Reviews with content warning for Death - The Man Who Didn't Call

Wow I didn’t expect to love this book so much. There was a ton of character development and I found myself wanting to keep listening to find out why Eddie ghosted Sarah. I didn’t expect the slight twist in the reasoning either.

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emmiebee's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

4.0

Quick note about "it's complicated" to diversity there's definitely more diversity than some books. At no point did it seem to me like these characters were maligned or charicatures but I'd still hesitate to say yes.
To the review: like a lot of people I found the beginning slow. I actually tried to read this a couple of years ago and dropped it. But this time I tried it again and read it all past chapter 7 in one sitting.
I think some of the reviews of the characters are harsh, I actually didn't have a hard time accepting what was happening: this is a woman who has dissociated through an entire marriage and the first time she's allowed herself to not only feel, but feel love and happiness and hope without the question of whether she deserves it, suddenly it all disappears.
She goes a little crazy, it happens.
It's not a perfect book, I got really frustrated when we suddenly switched viewpoints especially given the cliffhanger; it felt cheap. Especially since it's not the first time the author purposefully misled the audience. But it kept me going well past midnight to finish so I guess it worked.
Most of the character growth actually happens off the page. I think that's probably what frustrated me the most about the Eddie chapters.

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sea_tea_books's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

3.25

At first, this story appears to be about a woman obsessed with reconnecting after a man chooses to love-bomb and then ghost her... after a one week fling. There are many, many characters, each with their own traumatic backstories. And then there is the big plot twist. The story became quite an emotional rollercoaster, along with plenty of back-and-forth hemming and hawing and miscommunication. I think this story could have been several chapters shorter, and I started skimming some of the chapters from Parts II and III.

3.25 ⭐

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asourceoffiction's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

A clever twist on the idea of being ghosted and the possible reasons for it. But despite the heavy emotional side to this story, I didn't feel particularly emotionally invested. I enjoyed it, but for some reason it just didn't hit me in the feels.

I did like the way it subverted my expectations, exactly when I thought I had the plot all laid out. And I'm glad it did, because it would have been incredibly predictable otherwise, and the twist gave the whole book much more depth and interest.

For a story with so much sadness surrounding it, I found it oddly fluffy. I enjoyed it but it's not the most memorable remance I've read.

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astoriareader's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

SYNOPSIS:

Sarah meets Eddie. They spend a week together. Eddie leaves for a vacation, and he promises to call. He doesn’t call.
Sarah cannot wrap her head around fact that Eddie has vanished. Where did he go? Why didn’t he call? What gives?

MY THOUGHTS

Super underwhelmed.
Title & synopsis are pretty misleading. I thought this book would be similar to Adelaide, but only the first third are really about the concept of ghosting. The author tries to throw in some twists & switch directions, but it didn’t work for me.
Walsh IS a talented writer, and I do enjoy reading her writing. This story, however, didn’t cut it for me.
I found their “relationship” to be really cringey. The characters are also insufferable. It didn’t feel realistic to me that Sarah would be so obsessed with someone she knew for 7 days. Also, these characters are older, and they aren’t young & dumb. It didn’t seem believable to me that they would genuinely think the other was the love of their lives in 7 days.
This book doesn’t have a satisfying ending, and it REALLY drags. I wasn’t a fan of the pacing

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️Underwhelming. Not satisfying ending. Misleading title & synopsis.

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