Await Your Reply

For my second read in October I read, Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon.  The story is about three different characters: Ryan is a young college kid who gets some surprising news and changes his life in a drastic way.  Lucy is a recent high school graduate who takes off with her former teacher boyfriend.  Miles is a man who has spent the majority of his adult life searching for his twin brother.  The three of them are interconnected in unexpected ways and some of these connections have dire consequences.

It took me quite a while to work my way through this book.  (Thus me barely finishing it by the end of the month!).  It had multiple perspectives, which I normally love, but in this case not so much.  It goes back and forth between characters each chapter, but some of the characters are more interesting than others, which left me wishing for certain chapters to go by faster.  It also goes back and forth in time, but not in a smooth way.  It goes back and forth in time nearly every chapter, sometimes multiple times.  The bouncing back and forth got frustrating and made sections of reading feel choppy.  A lot of the trips back in time were for back story, but honestly I would have enjoyed less back story and more time spent with what the characters were up to now.

I don't think I would recommend this book.  It was a slow read for me and I just didn't really enjoy it.

Dark Places

For my first read in October I read, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.  I really enjoyed reading Gone Girl a few months back, so I found one of Flynn's earlier books to check out.

Again, Flynn writes in a way that captures your attention and keeps it throughout.  The beginning is slower moving as it sets the stage, but I appreciated it's character development.

The book is about a family who are the victims of a horrific crime.  The story follows Libby Day, the lone survivor of a murder spree that killed her mother and two sisters.  Her brother, Ben, was convicted of the crime and put in jail thanks to Libby's testimony when she was just a child.

The story goes back and forth in time (present day and day of the murders) and also person to person (Libby, Ben and Patty, their mom).  I loved seeing the events of that day from various perspectives.  It was a very engaging read to try to deduce who the murderer was and to try to put the pieces together as each chapter uncovered new information.  I definitely recommend reading this book!