All I Want

Umm… What?!? So we have Ben, a Broadway producer, who convinces his pregnant wife Emma to buy a creepy fixer-upper mansion in upstate New York. They already know some of the house’s disturbing history, but as they dive deeper into renovations, further creepy discoveries are made.

For most of the book, I was hooked. I loved the ominous atmosphere, and the house itself was a compelling character. At about 90% things started getting really wacky, but I was willing to accept it — until the very last chapter, and now I don’t know what to think. Granted, some of the wacky stuff made sense after reading the ending, but still...

ALL I WANT was a promising spooky read, but that ending was a mess. I’m just going to pretend the last show more chapter didn’t happen and leave this one with 3 stars. show less

i really liked the first 3/4 or so of this. i'm really partial to the unreliable narrator where we can't really tell if their version of reality is real or if they're going crazy. that's what the first three quarters were like and i was here for it. but the last quarter brought us everyone else's perspectives and it all fell apart for me. it just didn't hold together for motivation, explanation, any of it, from a story perspective. so it felt like a great idea but that the author didn't know how to end it or bring it to a close, and it really suffers for that.

Emma and Ben are happily married living in NYC and expecting a baby. They love to watch scary movies together in bed. Then, Ben finds an abandoned home in upstate NY that has a haunted past. They decide to purchase it and undertake a major renovation. Emma starts seeing things and believing that Ben is being unfaithful. Many strange things happen in the house and between people in the town.
And then, wham - a bizarre ending to the whole story, which upends everything.
Disappointed in this one, as the story could have been much better. I liked all the movie references, but the rest of the story fell flat for me.

I enjoyed Darcey Bell's debut novel A Simple Favor. Her latest release is All I Want.
Emma and Ben are a couple expecting their first child. They want out of New York City and put an offer in on an abandoned mansion in upstate New York. Getting an idea about the plot? Let me add this...the mansion has a storied past, the townsfolk are more than a little odd and Ben is away at work all week. And Emma finds a notebook in the attic....

All the pieces are there for a tale with a Gothic feel - a favorite genre of mine.

The first part of the book is told from Emma's viewpoint. There is, of course, something quite wrong in Emma's new life as her relationship with her husband has changed. I got caught up in the story and wondered what would show more happen next.

Well, we next hear from Ben and then a third person. And for me, that's where All I Want jumped the shark. I don't want to provide spoilers, so I'll be deliberately obtuse. The plot was just too far fetched to be bought. But I wanted to see how things turned out. The last chapter? Completely ridiculous and disappointing.

Movies and theatre are a large part of All I Want's plot. Bell takes inspiration from some classic movies. You'll easily guess which ones.

The prose are quite often short, staccato statements. Narratives end abruptly and then pick up in the next chapter leaving the listener to imagine what transpired in between. The writing just had a choppy feel to it. He said, she said.

I chose to listen to All I Want. I often find I become more immersed in a book when I listen, rather than reading. If I was reading, I would have glossed over the choppy flow, but listening only amplified this.The readers were Kevin R. Free, Madeleine Maby and Emily Tremaine. They're all talented narrators that I have listened to in the past. They all turned in excellent performances. Their voices were clear and easy to understand. I did find the default speed to be a bit slow and bumped it up to 1.1.

I think I was expecting so much more after that stellar first book. A passing grade, but just. show less