Pieces of Her

Wow … this story starts out with a huge bang in the first chapter, and rarely lets up throughout the book. Andy’s helpless failure attitude is thrown shrieking to the winds when her mother’s life—her life—is turned upside down by strange men and events beyond her control. Suddenly, Andy wonders if anything her mother ever told her was true. The answers are out there but finding them while she’s on the run will be difficult. Without knowing who she can trust, Andy is on her own with no fallback plan, and no time to form one, for the first time in her life.

Watching Andy’s character development was one of the coolest parts of this story, especially since she’s doing it while being under fire, and has no idea what to do or show more where to go next. This is one of those books that grabs you by the throat (as in, your heart will be in your throat throughout) and won’t let you go until the last page is turned.

The author has done an excellent job at placing tantalizing clues throughout the narrative. I found myself looking for them, piecing them together, and trying to predict what the outcome would be. Spoiler alert: I failed. This puzzle was too complex and multi-layered to even come close until I was three-quarters of the way through, following and swallowing hook after excellent hook.

(As an aside, this story is now a limited run series on Netflix; they did a good job, but as usual, the screen adaptation took liberties with the narrative that diverged in a big way. While at the end of the book, both Andy and Laura/Jane are empowered, the Netflix series puts their power into the hands of a man, and not a nice guy, at that. My suggestion? Read the book first, then watch the series.)

If you love a great, thrilling read, this book is definitely for you. Highly recommended. show less

In the interest of full disclosure, I admit to being a total Karin Slaughter groupie. I have mad respect for her writing skills. So maybe I'm a little biased - but that doesn't mean I'm not right.

This story is told in two timelines. First we have the present, where Andrea is struggling to make sense of events and the sudden change in her mother. In the second timeline, we go back to the eighties to witness Laura's life and to learn her secrets. This method is difficult for an author to pull off. Too often the timelines compete with each other. Here, though, Slaughter manages to fully capture both timelines in a way that ensures the stories complement each other, and I was totally committed to both.

Slaughter excels at characterization, show more capturing the essence of personality and portraying characters that are unique but also recognizable. The characters are never stagnant. We watch them evolve as the story moves on, and we also learn the hidden motivations driving their choices. One of my favorite aspects was how Slaughter expertly captures the magnetic personality of a sociopath, who so easily draws others into the swirling vortex.

The plot is complex and masterful, beginning with a slow burn and gradually building intensity. Don't get too comfortable, because Slaughter gives us a couple of her trademark twists. Then I got to the last line, which I read three times, because it threw me off yet again and, really, it was just perfect.

*I received an advance copy from the publisher, via Amazon Vine, in exchange for my honest review.* show less

Favorite Quotes:

He was charming, too. That was the problem. He would charm her. He would make her furious. Then he would charm her back again so that she did not know if he was the snake or she was the snake and he was the handler.

It’s only paranoia if you’re wrong.

He pointed to his ear. “Sorry, can't hear you. One of my testicles is still lodged in my ear canal.”

She worked him like Tyson. The boxer, not the chicken.

My Review:

This is only my second time reading the compelling artistry of Karin Slaughter, and I feel compelled to amass copies of all her previous books. This was one of the most complex tales I’ve read since the last time I delved into her work. The complicated storylines were chilling, taut with tension, show more distressing, maddeningly paced, ingeniously constructed, and each contrived with a dark underbelly that was heinous and horrifying. I cannot recall many books where I so thoroughly despised most of the characters; the vast majority of these were vile sociopaths who couldn’t seem to talk without lying. There were many complicated layers to this highly textured and cringe-worthy tale yet I didn’t begrudge the effort required to ferret through the quagmire and was quite awed by the end result. show less

This edge-of-your-seat thriller goes back and forth in time between 1986 and 2018. Stunning revelations punctuate the story from the very beginning, set in August, 2018. Andrea (“Andy”), 31, is living at home with her mother in Belle Isle, Georgia. Andy’s life has pretty much been a failure up to this point, and Andy lacks confidence and quick-wittedness, especially in comparison to her popular and competent mother Laura. Laura Oliver is 55, and works as a speech therapist. As the story opens, the two are at a diner at the mall when a killer comes into the diner and starts shooting. Andy is paralyzed with fear, but her mother takes matters into hand. Afterwards, although her mother is injured, she roughly tells Andy to move out show more that very night. It’s all very bizarre. Andy wonders, who was this woman who could do what she did? Who was her mother?

The shocks are only just beginning for Andy. She left to go stay at her dad’s house, but decided to go back for her bicycle. She discovers Laura in yet another life-or-death situation. This time Andy reluctantly helps, with horrendous consequences. She is forced to flee - her mother gives her money and an address for a storage facility in a small town hours away. Andy realizes she has never known her mother; she has only seen pieces. She knows only that she might be followed, and the level of tension is almost unbearable.

Then the narration switches to 1986 and we find out a bit more about Laura’s life. This doesn’t mean the action slows at all, however. The twists and turns on the road to enlightenment for the reader seem like driving on narrow switchbacks over the mountains. I admit to doing what I rarely do, which is occasionally paging ahead so I could breathe sufficiently to make it through the next segment of the story.

In the end, a final twist caught me totally unawares.

Evaluation: I’ve read a great deal of Karin Slaughter’s books, and this one felt very different than the others. But I’m not complaining! show less

Nobody has the ability to take your breath away as shockingly and suddenly as Karin Slaughter. She can menace you with a slow buildup of dread or she can spring violence on you suddenly and intensely. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that she pairs the action with characters that are heartbreakingly, chillingly real. Pieces of Her is her latest impressive stand-alone novel.

Andrea has been drifting along for 31 years. Her mother, Laura, has spent her quiet life as a speech therapist in the beachside town of Belle Isle. As the two are having lunch at the mall, violence erupts right in front of them. A very different, very brave Laura emerges right in front of Andrea’s eyes, and it’s all captured on cell phone video. show more Andrea is a puddle of fear, but Laura very calmly confronts a killer. Now the police have questions and people from Laura’s past are very interested. Because Laura hasn’t always been Laura. Andrea winds up on the run, trying to put together the puzzle of who her mother really is. Both of their lives may depend on it.

Slaughter manages to marry, complicated, nuanced characters with breakneck plotting and intense, in-the-moment violence that draws you as the reader into its midst and doesn’t allow you to view it from a detached distance. The story alternates between Andrea in the present and Laura 30 years in the past. After a start that is a little slower than her previous novels, the story quickly picks up the pace and will have you reading it in big gulps if not all at once.

As great as the action is, the characters are equally memorable. Slaughter takes the time to flesh out her characters without sacrificing pacing. We see that Andrea is kind of a mess and when she winds up on the run her need to get her act together is not just an existential thing but a matter of life and death. Likewise, when we first meet Laura from 30 years earlier, we see how she was molded into the woman she would become. Along with some twists and surprises, you see some parallels between mother and daughter.

Setting a plot in two different timelines that eventually merge is tricky to do well, but Slaughter does it flawlessly. There is not the sense of loss as you move from one timeline to another, but an urgency as each timeline informs and builds on the other. A good book will have you tearing through the pages and enjoying every minute. A great one lets you enjoy it even more as you reflect and relive it. Karin Slaughter has written a great one. Pieces of Her is one of the best books of 2018. Highly recommended.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher. show less

Es un hecho, soy fan de Karin Slaughter, libro que leo, libro que me gusta.

En esta ocasión Slaughter nos introduce a un thriller narrado en dos tiempos, con un ritmo que no da tregua, un argumento que si bien no es nuevo, si lo ha manejado de tal manera que me ha convencido y sorprendido por partes iguales, no era lo que me esperaba, es un thriller trepidante, inteligente y sobre todo muy bueno y entretenido, literal me ha tenido mordiendome las uñas.

