Book: The Sudden Departure of the Frasers
Author: Louise Candlish
Pages:
Read On: Kindle
How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days
Plot Summary: Welcome to Lime Park Road. A picture-perfect street with a secret at its heart.
When Joe and Christy Davenport step behind the Oxford Blue painted door of their 'for ever' home, they believe their dreams have come true.
Yet the boxes aren't even unpacked before a series of events leads Christy to become obsessed with the previous occupant, the glamorous, enigmatic Amber Fraser, whose departure from Lime Park Road is shrouded in mystery.
What happened to her? And why are Joe and Christy's attempts at friendship with neighbours met with an unnerving silence?
As Christy unravels the shocking truth about the Frasers and the place she now calls home, she discovers that behind the closed doors of even the most desirable postcodes, terrible secrets lurk.
General Thoughts: This book was a recommendation via GoodReads and I put it on my TBR list because the premise sounded amazing.
I was so excited to read this book and wanted to read it into the night.
Spolier Alert...I didn't love it.
Read on for more details.
Things I Liked:
1. The writing was decent and it was a pleasant reading experience.
2. The book moves from 2012 and 2013 in the same house but with different women going through very different women in very different situations.
3. Our two leading women- Amber and Christy are very well fleshed out and thought their chapters and perspectives we get to know them pretty well. We find out their back stories and histories and who they are as people.
4. The romance...or rather the affair between Amber and her neighbour was written well and seemed real and believable.
5. Christy getting more and more obsessed with her neighbours and the Frasers also didn't come across as far fetched or forced or way too out there. She loses her job and has to spend time at home and therefore has time to mull over and obsess over the new neighbourhood.
Things I Didn't Like:
Oh Boy! So much to list here..
1. The big reveal was a damn squib! Like really! Come on! All this drama and then a letdown.
2. I never warmed up to any character in this book. Not on. All of them were so annoying and hugely unlikable.
3. Amber is just such a textbook, garden variety sociopath. She is nothing but an aftermath of the success of Gone Girl. Another gorgeous, skinny, cold, conniving, heartless, superficial, mean, model-like, rich and total bitchy woman. Can we please just move on from this book trope?
4. I also never really liked Christy. She seemed so overwhelming under-confidant and insecure and really annoying after a point. She came across as a whiny little moron.
5. The book hit 30% mark and we still had no real answers. I mean we had no, not even the smallest breadcrumb about what went down with the Frasers. I hate when mystery books don't even give small clues along the way.
6. Christy and her husband- Joe were just strange. They can't afford a fancy house and yet they buy it because they get it an unbelievable deal on it. But they can't even afford to do small repairs on it. They are broke. Flat out broke because they bought a fancy ass house. Call me crazy but this kind of stupidity really puts me off and I had no sympathy or real empathy for them.
7. In both the situations, the husbands were just hollow characters. We don't get to know them at all.
8. Christy could have had all the answers if she'd only open a letter she's had since the very beginning. Like she literally had all the answers in her hand.
9. The reason for the neighbours being mean to the new occupants of the house was just silly and would never happen in the real world. It was so badly done.
10. This book was such a disappointing read. It just annoyed me and it wasn't good. I didn't enjoy it at all.
Rating: 1/5
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