The Choice

By: Gillian McAllister

Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan

Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick Wrong Place, Wrong Time, comes a captivating, ingenious novel about a woman who must make an impossible decision....

“A Sliding Doors thriller with a moral dilemma at its heart. Brilliant.”—Claire Douglas, author of Last Seen Alive

It's the end of a night out and Joanna is walking home alone. Then she hears the sound every woman dreads: footsteps behind her, getting faster. She's sure it's him—the man from the bar who wouldn't leave her alone. So Joanna makes a snap decision. She turns, she pushes. Her pursuer tumbles down the steps and lies motionless, facedown on the ground. Now what? 

Addictive and compelling, The Choice follows the two paths Joanna's future might take, depending on the choice she makes. If she calls the police right away, she can save the man's life. Yet doing so puts her own innocence at risk, as she waits for judgment on a charge of assault and the hope that her husband and everyone she loves will stand by her. But if she runs and goes home as if nothing has happened, no one will ever know. No one saw her do it, and it's only up to Joanna to keep quiet...forever.

“Almost unbearably tense.”—The New York Times Book Review

©2020 Gillian McAllister (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

One of Wisconsin Public Radio’s Summer Reading Picks 

“The Choice, Gillian McAllister’s almost unbearably tense novel, divides its narrative into alternative stories, ‘Sliding Doors’-style, playing out two possible futures in one person’s life. It’s such a fascinating thought, how a moment can change everything….The Choice is less a conventional thriller than a morality tale, a granular exploration of secrecy and guilt—how they corrode, how they poison a psyche—in the manner of Crime and Punishment or The Tell-Tale Heart.”–The New York Times Book Review

“[A] moral thought-provoker. [The Choice] seeks to give readers that glimpse of how differently a life can unfold based on one simple action (or inaction).”–Self

"The suspense of each story line is compelling in this well-written novel, but the weightier value of The Choice is in author Gillian McAllister's probing questions about morality and responsibility, questions which—like most things related to human nature—have no easy answers.”—Mystery Scene

Beautifully written and narrated..

It's just that I don't understand the permits of many British thrillers.
In the US you can shoot someone if you even FEEL threatened. But in the UK a woman late at night cannot feel threatened and shove a man away? Yes , he was hurt but in the US INTENT matters.
I guess there entire time I was asking how it was even murder. It was an ACCIDENTAL possibly manslaughter but not murder.
If the laws are like that and mind you I have not finished the book but I'm extremely frustrated but if that's the case, it's ridiculous. I've even read thrillers where a woman kills her rapist and gets arrested ! Come on ... Really?
I'll be reading this author because her writing is beautiful. I don't like the premise but I will definitely read more of her work. That much is fantastic. The first person perspective and what goes on in her head is very very interesting.

Yawwwwwn

I cannot believe the reviews for this book. It is terrible. The woman is unbelievably stupid. Does a stupid thing and then more stupid things trying to cover it up. The pace is glacial. Literally nothing happens, and the author tries to keep your interest with these utterly uninteresting backstories the “imaginative” main character concocts for the people she encounters. I made it about halfway through, and I had to put it down. I never abandon books, but this was BAD.

THE CHOICE Should Not Be Your CHOICE.....

Very confusing and disappointing.

This book was very confusing and hard to follow because it was a "what if" book and NOT a "what really happened" book. The book presents the reader with two different scenerios: 1) What happens if the book's main character leaves the scene of her crime and 2) What happensi if the book's main character reports her crime. Both the scenerios go back-and-forth, back-and-forth and back-and-forth. I listened to this book for four hours until I FINALLY called it quits because I could not imagine listening to this book for another seven hours.

The narrator of this book was excellent but not good enough to save the book.

I will be requesting a credit.

A solid B+ and stressfully addictive

The Choice inevitably didn't disappoint, but I was eager to finish it. There's a somewhat grueling ascent to the storylines' (yes, plural) climax, but the much quicker descent to the end was satisfying. It's technically crime fiction, but psychologically gripping — not a thriller or suspense, but it has hooks.

For the most part, you know what's going on at all times, you just have no idea where it's going. The lead character has immature habits, but is also endearing and painfully relatable. Her character development and trajectory through a barrage of traumas is bittersweet. Still, I rooted for her. However, there are a number of peripheral details that seems completely unbelievable or unlikely, but it's fiction — and, fiction is fictional.

An hour or two in, I bumped up the narration speed to 1.3x ... I was pot committed to the book, but really needed to get to the end. When I returned to 1.0x it sounded like dramatic slow-mo ... the narrator has a very lovely voice, but her style is sloooooow. Usually I'd appreciate that, but not for this book lol.

I had just listened to Wrong Place, Wrong time by Gillian McAllister, which set an extremely high bar — IMO, that book was A++ and probably the only reason I gave The Choice a chance, but glad I did. However, if you've not read / listened to "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" skip this book and find that one.

Really Not a Thriller

I kept waiting for a big plot twist, a mystery to unravel, anything other than an internal dialog of a wishy-washy woman that lasts for hours on end. I did finish it, but only because I was so sure that some big thing was going to be revealed. I loved the premise, not the execution.

Mixed feelings

The narrator annoyed me so much I almost didn’t finish. What a stupid, careless woman. Instead of paying attention to her life she spends most of her moments imagining what other people’s lives may be like, even in the worst moments of disaster. I kept listening only because (I think) I wanted to see her get caught and have some sense shaken into her silly little head. But there was some redemption in seeing the story through. I had enjoyed another of her novels very much and I guess I’ll try another. She does write better than so much that is out there now.

Don’t

I didn’t like this. Had to skip through the whole thing. The main character’s low self worth was just extra. It got mind-numbing listening to it. Just over and over how she doesn’t understand a single thing that is happening. Pages of it. The twist should have been that she’s an alien from Mars and that would have made the book almost bearable.

Not a thriller!

This is AT BEST a coming of age story. Two completely insufferable QWiRkY people fall in and out of love. Two insufferable people doing nothing, being nothing and trying to become nothing. Just picture some gelatinous seaweed and you have imagined our cast.
I loved “wrong place wrong time”. But this book aint it.

LOVED

Fabulous all around. Loved all the characters. Loved the narration. Loved the writing. Loved how my stomach hurt when thinking of what I would have done.

Good story but main character is insufferable

This story kept my interest throughout, however by the middle of it I felt myself not being able to stand the main character. The way she thinks, the decisions she makes…I wanted to shout at her! However towards the end she redeems herself, a little. I liked the dual story lines and how the author ended it. Performance by the narrator was great.