November 2, 2016

Her


Her by Harriet Lane
Fiction
2015 Little, Brown and Company
Finished on May 30, 2016
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

You don't remember her--but she remembers you.

On the face of it, Emma and Nina have very little in common. Isolated and exhausted by early motherhood, Emma finds her confidence fading fast. Nina--sophisticated, generous, effortlessly in control--seems to have all the answers.

It's easy to see why Emma is drawn to Nina. But what does Nina see in her?

A seemingly innocent friendship slowly develops into a dangerous game of cat and mouse as Nina eases her way into Emma's life. Soon it becomes clear that Nina wants something from the unwitting Emma--something that might just destroy her.


Now that five months have passed, I'm tempted to drop my rating to just three stars. I had to re-read the final chapter to refresh my memory of the details of the conclusion and why I was so irritated when I finished the book. As I said on Goodreads, I would have thrown this book across the room when I read the final page, had it not been 3 a.m. It was definitely not the ending I was expecting! However, I was sucked in from the opening pages and couldn't stop reading long into the subsequent nights.

Final Thoughts:

This page-turner is one that you'll either love or hate. It's been compared to The Girl on the Train, with its sinister, ambiguous finale, but I didn't care for it quite as much as Paula Hawkin's debut hit. It's a compulsively readable story and perfectly paced, but nonetheless, a disappointment. Maybe that's not fair, though. Maybe my distaste is in the individual's actions rather than the book itself. And thus, my 4/5 rating. Not a keeper, though.

Note: 

I did find some of the British vocabulary a bit confusing, resorting to Google for clarification. For example, plane leaves are sycamore leaves; E-numbers are European food additive codes.

6 comments:

  1. I pretty much felt the same way - the ending bothered me too.

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    1. Kathy, I think a lot of readers, felt the same away, especially about that ending!

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  2. I liked her first book, Alys, Always more than this one. Ambiguous is right! I also found Nina's hatred of Emma kind of overblown -- she should have been angrier with her father, not the young Emma. Meh. That pretty well sums up my feelings about Gone Girl too. Meh. Have you read Flynn's earlier novel Dark Places? I enjoyed that one much more than GG too.

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    1. Anne, I'll have to look for a copy of her first book. It sounds like a lot of readers enjoyed that one better than this one. No, I haven't read Dark Places, but I did read Sharp Objects and didn't care for it. Have you read B.A. Paris' Behind Closed Doors? I thought it was very good!

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  3. I'm kind of intrigued by this one so I may have to check it out. I love a thriller so that's why I'm tempted!

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    1. Let me know if you'd like me to send you the ARC, Iliana. I'd be happy to!

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