This book, which I really wanted to like (see below), suffered from both "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome"* and "I-Can't-Tell-The-Truth-Or-The-Story-Will-End-Here Syndrome,"** both of which are plot devices that annoy me greatly.
The basic plot is, the main character Lydia did something when she was thirteen that she doesn't want her husband to know about. But it's obvious that the husband is a good guy, and the youthful mistake is so ridiculously forgivable--not to mention it was thirty years ago!!!-- that all her agonizing should-I-tell-him?-but-he-might-hate-me! seems less than believable. And she whines about it for pages and pages!
And then Lydia has to complicate things by doing something she should not do and does not even even to have a good reason to do, and I just couldn't stand her any more.
I'll admit I wanted to find out the ending, but I just could not take one more page of Lydia's whining victim-mentality, so I skipped to the last chapter. (I never do that, but Lydia made me. I'm the victim here.)
I also read by this author: The Silent Wife WHICH WAS REALLY GOOD! That's why I tried to give this one a chance.
* Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome
(see The Party by Robyn Harding)
That's when you know a main character is making a major error in judgement that's going to have huge and terrible consequences.
**I-Can't-Tell-The -Truth-Or-The-Story-Will-End-Here Syndrome
(See Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica)
This shows up in romances quite a bit, in which a main character withholds some vital piece of information form his/her love interest for flimsy reasons, making it obvious that the author is using the device to further complicate the plot and lengthen the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment