Friday, February 15, 2019

Book Review: Our Little Secret

I'm slowly getting back on the reading train but I tell you, every time I see how behind I am on my Goodreads Challenge this year... it's daunting.

Our Little Secret - Darren O'Sullivan

A deserted train station: A man waits. A woman watches.

Chris is ready to join his wife. He’s planned this moment for nearly a year. The date. The time. The train. But he hadn’t factored in Sarah.

So when Sarah walks on to the platform and sees a man swaying at the edge she assumes he’s just had too much to drink. What she doesn’t expect is to stop a suicide. As Sarah becomes obsessed with discovering the secrets that Chris is clearly hiding, he becomes obsessed with stopping her, protecting her.

But there are some secrets that are meant to stay buried forever…

I have a few feelings about this book but would I call it a gripping psychological thriller? Not so much. The beginning started out promising with Chris teetering on the edge of a train platform waiting for a train to come through so he can end his life and be with his presumably dead wife. Enter Sarah, emotional from the realization that her boyfriend is complete trash and doesn't care about her, waiting to catch the train and she automatically assumes Chris is just another drunk. Except she's watching him and things aren't what they first seem and once he is desperately trying to get her to leave she realizes he's about to do something drastic so she ultimately stops his suicide.

Good deeds don't go unpunished as they say. But they also say be kind to everyone because you don't know what they are dealing with inside. Both are ultimately true for this book.

The book promises a twist, but I wasn't surprised at all because I've read far too many thrillers to know what was coming. Keeping in mind this is a debut novel I'm not knocking off any points for that, it's rare that a debut novelist has a fully unique story line.

Let's talk about what I did like: the pacing of this book is really good. You'll keep reading it because it always feels like you're on the cusp of something big happening but it doesn't, and you're not even mad because that feeling is still there. I liked Natalie's character a lot.

Things I didn't love: Sarah is an idiot. You kind of get that at the beginning as she's describing the situation with her boyfriend (is he really even that?) and then she says it herself, she makes terrible choices in men, and that record stands by the end of this book. And Chris. What can I say about Chris that doesn't give the ending away? I really didn't like him and I wish the ending had come sooner, or maybe an even better ending because maybe that ending wasn't good enough? I'm not sure. It's a little Fight Club kind of for me when it came to his character and I'm not sure how I felt about it.

Overall, I'm giving this one a 3. It's not awful, if you're a fan of thrillers and that's mostly what you read you might be a little disappointed. If you only read thrillers once in awhile for something different, I think you're really going to like this one so add it to your to-read list to get you through the rest of this crappy winter.

   

No comments: