Kimberly McCreight

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kimberly McCreight is another author at the top of my favorites list, but she’s stingy with new releases. So when I spotted an ARC of “Someone Else’s Husband,” I pounced. What a treat!

Thanks to the author and Knopf for providing this #arc via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Gretchen’s life has always sparkled with privilege. Raised in a wealthy family, she was surrounded by connections. So she rebelled by marrying Richard, the lovable, penniless show more scholarship kid her parents never would have chosen. Total rebel move.

Decades later, Gretchen and Richard have built a happy life together. Three grown children, a long marriage, a comfortable home, and the kind of history that makes Gretchen believe she knows exactly who her husband is.

Then Richard is arrested for murder, and her life shatters.

Not just any murder, either. The police say he killed Frankie, a woman he met while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Oh, and they also believe he was having an affair with her. Just your average marriage-imploding bombshell.

Gretchen is devastated, but she is also convinced Richard could never do something so violent. He’s charming, gentle, and dependable. He’s her husband. She knows him.

Except… she also knows things. Richard has secrets. Things that don’t quite fit with the version of him she wants to believe in.

This is the kind of domestic thriller I eat up. Wealthy family drama, marriage secrets, betrayal, murder, and that juicy question: how well can you ever really know the person sleeping next to you? McCreight does a great job keeping the tension simmering while Gretchen tries to sort out what’s true, what’s manipulation, and what she may have been avoiding for years.

“Someone Else’s Husband” is twisty and packed with secrets. It’s addictive and full of those little cracks that make you wonder about the people around you.

And yes, I’ll keep snatching up every Kimberly McCreight book I can get my hands on! show less

"Like Mother, Like Daughter" is an intense roller coaster ride of emotions and suspense. The complex mother-daughter relationship will take you through a whirlwind of feelings as the story unravels into a shocking conclusion.

This is the second book I've read by Kimberly McCreight, and I was so engrossed I couldn't put it down, finishing it in just two sittings, staying up way past my bedtime to keep reading! The author expertly weaves in clever misdirections that had me off in the wrong show more direction, completely blindsided by the real clues. I particularly enjoyed mother Kat and daughter Cleo's dual timelines and different perspectives. Kat, a secretive woman with a mysterious past, a misleading job, and Cleo's secrets and risky decisions kept me eagerly turning pages.

This novel will resonate with anyone who has experienced the struggles of navigating a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.

Sincere thanks to the author and Knopf for this gifted ARC received via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. show less

Summary

Single mom, Kate has worked hard to get where she is...a partner in a high powered law firm, she works day and night. She receives a phone call at work one day informing her that she needs to come pick up Amelia. Amelia's been accused of cheating on an English assignment, the very last assignment that Amelia, a successful student, would ever NEED to cheat on. By the time Kate crosses the city and arrives at Amelia's school, the police inform her that Amelia has committed suicide by show more jumping from an upper window of the building.
Kate is devastated and goes through the motions of burying her only child.
On her first attempted day back at work, Kate receives a text message that says:

"Amelia didn't jump." (49)

and then another:

"Amelia didn't jump. You know it and I know it." (51)

From that point on, Kate knows that she must find out what really happened to her daughter...no matter how many stones she has to overturn, no matter how many embarrassing truths come out, no matter how many toes she has to step on, no matter how much sadness it brings.
She has to know.
For Amelia.

What I Liked

No doubt that the kids in this book are deplorable...but McCreight sheds light on an even bigger problem as far as I'm concerned...some parents. And, I'm not talking about the single parents who work hard for a living, and may or may not spend enough time with their children. I'm talking about the ones who can't seem to grow up, the ones who spend their adult lives acting as if they themselves are still in high school.

I also liked that McCreight chose for Amelia to be a good kid...I think a lot of parents like to sit around on their high horses, congratulating themselves at every opportunity on their ability to raise children who haven't gotten into trouble, all the while almost "nah, nanny boo booing" the parents whose children have made a bad decision or two.
"Well, if so and so hadn't been doing such and such with you know who, then he/she wouldn't have ended up there and wouldn't have been abducted, raped, killed, etc." "Not that it's his/her fault, of course, but if only..."
I swear it makes me want to scream WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes so and so is actually completely innocent and STILL gets caught up in the dangerous stuff. These people obviously haven't spent much time with teenagers these days.
And, Girls?
Girls are MEAN...and I don't mean pull your pigtails mean...I mean throw you to the ground, stomp all over you, leave you there bleeding to death mean and never even think about you after they walk away (figuratively as well as literally in some cases).
Wake up, people.

Kate questioned her parenting almost continuously and I was right there with her. I think most of us do the very same thing. Even the parents of children who go on to lead long, successful, fulfilling lives still can reach back in time and find at least a few situations they wish they had done differently. Kate was a good parent, and I think deep down she really knew it, but she was still willing to throw her self under the bus at every turn if necessary.

Kate's grief - believable, heartbreaking, made my heart beat very fast at times, made me want to pound my fists more than once at the absolute ridiculousness of it all. I wanted to bust into the school and just start punching people. Adults, of course...I would never punch a kid...the kids I would take across my lap and whip their butts bc that's what many of them had missed out on more times than not. And, I'm not actually blaming the kids here...certainly they are responsible...but I've already said it pretty clearly above, the parents, the adults, the teachers, the headmaster, the secretary...all of them need to be punched. And hard.
I think I'm still a little angry?

Format - alternating perspectives as well as text message format, school gossip blog posts, emails, Facebook status updates and responses for Amelia. I'm gonna be honest here...this format sucked me in quickly and sucked me in so deep that by pg. 98, I skipped ahead to the end to find out what the heck was going to happen, who was who, who was at fault, you name it...I skipped ahead to find it. That's how much suspense is provided by McCreight's weaving in and out of Amelia and Kate's story. I literally couldn't take it...I had to know. The text messages in particular added a truly ominous feeling to the story.

The references to great literature...particularly Virginia Woolf, both titles, themes as well as quotes.

What I Didn't Like

Adele - one word: pathetic

Jeremy, spineless; Daniel, the snake; Zadie, needs to be locked up; Mrs. Pearl, the "b" word; and Liv, stupid.

I wish I could tell you why I "didn't like"/hated these characters...but I can't.
I can tell you though that almost hated these characters as much as Gone Girl characters.

The Author

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Overall Recommendation

Whether your kids attend private or public, city or rural schools, some semblance of the "clubs" system is in power. And, what probably enables it to survive is the power it gleans from adults placed within the system who also play the game. There's some language here, nothing like Gone Girl, but appropriate language for this particular setting unfortunately. If all moms could read this book and realize that even if their little angel would never possibly be caught up in this kind of tangled web, sometimes their actions, judging, attitudes, and ignorance end up perpetuating the tragedy that other people's children have to endure.
And, one child's death is one too many.
We are all responsible. show less

At times Reconstructing Amelia stretches credibility, with a cast of suspicious characters and both false and real leads thrown in right and left. The ending is more suited to a soap opera than a book club read and seems a bit rushed. Things are not always cogent.Yet, somehow, I still found the novel fascinating and emotional.

Kimberly McCreight gets it right when it comes to capturing bullying's horrible aftermath and the struggles that come with a teenager realizing she's a girl who like a show more girl. In fact, is is the bullying and Amelia's feelings that ring most true and endear her to the reader.

McCreight sets up a realistic background for Amelia (her lack of crushes on boys and her questioning about why's she never liked one that way or ever been in a relationship) that is sincere and (later on) heartbreaking. show less