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What You Did

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All this chaos brings the past to the forefront. There are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect. McGowan reveals an Ireland not of leprechauns and craic but of outdated social and sexual mores, where women and their bodies were of secondary importance to perceived propriety and misguided politics―a place of well-buttoned lips and stony silence, inadequate police and paramilitary threat. Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for this arc. I adore Claire McGowan as a human being; I've been to her Masterclasses a few times and she's a brilliant speaker and seems lovely. I wanted to like this book more than I actually did for a number of reasons I'll discuss below.

Absorbing, timely, and beautifully written, What You Did is a superior psychological thriller from a major talent." - Mark Edwards Karen stumbles in from the garden of her old friend Ali’s house, distraught and traumatised. She’s been raped - and the man she accuses is Ali’s husband. And right there, everything changes for everybody. Tiny Synopsis: Ali Morris has her friends from her Oxford Uni days visit for the weekend to catch up after for a reunion. It seems Ali has the most charmed life with the amazing successful husband, 2 great kids, beautiful home, and a respectable job helping women in need. However it all comes crumbling down when her best friend, Karen, accuses Ali's husband Mike of the most unthinkable crime: rape. It all spirals down from there as Ali has to grapple with trusting the word of her husband or her own best friend. This also brings up other aspects of their past at Oxford and the mysterious death of their friend whilst in college.Overall, I did appreciate the difficult topics covered- rape, sexting gone wrong, martial issues, and fertility. It showed real life, how far people can go, and how crazy they really seem, in an attempt to keep sameness and safeness in ones life. But with that said, the second half of the book I just didn't jive with... hence the 3.5. When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect. Her unease only deepens after renovations begin, when the builders find sinister dolls hidden in the walls. As Helen digs into the house’s past, she discovers that the previous owner was not only rumoured to be a witch; she was also imprisoned for a brutal triple murder thirty years earlier. As the mystery unravels there are many more surprises and twists to come. Can you really trust your friends? Are your friends who they pretend to be?

Each character is written with depth and precision and if you searched your own group of friends you'd likely find the variety of characters among them - although maybe milder. The planning that Claire McGowan must have done to prepare for this is phenomenal. Each chapter weaves a small thread of the story whilst developing the characters and their changing relationships. As a new thread is added, you are forced to re-evaluate your opinions and everything you had previously thought making this a suspenseful novel full of twists and surprises.

With Mike and Ali hosting the weekend reunion, soon arrives Karen, Bill, and married and a couple soon to have a baby, Jodi and her husband. Rachel lives a quiet life in the peaceful countryside, content with her perfect man and her lovely dog. But when she stumbles upon a body in the woods one day, all that shatters. She knows what she has to do: run. Don’t get accused of murder. But when this victim is identified as her boyfriend’s estranged wife, Rachel realises she’s already the prime suspect. I was pleasantly surprised by 'What you did' - it's my first McGowan novel, but definitely won't be my last. There are several twists and turns along the way, some of them guessable, some of them definitely coming as strong and well-written surprises. This book has left me really torn. How do you like a book, but not like any of the characters? That isn’t to say they weren’t well written, because I think they were amazingly written. I just thought that there wasn’t really a decent human in the entire mix. Every single one was self-absorbed and self-serving to one degree or another, some being exponentially worse than others. This includes the kids. If I had to say that one character was at least partially likeable, it would be Bill, but even he had issues. The fact is... some of these people KNOW what happened, but are they brave enough to tell? Ali faced with the battle between believing her best friend or her husband, you’ll be surprised which side she chooses.

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