All I Want

A Novel

By: Darcey Bell

Narrated by: Emily Tremaine, Kevin R. Free, Madeleine Maby

Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author of A Simple Favor brings her “sly, satirical, subversive” (L.S. Hilton, author of Ultima) prose to a pitch-perfect psychological suspense novel about a young couple whose disintegrating marriage and remote new home in rural Upstate New York make for a terrifying descent into the darker side of human nature.

When Emma’s husband, Ben, falls in love with a large Victorian mansion for sale in Upstate New York, he swears to her the fixer-upper will be worth the risk. With a baby on the way, Emma would like to live in a charming, safe community, after all - and in a space larger than a one-bedroom New York City apartment. On impulse, she agrees to Ben’s plan, and they put in an offer on the house.

Sure, the mansion has a somewhat creepy backstory and is a bit dilapidated, but Emma and Ben are in this together, aren’t they? When strange things start happening, Emma begins to experience a little buyer’s remorse. What’s the real history of this house? Is its dark history repeating itself? Why does her husband suddenly seem so distant? Is she in danger? Is her baby?

Combining the domestic anxiety of Liane Moriarty and the haunting twists and turns of Shirley Jackson, All I Want is an intensely absorbing novel that will change the way you look at your neighbors.

©2022 Seven Acres, LLC. All rights reserved. Permission to use portions of the lyrics of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from My Fair Lady granted by the Alan Jay Lerner family, The Alan Jay Lerner Testamentary Trust and The Frederick Loewe Foundation, as their interests may appear. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Favor moment

The house was like a character of its own, I really enjoy the spooky vibes and descriptions involving the house’s past.

very awesome

Great book, great characters, great narration.
I HATED the ending. Spooky house,spooky setting, easy to follow, not your typical domestic thriller.

Ending is disorienting

Interesting story and characters. The end is very disorienting and I wonder if an alternate ending would be preferable. Narrators are monotone. Did not enjoy the narrators at all

3.5ish, maybe

eh. it was okay. not mind blowing or enthralling, but the ending has a bit of a twist.

What?

Okay great book but what the f*** on the ending!?!? I am so confused. What did I just read?

Read All Chapters before Reviewing

I actually am going against all the 2🌟 ratings that I saw on Goodreads. To me, this was an excellent psychological thriller and that left my head spinning with unanswered questions. What is the real story here? I thinking, "what just happened???!!". Which, sometimes, is the effect I want to have from a book. I think the movie will be awesome!

It was good until

I stayed up to finish it cause I was invested. The last chapter ruined it.

That Ending...

I enjoyed it, even though I saw a lot of it coming...until the ending.

Short sentences and lots of repetition

The narrator is great. The story is not. Short sentences and repetitive. A disoriented pregnant lady who refuses medical care???? A husband who wildly vacillates between ideal and wonderful to undermining and neglectful??? Just couldn't suspend disbelief to get into the suspense and mystery. Also characters come and go but don't seem to really need to be in the story. There are scenes that seem important but then amount to nothing to inform plot or character development. The awful ending might explain it, but I won't give away spoilers; you can find them on the web. I wanted to like it and the beginning drew me in, but then it just left me irritated.

Ridiculous Story Made Worse by bad Narration

I really liked her two previous books but this was just awful. It was drawn out and probably could have been cut down by 1/3. The start of the book had me thinking it may be interesting and have promise, but as it went on, it took a bad turn. Everything was so unbelievable. It seemed like the author was going for haunting/edgy but it missed the mark in my opinion and went straight to cringeworthy. The ending is left open to interpretation which can sometimes be good but not in this case. All this is bad on its own but the narrator for the main character is just horrible. Her voice narration is choppy and sounds like the recording of an electronics manual. Kind of bummed out as I thought it would be great based on her other books. I guess they all can't be winners.