The good: Grief is a very real thing, and for Jessica 3 years hasn’t been long enough to emotionally heal from the death of her son Jacob. This has put a strain on her relationship with her husband Owen, a man who is trying to support his wife in her pain while feeling ready to move on. I thought this book portrayed grief very well, acknowledging that the timing and the healing is unique to the individual. I thought that it also showed how unresolved grief can negatively all other aspects of someone’s life. Finally, even with the support of caring individuals (including trained professionals), time doesn’t necessarily heal all wounds.
The not-so-good: (I should probably start with a disclaimer that thrillers are not usually my go to. I was probably not the target audience for this book, so I will take that into account. In other words, I will not be unfairly harsh in my critique, but I will note what was not for me.) As much as I thought that Jessica was well-represented in her grief, and I understand that IRL people dealing with grief has poor judgment, it became frustrating seeing Jessica make one misguided assumption after another. While I applaud her efforts to find answers to a cold case, she became obsessed with that and quickly distanced herself from the person who cares about her the most, not allowing herself to see it.
I was also very upset at both how quickly sought comfort from another man, and then how much he seemed very willing to be the one to comfort her. I am someone who wants to see faithfulness in relationships, and I did not like the scenes where these two interacted with each other.
Finally: This book has some parts that I think were done well, but others that I did not enjoy. The book was written well, and it was easy enough to follow, even if there were almost no characters that I actually liked. Again, being fair, I don’t think I was who this was written for.
I would like to thank the author for the copy of the audio book that was given to me in exchange for my honest review.
Rusty's Reads 