A review by hooksbookswanderlust
The Neighbor, by Lisa Gardner
3.0
Follows a similar story as Gone Girl, beautiful seemingly normal couple, wife disappears, husband is awkward and socially stunted making him look guilty as hell. But where Gone Girl showed the wife's above average intelligence as she masterminded everything, in The Neighbor, Sandy just appears to have flown by the seat of her pants.
What I liked:
There were definitely some twists and turns, and the occasional red herring or three, making this a very compelling read, but what did it for me was watching Jason dig himself a deeper hole even as he tried to figure out what happened to his wife, because it is evident from the parts in his perspective that he didn't do it. And it was extremely consuming because the author hooks you early with the dangled carrots of Jason's secret, Sandra's secret, and what happened during their February vacation? So you just have to keep flipping pages to find out. I liked the varying points of view and how each was told in different person...ie Sandra was first person flashback like a diary narrative, and Jason was third person and Aiden was first person present. And I liked how the mystery of Jason and Sandra's past came full circle.
What I didn't like:
I felt like the comment in Jason's perspective about why Sandra would have done it, why go to such an extreme, never really got answered. And while I understand why Sgt Warren couldn't arrest anyone, I still felt frustrated, just like she did. And also, I kind of felt like Wayne was a convenient fall guy for the author. There was no foreshadowing in his character that he would be capable of doing what Sandra accused, which kept me waiting for the 'real' story. But since we never got one, we are forced to accept this version of events. (It's always the quiet ones). But since we knew from the beginning it wasn't Aiden or Jason, who else could it have been? And also, did I miss something because Sandra alluded to Ethan knowing about her Wednesday night activities, and Ethan even commented that he knew more about Sandra now than he really wanted. So what was it? And what did he do with the computer?
While I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, the ending had too many inconsistencies and unanswered questions to rate this as high as Gone Girl, though I didn't much care for the ending of that one either.
What I liked:
There were definitely some twists and turns, and the occasional red herring or three, making this a very compelling read, but what did it for me was watching Jason dig himself a deeper hole even as he tried to figure out what happened to his wife, because it is evident from the parts in his perspective that he didn't do it. And it was extremely consuming because the author hooks you early with the dangled carrots of Jason's secret, Sandra's secret, and what happened during their February vacation? So you just have to keep flipping pages to find out. I liked the varying points of view and how each was told in different person...ie Sandra was first person flashback like a diary narrative, and Jason was third person and Aiden was first person present. And I liked how the mystery of Jason and Sandra's past came full circle.
What I didn't like:
I felt like the comment in Jason's perspective about why Sandra would have done it, why go to such an extreme, never really got answered. And while I understand why Sgt Warren couldn't arrest anyone, I still felt frustrated, just like she did. And also, I kind of felt like Wayne was a convenient fall guy for the author. There was no foreshadowing in his character that he would be capable of doing what Sandra accused, which kept me waiting for the 'real' story. But since we never got one, we are forced to accept this version of events. (It's always the quiet ones). But since we knew from the beginning it wasn't Aiden or Jason, who else could it have been? And also, did I miss something because Sandra alluded to Ethan knowing about her Wednesday night activities, and Ethan even commented that he knew more about Sandra now than he really wanted. So what was it? And what did he do with the computer?
While I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, the ending had too many inconsistencies and unanswered questions to rate this as high as Gone Girl, though I didn't much care for the ending of that one either.