A Simple Favor

A Novel

De: Darcey Bell

Narrado por: Andi Arndt, Xe Sands, Matthew Waterson

The Inspiration for the film starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, and Henry Golding. Don't miss the sequel, Another Simple Favor, streaming soon on Prime Video!

"Riveting and brilliantly structured, A Simple Favor is an edge-of-your seat domestic thriller."—Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author

A single mother's life is turned upside down when her best friend vanishes in this chilling debut thriller in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.

She’s your best friend. She knows all your secrets. That’s why she’s so dangerous.

It starts with a simple favor—an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. Nicky and her son, Miles, are classmates and best friends, and the five-year-olds love being together—just like she and Emily. A widow and stay-at-home mommy blogger living in woodsy suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a sophisticated PR executive whose job in Manhattan demands so much of her time.

But Emily doesn’t come back. She doesn’t answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong—Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily’s husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It’s the least she can do for her best friend. Then, she and Sean receive shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her disappearance is over.

Or is it? Because soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing—not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor—is as simple as it seems.

Bell masterfully ratchets up the tension in a taut, unsettling, and completely absorbing story that holds you in its grip.

©2017 Seven Acres, LLC (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Read this if you root for the bad guy

I didn't give it 2 stars because if you just need a story on your way to work or as you're doing other things...background noise, then it's fine. But if you want to invest in characters and need a great plot twist then don't bother. Everything is predictable and for the first time I'm going to criticize these characters. I might have liked them, I wanted to but they ended up being just unforgivable, dumb and dumb...that is my judgement of all three. Narration is fine, story is fine, twists are predictable, plot is fine, ending is weird.

Potential Spoilers Below

The story here is one most readers (or movie watchers) are fairly familiar with...the story is essentially the same plot as Gone Girl, but in addition to a confused husband, the author adds a clueless friend into the mix. Decent story I guess, but not really anything new.

So entertaining!

I loved this book. The story was very entertaining and sucked me right in. So many unexpected twists and turns. I enjoyed that each character had their own voice actor.

Overall

I am that person that became interested in this AFTER watching the movie. And, while I am fully aware that movies can often jump away from the storyline I was surprised by how very different these were.
I was NOT at all disappointed by the book and I loved the movie. I often wondered if the screen writers actually read the book or just the story summary.... :)
I was slightly disappointed in the ending. But, only because I was a sucker for the fish and it gave me no closure.
Highly recommend this book.

It's a good suspense story, recommend for relax.

Actually, lots of reviewers think this story is a little bit ridiculous and some plots are not logic. And their scores toward this story is rarely low. It indeed is not really great compared to "Gone Girl", however, the story is always in suspense, and not very terrifying but surprise me always. I enjoy this book, and wonder what will be happened afterwards. It is a good story for relax and the narrators perform well.

But I need to remind you that this story's structure is not very good. And I think some content is not reasonable. However, maybe I am in the point of view of god haha. If you want a really great, complete suspense and thriller story, you better not buy this book. But if you want a enjoyable and suspense story, just buy it.

[Spoiler!!!!]

It surprises me when I know Stefanie continued the relationship with her half brother when she is in marriage and have romance with Emily's husband. I think she is a really bitch =_= Emily and Sean think she is naive and genuine which I really don't think so. Emily crazy ideas makes me feel uncomfortable and I think yeah she is really attractive because she is mysterious and always wants to take risk. It makes her charming, dangerous and sexy. But I rolled my eyes when she deceived Stefanie again and kill the insurance actuary, then come back to her home. She didn't get the money....I don't understand why she kill him. Maybe for fun, for excitement?? Sean, a handsome British guy, say he loves her wife but have relationship with Stefanie, sounds ironic. I just think ridiculous at the last sections of the story. I enjoy it but, really, it's not a mature story. I think it's good when it arranges open-end because it's hard to give a complete end. And I think I will be not satisfied with all possible ends the author write.

not too bad.

seems very familiar with a twist.
didnt care for the ending much.
reminded me of Gone Girl

just ok

hard to follow the passage of time. characters seem to be unrealistic. the end message seems to be that everyone lies.

Meh

The storyline was quite boring after the second half of the book (the first half gets the stars). There were a lot of plot holes filled in by plenty of conveniences, such as naivety, stupidity and laziness of the characters. If a good detective had investigated Emily's disappearance the book would have finished much faster. I kept thinking throughout the story "why did nobody look into this, why are we just finding this out?" It wasn't a bad book, but I lost a lot of interest nearing the end.

Really??!!

Wonderful novel! Upset at how it ended. Makes me really question allowing new people in my life and the desperation of people wanting to be accepted and wanting friends. Sad that it’s actually people in this world like Emily and Stephanie.

Felt like a bit of a waste of time.

Hi fellow audible friends!! I will be upfront, I listened to this after seeing the movie trailer. It took me only a day to listen to the whole thing. The tale was going good and I noticed I was getting close to the end, yet, there wasn't much happening. This story lacked the same drive in books it's been compared to. When the end did hit, it was very pack luster and a bit like, that's it?

Dear fellow audible friends, skip this one and try a different thriller.