Helpful Score: 3
Karin Slaughter is one of the few authors that I regularly pre-order. Although the Grant County books are my favorites, her standalones have been consistently excellent. That is why it breaks my heart to not love Pieces of Her.
Andy is a struggling millennial living above her mother Laura's garage. In fairness to Andy, she had been living in New York City working a bunch of low paying jobs while trying to land a supportive (though not starring) role in show business. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she selflessly decided to return home to care for her mother, despite her Mom's protests.
Andy and Laura are having a hearty breakfast and discussing Andy's life choices when a young man starts shooting up the diner. Laura goes beyond protecting her daughter by killing the armed man. From the fact that she killed the assailant with a well-thought out stab to the throat and the focused look on her face when she did it, Andy suspects that her mother has not spent her entire life as a speech therapist.
The police and media attention to Laura's actions unleashes attention of a life-threatening sort, forcing Andy to go on the run. She is determined to unravel the mystery of her mother's past, in hopes of saving them both.
The 'woman with a secret past' and 'domestic thriller' genres are really popular right now, and Karin Slaughter's entry into the fray tells a bigger, more complicated, and more violent story. Unfortunately, the pacing dragged in places. The beginning kept me flipping the pages, but the flashback chapters about Laura's past were very slow. Ultimately I had a difficult time empathizing with Laura. This is a shame, because one of the things I most love about Slaughter's writing is her ability to make the reader care about people who do horrible things. (I'm talking about you, Lena and Angie!) This book seemed unnecessarily long, and not as engaging as her other books.
In fairness, I would have rated this book a 4 if it were by an author I had never read before. Karin Slaughter has set the bar so high with her previous works that I and other reviewers will likely judge Pieces of Her unfairly.
Thank you to the publisher and Amazon Vine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Andy is a struggling millennial living above her mother Laura's garage. In fairness to Andy, she had been living in New York City working a bunch of low paying jobs while trying to land a supportive (though not starring) role in show business. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she selflessly decided to return home to care for her mother, despite her Mom's protests.
Andy and Laura are having a hearty breakfast and discussing Andy's life choices when a young man starts shooting up the diner. Laura goes beyond protecting her daughter by killing the armed man. From the fact that she killed the assailant with a well-thought out stab to the throat and the focused look on her face when she did it, Andy suspects that her mother has not spent her entire life as a speech therapist.
The police and media attention to Laura's actions unleashes attention of a life-threatening sort, forcing Andy to go on the run. She is determined to unravel the mystery of her mother's past, in hopes of saving them both.
The 'woman with a secret past' and 'domestic thriller' genres are really popular right now, and Karin Slaughter's entry into the fray tells a bigger, more complicated, and more violent story. Unfortunately, the pacing dragged in places. The beginning kept me flipping the pages, but the flashback chapters about Laura's past were very slow. Ultimately I had a difficult time empathizing with Laura. This is a shame, because one of the things I most love about Slaughter's writing is her ability to make the reader care about people who do horrible things. (I'm talking about you, Lena and Angie!) This book seemed unnecessarily long, and not as engaging as her other books.
In fairness, I would have rated this book a 4 if it were by an author I had never read before. Karin Slaughter has set the bar so high with her previous works that I and other reviewers will likely judge Pieces of Her unfairly.
Thank you to the publisher and Amazon Vine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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