DON'T YOU CRY held so much promise for me. I adored
Kubica's first book, THE GOOD GIRL, so when this came up
for review, I pounced. I bumped it up my review list and
eagerly cracked it open, ready to be transported by
Kubica's tight narration and woven layers. I've been on a
real suspense kick this year, and am always looking for
well crafted ones, especially those written by women.
However, with this particular novel, I was disappointed.
The exceptional writing was still there, but the plot
itself and the eventual climax felt simultaneously
overwrought and undercooked to me. I do not want to spoil
anything here (there are loads of spoilers up around the
Internet if you are so inclined, but I never feel that is
my role), but some of the details around which the plot
functioned were far fetched to me. A key element, for
example, I found to be a historically inaccurate
understanding of mental health services and it took me
right out of the book.
Some of the machinations made little sense; hence my
aforementioned dichotomous opinion. The eventual
conclusion had me shaking my head and saying "what the
hell?!", and not in a good way. This thing just never
clicked for me, I'm sad to say.
I will certainly not write off Kubica as an author from
here, her other works have been too good for that.
Instead, I will chalk this up to one that simply didn't
work for me. I have high hopes she'll return more to the
elements of THE GOOD GIRL which spoke to me so strongly.
New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl, Mary
Kubica returns with an electrifying and addictive tale of
deceit and obsession
In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan
disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting
letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her
possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins
to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she's the
person Quinn thought she knew.
Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbor town an hour outside
Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop
where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He
is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what
starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something
far more dark and sinister than he ever expected.
As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is
drawn further under the stranger's spell, master of suspense
Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride
that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no
matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up
with us in the end.