STATUS

I don't know how I got to be "on pace" with my reading challenge... I started the year so far ahead! I just finished book 20/50, which means I have no more wiggle room to spare and need to actually put in some effort if I intend to meet the goal. Truthfully, I had hoped to exceed 50 books this year, but in the past, I tend to lose ground in the summer/fall. I think I've fallen behind because I've been reading a lot of books from friends-which I enjoy doing-but haven't picked up as many of my own choices. I don't normally read so many pop novels, and like a blockbuster film, they are fun and entertaining in the moment, but leave you feeling like you've basically done little more than just waste some time, in retrospect. If I'm wasting time reading, I might as well be wasting time watching TV.... it's easier.

Hopefully June will be a lot more impressive than my last few months!

 

THE HUSBAND'S SECRET

Link to purchase from Amazon

TITLE: The Husband's Secret
AUTHOR: Liane Moriarty
PUBLISHER: Berkley Books, hardcover 416 pages
PUBLICATION DATE: July 30, 2013
GENRE: Literature and Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Domestic Life


As of this moment, The Husband's Secret has 18,200 reviews on Amazon, over 15k of which are positive. Although I admittedly don't always pay attention to those numbers, I have never noticed a book with that many reviews, so many of which are overwhelmingly positive. I can't remember exactly how I stumbled across it, but with that kind of a response on Amazon (and well over 300k ratings on Goodreads), I figured this would definitely be worth a read.



things that i liked:

• Moriarty-an Australian author who I have never come across before-is an exceptional writer. She makes domestic living both interesting and entertaining. She has a great sense of humor but can maintain the proper level of seriousness to make the story hit the correct mark. Overall the wasn't an "exciting" who-dun-it read, but she keeps you turning the pages, regardless. 
• Characters were pretty exceptional-not much else to say about that, other than I found something to appreciate with each person she introduced. Love or hate them, they're all exactly right. 
• The most important part of this book is the epilogue-more on that to follow...

things that i didn't like (SPOILERS-SKIP TO CONCLUSION IF YOU PLAN TO READ THIS BOOK):

• This wasn't the thriller/suspense/mystery I thought it would be. The murderer is revealed way way way too soon, which is necessary for the story Moriarty wishes to tell, but makes the second half (or so) of the book feel utterly pointless. I only finished because I thought there would be an interesting twist, and there wasn't. I'm glad she writes well, otherwise this would've been a colossal disappointment, probably on par with the Nicola Yoon novels I've torn to pieces previously (sorry, but I'm not sorry). Although I [kind of] understand why she did what she did, I do think she could've worked the plot around and at least kept us guessing a LITTLE longer. Either way, I wouldn't say this "ruined" the book, but it did take the story from a potential 5/5 star rating down to a 3/5. 
• One character-the principal of the school-is totally sketchy and suspicious, but nothing becomes of her. I think that Moriarty is giving us just a little dose of "normal" domestic living (because in reality there ARE  those randomly strange people in our lives that aren't guilty of anything other than being weird), this character does feel like a confusing afterthought. I don't understand the purpose of the lengths she went to describe her and her quirks, as she lends nothing to the story. She's a good character and I thought she'd pop back up as having a link to something somewhere, but she didn't... she was just different. Still not sure what happened, there.

conclusion:

This is a pretty good book, because of the epilogue. Without sharing too much, I will say that-if you want to read this one-you absolutely cannot afford to skip the last couple of pages. I usually enjoy epilogues as you often "need" that extra push to finish the story, but a lot of them are sort of blah or generally boring/disappointing. In this case, the epilogue makes the story. Moriarty basically uses chaos theory to connect unforeseen dots and makes points that otherwise would've gone completely unnoticed and unappreciated in the original story. I loved this explanation, and would've absolutely hated the book without it. Ironically, the last 2.5-3 pages are the only thing making the previous 416 worthwhile. I just hate that there was a good chance I would've missed it completely if I had quit where I wanted to...

SOOOOOO.... no, I don't understand the extensive praise this book received. Maybe her other novels are way better and this one rode the waves or picked up a draft from them because her fan base is very supportive? I'm not really sure. Maybe her ideal reader is someone who identifies better with the characters? At any rate, I did add a couple more of her novels to my wish list and will probably eventually read them, because even with the things I didn't like about this book, I didn't hate it-I just expected so much more. 

Will I recommend this book? Probably not. Although it wasn't a long read for me, I kind of feel like the time I did spend on this one could've been used to read a handful of others that I haven't gotten to yet. I've actually told two different people all about it (emphasizing the epilogue, because that was the good part), but truthfully told them that they'd probably not appreciate the waste of time. That being said-obviously there are hordes of readers around the world that loved it, so if you're curious, you might as well go for it! 

3/5 stars-good but not great.