Whatever You Love

By: Louise Doughty

Narrated by: Louise Brealey

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

Short-listed for the Costa Book Award. 

Long-listed for the Orange (Bailey's) Prize.

When two police officers knock on Laura's door, her life changes forever.

Her nine-year-old daughter, Betty, has been killed in a hit-and-run car accident. When the death is ruled an accident, Laura takes revenge into her own hands. But will her daughter's killer be brought to justice?

Laura's loss and bereavement reopen old wounds, and she is thrown back to the story of her passionate love affair with Betty's father, David, their marriage, and his subsequent love affair with another woman.

Haunted by Laura's past and desire for revenge, Whatever You Love is a riveting psychological thriller that explores the lengths one mother is willing to go to for love.

If you enjoy Whatever You Love, you might also like Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty.

©2018 Louise Doughty (P)2018 Faber Audio

A feeling, breathing woman

Life happens deal with it. Laura does and by doing so shows a wife and a mother without smoke screen. Post divorce she is no less a wife, in the aftermath of her daughters death she is no less a mother. Some women are meant to be both. If you want to know how that feels slip into her marital bed, hang your heads in her childhood and understand life is what happens to us, with us. Nowadays nobody has children. Women like Laura do. You look differently at a pushchair next time you see one. Read it.

Thoughtful and moving account of grief

This is a well written thoughtful book. It is not a psychological thriller but a portrayal of extreme grief at the loss of a child and what lengths a mother will go to avenge her death. I enjoyed all aspects of this book including the characterization all the main characters well beautifully defined and as a listener, I had empathy for them and their actions. The book moves at a good steady pace and the description of the events before put into context what happens as a result of the death and are handled sensitively. I also like the narrator's style and felt it perfectly matched the story.

Feeling lost now this listen is over!

Honestly did not want this to end, and listened within about 72hours.
I hesitated before going for this book because of the subject matter, but was so interested in how Louise Doughty, with her unique and absorbing style, would craft a story around this.
From the first chapter I was captivated. I felt like I was living the nightmare ... the thought processes and reactions of the protagonist felt like how I would think and behave and yet I'd never dared put myself in that place before. I just wonder how Louise researched this .. or did she just place herself inside the situation and imagine ...I hope she has not experienced this.. it feels so authentic . I obviously am speaking from the comfortable place of someone who has not, thank god, experienced this .. and wonder how this book would feel to someone who has. I suspect they would feel it's empathy and they would appreciate its lack of cliche. Louise's books always seem to show an understanding of how utterly irrational humans are .. especially, as in this case, in the face of trauma.
The reason I couldn't stop listening was not only because of an interesting plot that kept me wondering through to the very end, but because of how Louise speaks to the reader ( or listener)... despite the darkness of the theme and journey of the characters I found it so comforting to listen to ... hard to explain why!
The narrator was perfect and the perfect choice for this novel. Excellent performance!

Exceptional

Incredible story. Beautifully narrated - I was literally gripped from the first word until the last

Optional

Poor narration, flat, as if script were being read for the first time. Many sentences too long and just droned on.

Compelling

I don’t normally listen to this genre, but, from the word go I was hooked. The narration was perfectly performed and added so much to the story. Hooked on both author and narrator 👍🏻

Dreary

Can’t recommend this - waited and waited for it to get going and it didn’t- just fizzled out.

laura

A thoroughly challenging plot was presented for the listener. I had tears when the policemen turned up on the door step and terror on the cliff. a great book which keeps you enthralled. A few odd twists towards the end were unexpected but added to the need to keep listening to the end.

Disappointing

I found the plot hugely disappointing. Without wishing to ruin it for anyone about to read it, there was one part that was so unbelievable that it felt like it came from a different novel.

Sorry but I found this drab

The only reason I kept listening was because the narrator was very good.

I just found the storyline dull. (Sorry to the author).