Reviews

This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith

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gaviaroma's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

i like patricia highsmith's prose! not the kind of story that will stick with me i fear but if i'm looking for that i know who to turn to

criminolly's review against another edition

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5.0

That ending though

prested's review against another edition

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4.0

David Kelsey has been in love with Anabelle for the last two years. He's planning to marry her, completely ignoring the fact that she's married with a child.
Her husband and his child are just temporary things. They're meant to be.
It's why he has been spending the last two years building a perfect home for her, trying to convince her to acknowledge what's right in front of her eyes.
He just needs to be patient and persuade her.
As time goes by however David doesn't want to wait to start building his future with her.
He wants her as his wife in his home right now.
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I really do like how Highsmith writes her suspense novels.
The buildup to the climax is always nice.
She tends to write similar female characters frequently but Anabelle was a little bit different? I also think it was because she was a love interest of sorts.
I liked how Highsmith characterized David, it was fascinating how he tried to reason away his behavior.
He wasn't necessarily a smart villain, the only reason why he got away with the stuff he did was because he was a white man who went to college.
He was a "nice guy" who felt he deserved Anabelle just because he was nice and earned a high income.
The ending was expected but it was interesting watching every fall apart for David.
He deserved everything that happened to him.
The only part that I didn't enjoy was Wes and Effie. They just felt like characters I've read about in other Highsmith novels and just didn't feel new so I kinda knew how they would've ended up.
Overall, it's an interesting slow burn psychological novel.