Tuesday, December 16, 2014

One Step Too Far


One Step Too Far
Tina Seskis
4.5 / 5

Published January 27, 2015
(First published April 7, 2013 in the UK)

First Sentence
"The heat is like another person to push past as I make my way along the platform."
Publisher's Description:
The #1 international bestseller reminiscent of After I'm Gone, Sister, Before I Go to Sleep, and The Silent Wife--an intricately plotted, thoroughly addictive thriller that introduces a major new voice in suspense fiction--a mesmerizing and powerful novel that will keep you guessing to the very end.

No one has ever guessed Emily's secret.

Will you?

A happy marriage. A beautiful family. A lovely home. So what makes Emily Coleman get up one morning and walk right out of her life--to start again as someone new?

Now, Emily has become Cat, working at a hip advertising agency in London and living on the edge with her inseparable new friend, Angel. Cat's buried any trace of her old self so well, no one knows how to find her. But she can't bury the past--or her own memories.

And soon, she'll have to face the truth of what she's done--a shocking revelation that may push her one step too far. . . .
 

Dear Reader,

Could. Not. Put this book down! The description does a crap job of describing the story, but I guess it's difficult to talk about it too much without revealing the important pieces. (I'll give it my best shot here, though.)

This book seems like it will be popular with those who embraced Gone Girl or Before I Go to Sleep; it is one of those books with a twist ending you know is coming. This book is set up from the get-go to be clearly all about one mysterious turning point, but while normally I have some sort of inkling, this time I was shocked! Add to that a fun (if you can look past a woman abandoning her life & family) story of a young woman who is entering the big city for the first time, intertwined with stories from the past, both hers and those of her loved ones. This book moves so quickly that I would forget where I was for whole stretches of hours: I read it in 2 days. When there were other, more pressing (library) books I should have been reading! But, it caught me up and I just needed to know what happened.

I can't say I liked the main character all that much, at any point, but I do think I sympathized with her. Even if I had no idea what had happened in her "former" life, I felt as if I understood her feelings of being overwhelmed and her inadequacy when it came to being a wife, or a Londoner, or a new employee. I'd like to think I wouldn't do all of the things Cat did in order to shed her old skin, but I suppose that even her most extreme actions are ultimately "explained" when the story comes out.

I love the way the author unwrapped the story one layer at a time, going back all the way in time to the birth of Emily and her twin, and including other interesting tidbits about how strained the family was, and how Emily met her husband. Those layers - while frustratingly prolonging the reveal! - gave so much more depth to how the characters were motivated and how their lives ultimately would up as they did.

One thing I would have liked to have seen was an explanation of Emily's fear of heights - it comes up both in the skydiving scene and in a scene where she gets too close to a cliff edge. The author implies that this fear may be due somehow to Caroline, but does not ever expand on that, and those unexplained mysteries always bother me a bit.

However, all in all, one of those books that I just couldn't put down - so, no matter what I thought of the writing or how the story ultimately panned out, I have to rate it highly. Besides, I did like how the book ended. I'd love for others to read it & let me know what they think!

Yours,
Arianna

P.S. This book was sent to me by William Morrow (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) in exchange for an honest review.


One Step Too Far

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1 comment:

  1. Wow, this book sounds really good and I might just have to track down a copy. The mystery around why she abruptly left and started a new life sounds very interesting.

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