This is a tough book for me to review. Part I - I enjoyed and followed the action reasonably well and I was thinking: "Good Book." Part 2 - I was still enjoying the book but the plot lines and time lines were getting tangled and it was a bit frustrating to keep track of the action.. And then, Part 3 was awful, in my opinion. The term Mumbo-Jumbo popped into my head as I was reading and trying to sort it out. The narrative seemed to descend into a world inspired by Kafka, and resonated with a strange overtone, the sounded something like: "Baby, Baby, Let's Jump with the Baby. Or Not. Or - she did, so why not? Or - no choice but to ...."
Part 3 was too crazy for the story to conclude with the neat, logical and tucked conclusion at the very end--that surprised me too. It seemed like it was going for a complete fever-dream effect -- It was "Alice down the rabbit hole but not really." So a logical Here-is-what-happened at the end of the story just seemed tacked on.
But Parts I and II kept me reading: It was semi-interesting to see the effect of post-partum depression on the two main female characters. and early-Laurel had some very humorous asides and clever-put insights. But then, I was very disappointed when the timelines twisted around so that what happened before was now what happened after. And that Part 3 acted to lower the quality of the book overall, reducing the impact of the first two parts to being just lead-ins to what I read as random nonsense. I just got dizzy and exasperated trying to make any sense out of it.
And the book was long - or - the book seemed long. To me, it was a shame - I thought that with a more controlled narrative, this book could have been five stars plus. As it is, cheers for the intelligent intrigue of the earlier parts of the book, and my own wish that the third part was done with a bit more creative control, so that I could grasp onto the actual action.
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Helene Stephens
Parts I and II, GOOD - Part 3 Awful
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2018Verified Purchase
Vampyra
The worst so far
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2018Verified Purchase
Maddie
Thrilling but without Goodman's usual depth
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2018Verified Purchase
Kindle Customer
A Mystery Around a New Mother
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2019Verified Purchase
B in NV
Twisting Thriller
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2018Verified Purchase
R. Phillips
Page turner - read this book
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2019Verified Purchase
Stacy Quintin
Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2018Verified Purchase
Raya
Couldn’t put it down
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2018Verified Purchase
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Amazon Customer
Awesome.
Reviewed in Canada on March 10, 2019Verified Purchase