Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Gone Tonight: A Novel

I’ve loved Sarah Pekkanen’s collars with Greer Hendricks, so I had higher hopes for this one. One of my fave parts of their collars is the unreliable narrators - these narrators just lie, and then tell us they are lying, or figure out each other’s lies. There’s a few too many “coincidences” of how these get uncovered, or how they decipher the truth from the lies. It also felt like every development in the story was hammered in too much - like I would already figure it out as a reader, and then the book would spell it out for me, which slowed the pace down a lot. The twists were not up to her previous books. I would skip this one and read one of her others with Greer Hendricks.

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harleyglynn's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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jenn_amanda's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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ms3333's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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caitgiam's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I was so excited to picked this up because of how much I enjoyed Sarah Pekkanen's work with Greer Hendricks.
"Gone Tonight" is a mystery thriller that explores a mother daughter relationship. Catherine Sterling has always had a very close relationship with her mother, but now that Catherine wants to forge her own path, her mother does not seem supportive. Ruth Sterling has shielded Catherine from her past, but now that Catherine is older, she is asking questions Ruth does not want to answer.
I was SO disappointed with this story. This mystery felt very mediocre, and it felt like it relied way too much on convenience, rather than well thought out plot. Catherine was able to unearth things about her mother so quickly because there here literal crumbs presented to her in such an easy way. If she could so easily figure out where her mother came from, wouldn't she have figured at least something out sooner?
Catherine was also just not an interesting character to read from. She never questioned or doubted her mother, and she just always accepted Ruth's word as law. I think this is a pretty "normal" train of thought for a child, but Catherine is in her 20's now and Ruth's behavior warrants some questions.
Ruth's chapters were the most interesting to read about, especially the flashbacks to her childhood and why she has built the life she has for herself and Catherine.
The mystery of this story and the "twists" were kind of easy to anticipate and I did not think they were done in an interesting or fresh way. All of the characters just seemed to easily accept everything any other character told them. It was way too easy for Catherine and Ruth to get what they needed, and it shattered the thrilling feeling at times.
I have not written off reading from Sarah Pekkanen in the future, but I am optimistically cautious about what I will pick up.

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readers_sea's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

full vlog & thoughts here: https://youtu.be/aU1dMqwHOO4?si=pp2KfInddFJ0_4we

I fully expected to LOVE this book especially since I love the author duo.

This book had a great premise and setup. I was really loving it when it started and was so excited to see where it was going to go. In the end, I felt the book revealed too much too soon and that made the ending drag. Nothing groundbreaking and a bit predictable for me, but not the worst in my opinion.

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