Hello All! Welcome to my first new book review of the month September and the first book review of the blog! So I just finished reading Don’t you cry written by Mary Kubica, and would share some thoughts and insights into it.
Book Review–Don’t you cry Mary Kubica
An electrifying tale of deceit and obsession from New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl Mary Kubica
In downtown Chicago, Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her roommate Quinn Collins to question how well she really knew her friend. Meanwhile, in a small 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, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more sinister.
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.
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: MIRA; Original edition (January 10, 2017)
Language: English
Genre–Psychological Thrillers/Crime/Suspense
Mary Kubica is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, including THE GOOD GIRL. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children.
This story is told in two person’s perspectives–one a girl named Quinn who wakes up one morning to find that her roommate, Esther is missing and the other a boy named Alex who meets a mysterious woman at the restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Quinn tries to find out what really happened to her roommate by piecing up the clues shes finds–the notes addressed to My Dearest, Esther placing an ad for a roommate (which Quinn initially thought that was to replace her), Esther wanting to change the locks and last but not least, Esther changing her name to Jane Girard. Quinn being a little sensitive thought that Esther was trying to get rid of her because Quinn thought that Esther thought of her as a lousy roommate and then thinks that Esther wants to kill her, after Quinn finds out that the previous roommate, Kelsey Bellamy died to a peanut allergy over the food that Esther had prepared.
I like how Mary Kubica made Quinn a likeable character–to me she is a likable character. She seems to be funny, probably imaginative and sensitive since she thinks that Esther her roommate was trying to kill her or probably hired a hit man to kill her and her secret crush towards her co-worker, Ben who also helps her to find Esther. Mary Kubica dwells deep into Quinn’s mind, make the reader feel like Quinn, sharing her inane thoughts about Esther and her suspicion.
Then next come the other protagonist, Alex Gallo, an eighteen year old boy, stuck in a small town near Lake Michigan, working as a dishwasher in a local coffee stop and helping out with his alcoholic dad. To me, Kubica does a good job of making the reader feel sorry for Alex Gallo–a smart kid who got a full scholarship to University of Michigan but turned down the offer to take care of his alcoholic dad. The reader feels sympathetic towards that character. It also tells the relationship with Alex and a woman named Ingrid, who locked herself up in her house (due to unknown reasons) and of course his infatuation with the mysterious woman he nickname as Pearl and the supposedly haunted house that is across from his own house. To the reader, like me, I initially thought this Pearl was Esther since the Pearl’s description matches that of Esther and there were twists in each of the chapter, that makes the reader want to know what is going to happen next. I like how Kubica manages to keep the reader at the edge of the seat, waiting to know what will happen next. But towards the end (spoiler alert) we find that Pearl is actually Genevieve, the little girl who supposedly had died some twenty years ago and is Ingrid’s daughter and Esther’s sister. And towards the end, Quinn saves Esther.
Here’s what I like most about the book.
- Kubica describes as I said earlier in alternating two person’s views, Quinn and Alex, the two protagonists. The chapters are also divided into days–starting with Sunday, the day Esther disappears and ending with Thursday, when Genevieve was caught, Alex dies after saving Ingrid and Quinn saves Esther who was locked up in the storage unit by Genevieve.
- I like how each chapter has some sort of twists, making the reader feel interested as to what will happen next.
- I like the way Kubica writes–her style of writing is intriguing and interesting.
- I like how Kubica builds up the climax of the book, slowly–not at once but eventually.
What I don’t like about the book
- The beginning was a bit boring but by the middle of the book, it gets interesting.
Overall, this is a good psychological thriller with surprising twists and a page turner. Anyone interested for a good psychological thriller with surprising twists and page turners, I recommend this book. I haven’t read Mary Kubica’s debut book, The Good Girl and The Pretty Baby but Don’t You Cry is actually a good psychological thriller book. I give this book a four star rating!
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