En esta época cuando tanto se habla de feminismo y empoderamiento de las mujeres, cuando hay libros que también hablan mucho sobre maltrato, segregación, mujeres sumisas y demás, Slaughter logra vendernos un argumento donde nos retrata a dos mujeres, madre e hija, que son muy show more diferentes entre ellas, pero que también refleja a muchas mujeres de la vida real, una de ellas atrapada en una relación tóxica, maltratada, manipulada, sobajada, ninguneada y la otra empequeñecida, con un sentimiento de fracaso absoluto y que a pesar de su edad es inmadura, insegura e incluso algo depresiva.

Me ha gustado mucho la manera en que Slaughter ha manejado el final de este libro, si bien pareciera que le da un punto final muy abrupto, llega en el epílogo mucha de la explicación que yo necesitaba y me ha dejado con la sensación de que pudiera haber otro libro o bien este sea el inicio de alguna serie. show less

Pieces of Her asks: What if everything you thought you knew about your quiet, middle-age mother was wrong? What if she has spent the past 30 years hiding in plain sight? What if, when violence erupts at your local mall and a shooter goes on a rampage, the person who stops him, dead, is your mother? What if everything you thought you knew changed in an instant? Pieces of Her follows Andrea, a woman who thought she knew everything about her mother, Laura, until the moment she realized she didn’t, and their world unravels.

We know all about our parents, especially if they are staid or boring or conventional, predictable, successful in ways that we are not. At least we think we know all about them. Andy certainly thinks she knows her show more mother, Laura. Laura has survived cancer and a divorce and has a successful career. She’s supportive of Andy but Andy always feels she’s disappointing her mother. And Andy, frankly, is pretty much a loser, a misfit, a slacker who by the age of 31 still can’t stick with anything and is back home living over her mother’s garage. Her thoughts and actions seem like those of a whiny, insecure teenager. And then suddenly nothing is the same, nothing is as Andy thought it was. This new Laura, this new mother, is someone Andy doesn’t know at all and she is hiding things or lying.

The first part of the story is fast-paced, exciting and scary. But when things become even worse (how can that be?) and Laura tells Andy to leave town, the story takes on another aspect entirely and now in addition to being fast-paced, exciting and scary, it’s supremely intriguing with endless twists and turns and hints and clues. When Andy goes “on the run” you expect her to fold, to make mistakes. And she does make mistakes. Her actions cause a lot of dangerous, unexpected reactions, but we also begin to see a stronger side of Andy. She is fiercely determined to find out just who her mother is, or was, and she is not happy with this new, secretive Laura she is learning about. Laura’s past life and secrets go way beyond “my mother was kind of wild in her youth, drinking and fooling around.” The more she learns the less she likes, but Andy must find the truth about Laura, and about herself.

Pieces of Her opens with a short prologue, specific enough to pique your interest but vague enough that you don’t know who “he” and “she” were and can’t imagine what happened. And so the tension and suspense build, page by page, until you almost want to stop, close the book, cover your eyes, take a breath, because you are on edge fearing what Andy will stumble upon in the present or what will be revealed from 1986. It’s a fast paced page turner with an intricate plot, mixing clue upon clue with stunning twists & events, and a cast of characters you love and hate and feel sorry for and suspect. Events from 30 years ago are still as important and critical and dangerous today as they were then.

Pieces of Her is a compelling story that pushes you to the edge of your comfort zone. There are so many personal and family secrets, lies and deception that it’s hard to know who is good and who is evil, and what can be justified in the name of family and human nature.

Thanks to William Morrow Harper Collins Publishers for providing me with an advanced copy of Pieces of Her. I was not required to provide a review; my opinions are my own. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it without hesitation – and I was thrilled to learn that Pieces of Her is currently in development for film and television. show less