Reviews

That Night by Gillian McAllister

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geesreadingcorner's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

3.0

mrsbooknerd's review against another edition

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3.0

That Night was a relatively simple plot - though it certainly had some twists - with a real focus on character development. I lapped it up. I loved how both sibling rivalry and familial love created both a bond and a tension-filled chasm between the main characters. I was constantly suspicious of everyone and their real motives.

I loved how the present day narrative hinted at what was to come while still holding cards to its chest, while the past scrambled to catch us up, creating a wonderfully suffocating tension.

I found it interesting how I didn't like any of the lead characters and yet I also wanted them to escape the prison of their own making.

I was just constantly waiting for things to come to a head with bated breath.

Yet there were some elements that I just didn't enjoy as much which lowered my rating.

Once the dynamic threesome return from Verona I found the plot was just too repetitive and by the end I was speed reading sections which felt like ones I'd already read. The three of them just being about the vets. The group chats where they just had the same oh no! conversations.

I wasn't sure what real impact the Rosie storyline had on the main plot aside from establishing a strong bond, but it lacked emotion to me and therefore importance.

Similarly, Lydia was a narrative voice and her story should have felt more important but it again felt flat for me and I wasn't at all invested in how things turned out for her. She seemed so detached from Joe almost from the start that their relationship didn't seem worth saving. If she had been the great love of his life and he hers, and the breakdown of their marriage was destroying them both then I'd have been there with popcorn, but it didn't have anywhere near that impact.

Another main issue was the maternal bond and love that Frannie had for Paul, but again we were told about it alot but never saw it. As a mother I thought alot about how I would react had I been in Frannie's position, but I don't think the book adequately captured the intensity of that feeling in Frannie.

I think for a higher rating from me it needed to have been shorter so that some of the repetition was edited out and some of the more emotional elements needed to be amped up to really get me invested.