I plan on reviewing all sorts of spooky books in October!
Next for Spooky Reviews is a psychological thriller I read recently.
Let's jump right into it.
Book: The Girlfriend
Author: Michelle Francis
Pages: 454
Read On: Kindle
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days
Plot Summary: She loves your son. She wants your life. How far would you go to protect your son?
Laura has it all. A successful career, a long marriage to a rich husband, and a twenty-three year-old son, Daniel, who is kind, handsome, and talented. Then Daniel meets Cherry. Cherry is young, beautiful and smart but hasn’t led Laura’s golden life. And she wants it.
When tragedy strikes, a decision is made and a lie is told. A lie so terrible it changes their lives forever .
General Thoughts: I came across this book on Amazon and it was for only Rs. 50 I got it without a second thought, affordable and the premise sounded really interesting.
Things I Liked:
1. I enjoyed the writing. The writer does a great job of fleshing out these characters and make their world come alive.
2. I think that the premise of this book, the tussle between a girlfriend and the mother of the boyfriend is so relatable. I think we've all been there, meeting the parents of a significant other and a bevy of all sorts of politics and ego hassles that crop up. This book takes this fairly regular phenomenon is taken to a whole different level in this book!
3. This book covers a significant amount of time in these peoples' lives and we get to see them up close and personal and see so much of their equations and all of the ups and downs in this time period. This made this book and these characters seem so much more real.
4. The thing I loved best about this book was how it made my opinions swing from one person to another. What I mean is, at one point I was kinda rooting for the girlfriend and then I found myself cheering for the mother and then I wondered if the mother deserved my cheering. I love when books screw with your head like this.
5. Cherry- is such an interesting character. She is pretty vile and you hate her with such a passion, I think the author has done a fantastic job of bringing her to life. And her vileness is so real and shown in so many ways big and small, she is manipulative, petty and cruel. Ugh! So well done!
6. Laura- I really liked her. She loves her son and has this long but loveless marriage and she wants what's best for her child. I love how Laura's slight obsession with her son is also explained well. It isn't without reason. Also all of her efforts to find out the truth about Cherry is shown well and in a realistic way.
7. This book is a true psychological thriller. In the sense, there is so much manipulation and lying and deceit, it was so fun to sink into this book. Also the people in this book are so messed up and it is so fun to read!
8. The big lie in this book that the blurb refers to is pretty darn big and pretty messed up and it's consequences are even more messy.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. This book is a little too long at 450+ pages, it could have done well with a little more editing.
2. I don't quite understand why someone like Laura would choose to stay in this insipid and loveless marriage.
3. Daniel! The man everyone is so in love with is a mere shadow character, we don't see enough of him and honestly what little we see of him is not enough to explain his motivations and decisions. He seemed a little under written and not memorable at all.
Rating: 3.5/5
An engaging read that makes you think and has a decent twist in as well. I quite enjoyed it and recommend it as well.
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