Reviews

The Party by Elizabeth Day

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tobesmagobes's review against another edition

3.0

Decent Little Mystery

3.5 In the style of End of the Affair and Gone Girl we have this novel from two POVs that started pretty badly and ended up taking me in. Never thought I would end up seriously caring about the main characters but by the end I did. I also didn’t know exactly what was going on immediately so that was pretty awesome, even much better books have tipped their hand to me pretty early.

calmcelebration9888's review against another edition

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4.25

I loved this book. It was in parts suspenseful, intriguing and sad. The only complaint I have is with the epilogue. I wished for a better ending. The epilogue was a non ending in my opinion. I really loved how the story was told. It was as if two people were really discussing a major life event. One person would allude to something, just enough to intrigue you and then the next character would expound on what that tidbit was. For instance the bird. There is a passing reference to the bird and then the full story comes out and it’s more absurd and scary then you could have imagined. Also I think what happens is not what you would have expected based on what you know about the characters. We learn that Martin is basically a psychopath and so we spent the whole time wondering or rather expecting that he’s in the police station because Ben was murdered and what happened was so different. Even the ending which I complained about earlier doesn’t seem to match what we know about Martin.

Martin is a boy who is different. He seems to lack feelings. You might even call him a psychopath. And he falls in love with Ben when he goes away to boarding school. Desperate to be in Ben’s life, he snoops in Ben’s room to discover his choice in music and the letter from his mother, talking about his brother’s death. By some miracle they do become friends, which culminates in a DUI incident where a woman is killed. Martin, always wanting to protect Ben, takes the fall. It’s not prosecuted and they remain friends for many years after. Ben’s father of course gives Martin a financial reward for his silence.

Years later Ben and his wife have a party. Martin is married now to Lucy, a coworker. But it’s clear that Martin is still in love with Ben. Even Lucy sees that. At the party, Ben tries to end his friendship with Martin and it’s clear then that Ben never wanted Martin in his life and his wife in fact hates him.

While I really enjoyed this book, I expected a different reaction. It seemed as if Martin just gave up after figuring out that the cops weren’t going to do anything about the DUI. Sure he writes a manuscript, but we don’t get the satisfaction of knowing what happens after that. Is Ben held accountable? Does Martin publish the book? The ending is so dissatisfying.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. They’re all so unique and interesting in their own way. I didn’t particularly like any of them, but I found them intriguing and I was invested in their outcomes.