Off the Deep End

Maybe my opinion is underrated but i really liked this book.

Saving Noah is one of my all time favourite books, and it touched me emotionally like nothing else ever had. Untill this book. 
This has very similar themes of motherhood and troubled teenage sons, grief, and family drama due to the grief. 

You can clearly tell this was written by a psychiatrist. The characters' emotions are brought out so well I felt like I was having a heart to heart with them. It's so emotional. I love when books make me feel such real emotions.

The plotline itself was very good in my opinion, it ran at a nice pace. 

Coming to the ending, which is what most of the people's complaints are about. I wasn't expecting the plot twist. I liked it.
The last chapter? I don't know why the author did that. 
I really don't think you can get pregnant by a cup. Especially not when the woman in question is 40.
But just like I did in Saving Noah, I'm just going to sit here and pretend like that last chapter did not happen. That's because I loved the rest of the book.

I would highly recommend if you're looking to read emotional thrillers with a family drama and secrets trope.

Seems like an unpopular opinion but my favorite book from hers is also “When She Returned” and that's also an unpopular opinion.

I really enjoyed this one! I liked peeling back the layers and learning a bit more about each character as each chapter unfolded.

3.5 stars

Weird Book But Nothing Technically Wrong. Ever read a 5* review that is probably going to read like the reviewer actually rated it 1*? Well, if you haven’t… you’re about to. Because let me be clear up front: There was nothing from a technical/ objective-ish standpoint to hang a star reduction on here. There weren’t any clear technical/ editing mistakes, the story is at least plausible within the context of the world/ situation set up, etc. Thus, with my subtractive system where every book starts at 5* and I have to have objective-ish describable reasons to deduct stars… there simply weren’t any here.

AND YET… this book kinda sucked, y’all. I hate to say it, but it did. I’m down with a slow burn, I’ve defended a LOT of slow burn books over the years and even as recently as this week. What I can’t defend is a book that is just so *boring* and completely disjointed. Someone once said (paraphrasing) that if you show a red phone on Page 23, it better be used somewhere in the finale – and this… doesn’t happen. There *is* a massive twist at the end of the book, but it comes completely out of left field with absolutely zero foreshadowing *at all*. Instead we get all kinds of irrelevant details such as kid sister sleeping in the bed with her parents over fears of the “rampaging kidnapper/ serial killer”, among other completely irrelevant details that are never really explored or shown why they are crucial to the story being told. As at least one other reviewer pointed out, this story could likely have been told much better from different perspectives – maybe the two boys (even the one who dies in the opener – maybe in an “if i stay” type manner?), particularly given the twist at the end.

Overall though, this *is* a five star review, so I’m going to recommend you read this book – if for no other reason than maybe I’m wrong and there was genuinely a great tale in here that I just didn’t pick up on? Let me know in the comments wherever you may find this review, or on social media somewhere if that isn’t possible. Recommended.