whitneydaniell

by: Ashely Audrain
published: Jun 6, 2023
genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
336 pages, Hardcover
GoodReads Link

Thriller? Not at all. But was it a good read nonetheless, yes!

Whitney is the picture of perfection among her neighbors and friends. Her yard is manicured immaculately. Her home looks like it was plucked out of a Crate & Barrel advertisement. Her husband, Jacob, is handsome and regal. Her children are well put together — that is until, her oldest son, Xavier takes all the loot bags from his twin siblings’ party and retreats to his room to enjoy all the cookies and candies meant for the other children. The other children just so happen to still be enjoying the party when Whitney stumbles on the scene of cellophane wrappers where the cookies once were and chocolate stains smeared over his face. Whitney is so enraged she doesn’t know what else to do besides yell. To her horror, Xavier’s window is open and the whole party is now a witness to her “gentle parenting”.

The Neighbors:
Rebecca, the well-meaning doctor, who makes a point to check on and chat with their elderly neighbor Mara. Mara has been in the community well before these women gentrified it. Rebecca’s husband Ben, seems unassuming. He was once a teacher but took a leave of absence to work with a tech start-up. Blair is Whitney’s “best friend” – or more like – “single white female”. Blair wants to live in Whitney’s skin, so much so that, she has a total disregard for her own family and her own husband, Aiden, and his wandering eye. Blair is a level 5 weirdo.

9 months after the party (and the yell heard ’round the world), Whitney awakens to her son in their backyard, he has seemingly fallen from his third-story window. Xavier is immediately rushed to the hospital and the thread that held the secrets of Harlow Street together begins to unravel.

Whitney is hiding something that she doesn’t want anyone to know, not even the social workers and the police. She loves her son and loves all three of her children, but she just wants peace and quiet sometimes; she wants to be away from them most times; she has learned how to be there without being there, all thanks to the help of her full-time nanny, Louisa. Rebecca is also hiding something from her husband and, rightfully so. Rebecca has the second-most compelling story in this book and was the only character I was “rooting” for. Blair wants the life she sees of Whitney from the outside meanwhile, she needs to sweep past her own front door.

Mara, sweet Mara. My heart broke for her.

Final Thoughts: I went into this thinking it would be more of a thriller but, it’s really not. It’s a drama-filled, contemporary fiction novel. The writing was good. The characters were fully fleshed out and realized, I love that! Their back-stories gave context to their present selves and, it humanized each character. Overall, the theme I took away from this book was more about the strength and fierceness of being a mother. Each of these women made choices in their lives to fiercely protect the people that they had given life. Even if that protection came with scars of their own; even if by protecting their children, they had to hurt themselves, each of these women jumped off that cliff willingly. The men were, meh. Jacob (Whitney’s husband) was my favorite husband, I’d love to know more about his story and what he’s up to on these work trips, and why he was leaving Whitney’s text on ‘read’.