Gallery/Scout Press | Book Chatter

The End of the Day
By Bill Clegg
Gallery/Scout Press, 9781476798202, September 29, 2020, 320pp.

The Short of It:

I was super excited for Clegg’s new book after loving Did You Ever Have a Family, but I had trouble connecting with these characters.

The Rest of It:

Blurb from the publisher:

A retired widow in rural Connecticut wakes to an unexpected visit from her childhood best friend whom she hasn’t seen in forty-nine years.

A man arrives at a Pennsylvania hotel to introduce his estranged father to his newborn daughter and finds him collapsed on the floor of the lobby.

A sixty-seven-year-old taxi driver in Kauai receives a phone call from the mainland that jars her back to a traumatic past.

Here’s the deal, this is a novel but it reads like a collection of interconnected short stories. I was mildly interested in each of the characters but I struggled to find how they were all connected with each other. It took a very long time for me to see the common threads. But, Clegg’s writing is often very thought-provoking so even though I struggled with the story itself, I still found myself enjoying individual sections. It just never came together for me as a novel.

I had very high hopes for this book but with the pandemic and my current state of mind, I found myself a little frustrated trying to put it all together. Sadly, it was not a win for me.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

In a Dark, Dark Wood
By Ruth Ware
Gallery/Scout Press, 9781501112331, April 2016, 352pp.

The Short of It:

Not too many twists and not much going on in the woods but I still found myself glued to its pages.

The Rest of It:

Nora receives an invitation to Clare’s hen party, which is essentially a bride’s last hurrah at being single but what Nora can’t understand is why? Why her? She hasn’t seen Clare in ten years and it wasn’t all that great between them when they were last together. But when Nora sees that Nina, a mutual friend was also invited, she reaches out to her and they make a pact to attend together.

This was a quick, page-turner and yes, it’s a little predictable, but it was still enjoyable and Ware is good at stringing you along. Right from the beginning you know as a reader that this hen party is not a good idea. A small group, and some very strong personalities. Add to that a lot of drinking and foolishness and you just know it can’t end well.

Overall, I was very entertained by these characters. Some of their actions seemed a little over-the-top and could have used a bit more explanation but I was happily immersed in the drama of it all. That’s what we all need now. Drama that we can easily pick up and put down and drama that is not our own!

It’s being marketed as a thriller but I’d say it’s pretty mild in that department. It’s just a fun way to spend a lazy afternoon. If you’ve read Ware’s books before, I’d say this is one of the better ones.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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