Thursday, September 20, 2018

Review: Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter 
Release date: August 21, 2018
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 480
Reading level: Adult
Genre: Thriller
Source: Publisher
Links: Author  Goodreads  Amazon 

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars 
Andrea Cooper knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?
But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.
The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .
Review:

I guess I have been out of the loop because this is my first Karin Slaughter book. When I went to mark PIECES OF HER as "currently reading" on Goodreads I realized Karin had a ton of other books that were bestsellers and highly rated. PIECES OF HER had a lot going on and was an exciting thriller, but I also found certain aspects of the plot predicable and other plot points not well explained at all. The story follows Andrea Cooper as she deals with the aftermath of a shooting that revealed a side of her mother she has never seen before. Andrea's mother, Laura, is no longer the person she believed her to be and it's up to Andrea to find out the truth.

There isn't too much I can say without spoiling, but I will do my best. The early chapters of the book were exciting and tense. I had no idea what the truth was about Laura or Andrea and I flew through the pages. When other time lines are introduced I quickly realized much of the truth and while it didn't explain everything, it was enough to not keep me as excited about where things were headed. Soon though there are a ton of characters and plot points thrown together and that also left a bit to be desired. What started as an exciting thriller soon left me thinking that many aspects of this story were not even believable. I also struggled to connect with Andrea. She made dumb mistakes and didn't question things in a way I would think a normal person would. I was impressed with how deep Slaughter went with this story, it was very elaborate, but once I started realizing certain parts of the mystery I was less enthused.

This was a long book but I flew through it. It's definitely fast paced, but the end left me with a little to be desired. I still didn't think it was clear why Andrea's mother made her do what she did. I read a lot of thrillers and this was something different which was refreshing, but I had several issues with it. Slaughter's other books seem to all have positive comments so I will certainly check her out in the future. 

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