No. You can do so much better, go for a walk instead.
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough featured great reviews saying this Hitchcockian thriller will be my new obsession.
"Why is everyone talking about the ending of Behind Her Eyes?" - it even spawned a hashtag #thatending.
I adjusted my seatbelt and kept my hands in the car.
What I got were characters that were both bland and horrible, a harping plot that was irritating - but I hung on for that twist ending. Yes, readers are talking about it, but the book itself is just so poor.
Louise flirts with and kisses handsome David in a bar. The next day it turns out he is her new boss. She meets Adele dropping her son at school, they become friends and confidants, then she learns Adele is David's wife. No matter, he is too gorgeous to give up, so she keeps seeing them both. Adele is sweet but controlling and takes too many pills. David is sweet but controlling and perhaps killed someone in the past - some secret is keeping the two of them together. They both behave erratically, so Louise begins to try to figure each of them out. She's a single mom with a son, so small a side note as to not matter. As the narration flips between characters, Adele's always end with an annoying tease like she is controlling the situation - whose secrets are real and who killed that guy in the past? Louise is so caught up in the couple she won't see "the ending that completely reinvents in a way that will leave readers reeling!".
This is a so-called domestic mystery (grip-lit) - a woman becomes involved with the couple next door, the couple in the window, or the couple on the train, and slowly finds there are buried secrets about to explode. This has been done before. The couple seems perfect on the outside, but inside it's a battle for dominance they will literally kill each other to "win" (or kill themselves... that'll show him!). They all come off as shallow. Listening to them harp at each other for 300 pages grates on the nerves - and it's laughable they always have a glass of wine in their hand, any time of day, even when they are escaping a threat - "should I finish that wine?".
I rarely find books that stink so bad. Not only was it banal, the anticipated ending was so far out, so completely off the mark... you couldn't believe me even if I told you. You can't guess, but whatever that would be it's better than this ending. Yes it fits, there were no structural slip ups, but seriously ridiculous followed by an even more ridiculous punchline.
Actually angered me it was so bad, as you can tell.
It must have it's fans, I don't know who.
This is now a limited series for Netflix.
2017 / Tradeback / 306 pages
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