Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy

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Over the last decade, Psychological Thrillers have been the "it" book; ever since - ok I'll say it, but with a hefty eye-roll - Gone Girl hit the bookshelves. Suddenly us readers were addicted to being slightly fooled, the "Unreliable Narrator" was born, and we were trying to decide which author could do it better. For me, however, I tire of the genre kind of easily, all of them beginning to blend together at one point. Enter Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy, which introduces - or rather supports that of Hidden Bodies - the Unreliable Synopsis. "A handsome psychologist. A lonely wife. And in his home office, a vent in the ceiling. You'd listen, too, wouldn't you?"

Newlyweds Sam and Annie have just moved back to his quiet hometown in order to be near his ailing mother, and hopefully settle in with his private practice, "attending to his (mostly female) clientele." But, unbeknownst to Annie, things aren't going too well for Sam, he's finding this transition harder than he thought and with more obstacles than he anticipated. 

Goodnight Beautiful is a well thought-out, suspenseful and complex novel where Molloy does an excellent job of thinking of everything, though the twists and surprises - and there are plenty! - are slightly jarring and a wee bit confusing. It is an interesting and fascinating twist on stalking and obsession, which makes the characters' choices all the more intriguing.

Molloy definitely takes full advantage of the Unreliable Narrator, taking cues from Erin Kelly's The Burning Air before abruptly sending us into Stephen King territory, and I mean that literally. It feels as though Molloy had just read The Burning Air and Misery and smashed them together, suddenly I was in the only part of Stephen King's Misery that I could get through. Molloy obviously channeled King, but she did it better, taking on only a small portion of the physical exhaustion and alcoholism that come with his books, but having the appropriate amount of cheap psychotherapy.

The ending is not at all what I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise. Goodnight Beautiful is a Psychological Thriller with heart. I read it in two days, you probably could too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on my goodreads profile.

The Dark Rose by Erin Kelly

*Turns to chapter 52 and begins to skim* Which is a good indication that I am not engaged or interested in this book.

*Skims epilogue, reads final paragraph, closes book*

Huh.

That was weird.

It didn't give me the bad feels like I Am Behind You, but Erin Kelly's The Dark Rose made me question my seemingly unwavering faith in one of my favorite and most recommended books, The Burning Air. Where The Poison Tree is dark and confusing, The Dark Rose is disturbing and mostly pointless.

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS

Louisa spends her days mooning over her past while rehabilitating an Elizabethan garden with a handful of wayward criminals not hard enough for prison, but just hard enough to require a respite from society. Enter Paul, one such wayward criminal who happens to bear a sinister resemblance to Louisa's teen lover, Adam. In spite of the obvious age difference, the two begin a romance that is neither romantic or necessary to the story. For his part, Paul is a young man abruptly torn from his future when an act of petty theft turns into a grizzly murder, and the two spend most of their time dancing around their violent commonalities.

Like The Poison Tree (or so I wrote on my goodreads review), The Dark Rose is exquisitely written, with imagery that is near perfection. The story is vivid and dark without a hint of remorse, but it doesn't necessarily need to be told, and the book as a whole is long, slow, and it's unclear why certain plot points need to exist. For example, it seems that Paul's likeness to Adam is an intriguing twist, though it is one that is never revealed to Paul, which could have possibly set the story on a different trajectory. The story also suddenly ends in a random twist of fate, and although these characters aren't particularly empathetic, we're supposed to feel sympathy or understanding for their final emotional upheavals. It seems as if Kelly got to page 300 and was like, well this will either be a 500-page book, or I should just end things now, and obviously chose the latter.

Kelly is a masterful writer, though as a novelist, I'm more a fan of her later works like, He Said/She Said, and I'm looking forward to her new book, Stone Mothers. I will also read her Broadchurch because, like my love/hate relationship with Liane Moriarty, I will return again and again and again. ⭐⭐⭐/5 on goodreads.

He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly

Erin Kelly quickly became one of my favorite authors as soon as I turned the final page of The Burning Air. And although critically-acclaimed, I did not enjoy The Poison Tree but chose to let that one slide, and she remains one author of whom I will return to their shelf time and time again.

But Kelly also ruined me.

After The Burning Air literally made me exclaim, "Holy fuck!" out loud and on every social media platform I use, I find very little in the literary world that shocks and surprises me. And if we're being honest without being big-headed, my brain has been thus trained to pick up and store every detail, and to recognize patters not only within the story but the structure of the plot. For instance, have you ever noticed that character outliers end up playing bigger roles than they appear? But although I don't find a lot of plot twists too shocking, or I can see them coming a mile away, Kelly and her twisted tails never cease to entertain and amaze me.

Kit, an Eclipse Chaser since conception, and his love, Laura, stumble upon a deeply disturbing act in the ending moments of an eclipse in 1999. Though simple bystanders who, both luckily and unluckily, happen upon this moment, Kit and Laura's lives are forever set upon a crash course of guilt, lies, deception, and devotion. Kelly weaves an intricate and clever slow burn that is riddled with mystery and in a constant state of intrigue and suspense. Extremely well-written and thoughtfully organized, Kelly creates great connection to characters, empathy for their emotions, and clear justification for their actions, and is a master at pulling your attention in one direction while deftly working in the other. She expertly deconstructs the pitfalls of our human instinct to protect ourselves and our homes, and our misguided attempts at convincing ourselves that even just one lie, no matter how small, will prevent the world from tipping on its side. The story Kelly has (re)told is timeless, but hers is clever, witty, gritty, and remarkably relevant.

It can't go unnoticed the extreme parallels of this book, published in 2017, presumably at the height of the #MeToo Movement, and current events. Though stories of this nature - both true and for the purpose of entertainment - are as old as the written word, the details - as Kelly expertly conveys - also haven't changed. Kelly vividly re-creates the heartbreaking world we live in, where judgements are misplaced, we throw money at problems to make them go away, and the slanting deceptions we create for ourselves. He Said/She Said is a haunting examination of our own trustworthiness and of those closest to us, and an unfortunate reminder that no one is to be trusted; maybe - especially - not even ourselves.

Though devoid of an actual bombshell moment for me personally, He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly is a compelling, thoughtful, mysterious read that you will no doubt feel the pull to see how it finally ends. Me, I can't wait to see what Ms. Kelly throws at me next...