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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have slowly been making my way through Ruth Ware's backlist, and I knew when I found this copy of "The Death of Mrs. Westaway" at a library book sale, that this would be next up on my Ruth Ware reading list.
"The Death of Mrs. Westaway" follows Hal: a young adult who has recently lost her mother and is in severe financial trouble. She has continued in her mother's footsteps and reads tarot for a living, but with the debt that her and her mother borrowed from a very shady source, she will never be able to repay them. She fears for her own life, until she receives a mysterious letter informing her that she has inherited a large sum of money from a woman named Mrs. Westaway. Hal has never heard of Mrs. Westaway and her mother always told her they had no extended family, but desperate, Hal attends the funeral in the hopes of getting some money to get back onto her feet. What she does not expect is to uncover family secrets that have been buried for decades.
This story was a trip. My heart broke for Hal and her situation. When her mother died, she was left with no one in the world, and all she wanted was a family. She is young and trying to survive but it feels like everything is against her. She does essentially con people for a living, and that is what she was planning to do to the Westaways, but she was driven to the decision out of desperation and devastating circumstance, which I think the reader can empathize with.
This story has a lot of twists, and just when you think you have the family figured out, something new is uncovered and new secrets are revealed. I ultimately did not see the ending of the story coming, but I was also left a bit unsatisfied by it. The people involved and those who helped to cover it up seemed to have somewhat unreasonable rationale for their actions. It all seemed way too dramatic to me for a secret that was not as earth shattering as they all believed.
Overall, this book was fine. It is not my favorite Ruth Ware, but it also did not put me off of her writing either.
"The Death of Mrs. Westaway" follows Hal: a young adult who has recently lost her mother and is in severe financial trouble. She has continued in her mother's footsteps and reads tarot for a living, but with the debt that her and her mother borrowed from a very shady source, she will never be able to repay them. She fears for her own life, until she receives a mysterious letter informing her that she has inherited a large sum of money from a woman named Mrs. Westaway. Hal has never heard of Mrs. Westaway and her mother always told her they had no extended family, but desperate, Hal attends the funeral in the hopes of getting some money to get back onto her feet. What she does not expect is to uncover family secrets that have been buried for decades.
This story was a trip. My heart broke for Hal and her situation. When her mother died, she was left with no one in the world, and all she wanted was a family. She is young and trying to survive but it feels like everything is against her. She does essentially con people for a living, and that is what she was planning to do to the Westaways, but she was driven to the decision out of desperation and devastating circumstance, which I think the reader can empathize with.
This story has a lot of twists, and just when you think you have the family figured out, something new is uncovered and new secrets are revealed. I ultimately did not see the ending of the story coming, but I was also left a bit unsatisfied by it. The people involved and those who helped to cover it up seemed to have somewhat unreasonable rationale for their actions. It all seemed way too dramatic to me for a secret that was not as earth shattering as they all believed.
Overall, this book was fine. It is not my favorite Ruth Ware, but it also did not put me off of her writing either.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Pregnancy