Don't You Cry

Summary (from the publisher): In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she's the person Quinn thought she knew.

Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbor town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more dark and sinister than he ever expected.

As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under Pearl's spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us in the end.

 

Review: I received an advance uncorrected proof copy of this novel as a giveaway on Goodreads.

 

In Chicago, twenty-something Quinn grows increasingly concerned when she realizes that her roommate Esther has disappeared without a trace. As Quinn begins to search for clues about where Esther may have gone, disturbing details begin to surface: letters addressed to "My Dearest," an ad for a new roommate, a suspicious news story about Esther's last roommate. In alternating chapters, the reader follows Alex, a eighteen-year-old dishwasher who lives alone with his alcoholic father. Alex is intrigued by the appearance of a mysterious young woman and begins to befriend her, the outcome of which is far more than he bargained for.

 

I was disappointed with the poor quality of the writing from the beginning of this book. The language used by Quinn seems haphazard, alternating between literally elementary, with the use of daycare terminology to describe Esther sitting "crisscross-applesauce" (19) to surprisingly advanced, telling the reader that Esther is "heterochromatic" (44) rather than just simply saying her eyes were two different colors. The descriptive language is stale and uninspired, such as Alex's description of his boss as a witch: "There's rumors that she keeps her broom in a locked storage closet off the kitchen of the café. Her broom and her cauldron, and whatever other Wiccan things she needs" (24). Furthermore, there are no distinguishing features between the two first person narrators. Aside from  details of time and place, Quinn and Alex's narrative voices are identical with no sense of individual characterization. The same morose, self-deprecating tone is used by both.

 

Although certainly suspenseful, with an ending I could not have guessed, the mystery of this novel was shockingly unlikely and difficult to believe. Throughout the first chapters, when Quinn first suspects Esther is missing, I kept waiting for her to do the most logical, natural thing - to try to call her roommate's phone. Yet Quinn stews, hunts around Esther's room, calls a friend to discuss her disappearance, and even calls all the closest hospitals to see if Esther is a patient. Finally, Quinn is 'shocked' to hear the sound of Esther's ringtone coming from inside the apartment! Esther left without her phone! It was hard to trust Quinn as a narrator and take the story seriously when she wouldn't even think to try to reach someone in the most obvious way first. Furthermore, for someone who is supposedly increasingly afraid for her life and/or her roommate's life, Quinn certainly spends a lot of time thinking about and rolling around on couches with her crush.

 

I won't reveal any spoilers for the ending, but Alex's involvement in the conclusion made it seem as if the other half of the novel's narration was for convenience only and was a dispensable lens, merely useful to keep the reader clued in on the mysterious girl and then dropped without a second thought after the mystery was solved.

 

In the end, I just could not take this book seriously. Between the inferior writing, implausible plot, and dislikable characters, this fell very flat. This is full of cheap thrills and urban legend-like scares, rather than a well organized and believable mystery.

 

Stars: 2