The Daylight Marriage
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Hannah was the kind of woman who turned heads. Tall and graceful, naturally pretty, often impulsive, always spirited, the upper-class girl who picked, of all men, Lovell -- the introverted climate scientist, the practical one who thought he could change the world if he could just get everyone to listen to reason. After a magical honeymoon they settled in the suburbs to raise their two children. But over the years, Lovell and Hannah's conversations have become charged with resentments and unspoken desires. She's become withdrawn and directionless. His work affords him a convenient distraction. The children can sense the tension, which they've learned to mostly ignore. Until, after one explosive argument, Hannah vanishes. And Lovell, for the first time, is forced to examine the trajectory of his marriage through the lens of memory -- and the eyes of his children. As he tries to piece together what happened to his wife -- and to their lives together -- readers follow Hannah through that single day when the smallest of decisions takes her to places she never intended to go.
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This book was so awful. I felt absolutely nothing while reading this. I guess I was supposed to actually care about either character, but I felt nothing even with the “twist” ending. In fact, the characters were so bland and nondescript that I still can't form a decent image of what any of them were supposed to really look like. Apparently, Lovell was supposed to have some anger issues, or at least that's what the other characters tended to imply, but all I got from him was mild irritation. Hannah was just a cliché spoiled, disillusioned housewife. It had all the makings of a discount Gone Girl story until the ending, which was so lacking in suspense and emotion that I literally did not care.
The only character that was really memorable for me (and not in a good way) was Lovell and Hannah's truly obnoxious fifteen-year-old daughter, Janine, who was the physical embodiment of cringe. She sulked around spouting “snappy” retorts to her father, calling him “bitch” to which he barely even had a reaction. She did pretty much whatever she wanted with no repercussions. One of the worst moments was when she showed up with her head shaved bald and said something along the lines of “Can't handle that I don't fit your idea of what a girl should look like?”. I mean, who speaks that way? Seriously?
Even with the flashbacks, I did not understand why Lovell and Hannah got married. Lovell was a shitty father (barely knew anything about his kids) and a shitty husband (couldn't hold a mature discussion with his wife or take interest in her life) and a boring person. All he wanted to do was talk about his weather studies, and while Hannah's lack of interest in his field was a bit depressing due to her public insults against him, he seemed to have the belief that everyone should care about his work and when other characters didn't they were portrayed as heartless. Sorry but not everyone cares about your niche academic field.
All I wanted was suspense and mystery, and barely got that.
