What She Doesn't Know

This book was provided to me by NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out extremely slow. The synopsis made it sound like it was going to be a thriller so I sat through the beginning thinking I was in for a treat. The first 80% of the book was essentially just Riley being paranoid. I can see how this was done to establish a baseline for just how off the rails she goes. Then suddenly we get our first dose of violence, the murder of the therapist. I read about 10 more pages before I realized that it actually happened, and not that she just heard about it on the news. Then everything else was very confusing. I get that it was supposed to be set up for shock value but I was less shocked and more just confused as to what was real or not, and not in an interesting intriguing way, but in a tedious, I have to keep re-reading, kind of way. I really liked the premise, I was ecstatic when I was approved to read this book only to be disappointed. The sister, Erin, was written as such a cliché. If you had watched any show or movie in which there is a strong female lawyer then it would just be déjà vu for you. I felt like there wasn't even really any depth to the main character. I felt like we go to know Wendy better than Riley, which is surprising as she was just a side character. Usually when action happens I have a hard time putting a book down, I just need to get through the juicy part right away. However, with this book it took me a whole day of recovery before I could go back and finish it.

I was also quite irritated that the death of the therapist was never really addressed. We don't really find out if that was actually her, and just have to assume it was, which is I feel is lazy.

2.5 stars. I struggled with this. Parts of the plot are really gripping and could have gone in such an interesting direction, but just fell flat. A lot of the dialogue and things happening just didn't seem realistic at all. When the first “twist” is revealed, I pretty much just said, “Well, duh.” Since there was still a large part of the book left I was hoping Kaufman would take it in a different direction and fuck my mind up but he just didn't. Meh.

I considered abandoning this book, but I wanted to find out how the main character was going to find her way through her ordeal. The story line jumps around a lot, which I don't think was intended. The main character was so strong and smart at times and then the author had her doing things that were just plain stupid. The dialogue was a bit trite as well. Oh well, at least is was a freebie and I can add it to my summer reading challenge.