whitneydaniell

By: Leah Konen
Published: Jan 3, 2023
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
352 Pages, Paperback
GoodReads Link

Janie awakens in the middle of the night by her crying baby but no Max, her loving, doting, boyfriend. As any new mother would, she soothes the baby back to sleep, to only be awakened yet again by her fussy baby but this time, she’s all alone.

Let me just run down some main players:

• Max just up and disappears and even though Janie feels that something isn’t right; she’s calling and texting with no response; she calls his parents and best friend — both of which, act like there is no urgency to find him and Janie, just goes along with the sentiment.
• Liana irritated my whole spirit!! She seemed to be in all the right places saying all the right things except, it seemed disingenuous. Something about her, I just didn’t trust. Ugh, who wants to be around a “yes man” or as we used to call them, a “get with”.
• Molly is the best friend sent from heaven! More of her please because she was the only person in this whole book with some got damn sense!
• Carl and Brenda whew, where do I really even start. Dysfunction and need to use their high-powered lawyer to divorce. She is a miserable shrew and he is a drunk.
• Janie is insecure and naive. She really was not a character that I would typically root for. For context, both she and Max seem very accomplished in their careers and not poor or lower class by any means. I say that to say, she could have absolutely gotten the help she needed for her postpartum depression. Furthermore, the way that she has carried this “issue” with Bryan all the way through the story — carried it like a 1ton weight and used it as a crutch to be self-loathing — irritated me. She was not likable in a way that, I could not connect with her struggles, her story, or even her personality. I loved that Molly told her the 100% truth and then walked away when she wasn’t ready to hear it but, kept the door open for her to come back when she was ready.

Final Thoughts: In all fairness, the characters made this a 1-star read for me but, as all the facts of the investigation are revealed, I gave another ‘star’ because I didn’t see “that” coming. It was a quick read, definitely fast-paced, with only 1 POV and the whole story takes place over the course of 5 days, which means, there is not a lot to keep track of.

*Review edited 24 hours later: I had to drop some stars. After giving it a day, I really dislike Janie and just couldn’t shake that the story could’ve been better; and the “twist” could have been more thought out. Janie was really insufferable.

#TriggerWarning — r_pe and domestic abuse are discussed

One-Word Summary: Hendricks