook up but after a trip to Monterey, CA he finally tells her that they cant continue with this because he feels guilty cheating on his wife. (the purpose of Evelyn meeting him was to eventually tell him but she never did.)
they get in a fight, he leaves, they "break" up.
days pass, its her birthday, she texted him that he missed her bday and he ends up fucking her in the sofa in the back of his gallery.
then he tells her again that he feels guilty about it all and that he cant continue. she confronts him about how he doesn't feel guilty while he's dipping up in her and they get in a fight and she FINALLY tells him about how his wife and her husband were having an affair (but not about the accident.)
but not in a malicious way. more in a "its okay, you can cheat on your wife with me because she's done it but we have something together that we didn't have with our spouses so lets make this work, i love you" kind of way.
that's when he tells her that it doesn't matter, they'll call it even since he also messed around but he will definitely not leave his wife.
she's all why!? you can finally have what you want; your life, the kids, this gallery and he tells her that the gallery belongs to his wife. she comes from old money soooo basically he stays cause he's taken care of. the kids too i mean, but let's be drama. (this is the little plot twist i mentioned above. much more dramatic in the book).
she loses her shit.
heads home and tries to kill herself with all sorts of pills but her saving grace is her son.
i think before that, she confronts Juliette and Juliette tells her that what her husband told her was a lie.
she went to see him because she was having sexual problems because of her past.
being of authority, he told her that they needed to "practice" and that's where it started. that night of the accident, they had gone to dinner for her to end it with him but he got mad, so i guess he was taking her home.
he ran over Haley (i hope that's her name) and kept going. she begged him to go back but he wouldn't listen so eventually she got a hold of the wheel and into the ditch they went.
so the whole time, Evelyn she thought she was in some sort of control over her family's situation but it turned out to be the other way around.
and here she slept with this woman's man. bahhh!!!!
at the end of it all, Evelyn forces Gary to come clean. nothing was mentioned about Juliette being in the car, they just chalked it up to, he thought it was a deer and then he was afraid once he heard the news. he just paid the family off and they got divorced.
she moved to this little island and it ends with her basically rediscovering herself.
and that's it.
don't cheat or someone might end up dead.
zanks for reading!
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