The Unheard
Author: Nicci French
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 454
Format: Paperback
My Rating: ★★★
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 454
Format: Paperback
My Rating: ★★★
Poppy is a bright, happy three-year-old. Her paintings are full of colour and joy. Except one, a menacing scribble of heavy black crayon.
Her mother Tess is worried. Has Poppy witnessed something, something bad that she can’t put into words?
Tess is determined to find out what it might be. But no one will listen to her concerns. Neither Poppy’s father, from whom Tess is separated, nor her friends, nor the police…
It’s only a child’s drawing after all.
Tess is desperate to keep Poppy safe. But when she doesn’t know what, or who, she is protecting her from, how can she know who to trust?
And if Poppy really did see something she shouldn’t, are she and Tess in danger?
Her mother Tess is worried. Has Poppy witnessed something, something bad that she can’t put into words?
Tess is determined to find out what it might be. But no one will listen to her concerns. Neither Poppy’s father, from whom Tess is separated, nor her friends, nor the police…
It’s only a child’s drawing after all.
Tess is desperate to keep Poppy safe. But when she doesn’t know what, or who, she is protecting her from, how can she know who to trust?
And if Poppy really did see something she shouldn’t, are she and Tess in danger?
My thoughts
A big thank you to Simon & Schuster who kindly gifted me an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review, and to Tandem Collective for inviting me to take part in the official read along.
Tess is coparenting her daughter, Poppy, with her now-ex, Jason. When returning from a weekend stay with her father, the three-year-old is acting strangely, drawing disturbing pictures, swearing, and asking Tess when she had died.
The Unheard is a story that highlights just how one event can spiral your reality into utter chaos. This book sneaks up on you and pulls you in as you become invested in trying to understand if the concerns are in Tess’s head or if there is truth in a three year olds words? In addition, it quickly becomes clear that Jason is neither who nor what she thought, and the lines becomes blurry. Who is the real Jason? The one she thought she knew or the Jason of now?
This is a story that I wanted to love but a couple of things niggled me. Tess, the protagonist was very annoying, very. While I empathized with her at times, especially when Jason was essentially bullying her, I still couldn’t help but agree with the fact that she came across as a crazy person, and a lot of her actions were quite foolish, which made for a long read. She came across as the jilted ex-girlfriend that couldn’t let go.
Yes, she was investigating some troubling behaviour in her daughter, but she cared way too much about her ex-partner’s life and his extra marital activities.
I don’t know if this is clever character development on the authors’ part, or if I just simply didn’t like her, but I was happy when this was over! Talk about an exhausting character! In fact, for the most part, all the other characters were unlikeable too.
Unfortunately, I was really quite disappointed. I was intrigued throughout despite finding it all a bit far-fetched, but when the culprit was revealed, I didn’t quite see how everything tied up and the details felt vague. As the murder mystery began to slowly unfold, I simply disliked everyone even more, except for perhaps the ex's new wife, Emily.
All in all, this one was much longer than it needed to be and the plot was all over the place. Worth a read, but unfortunately, The Unheard just didn't really do it for me.
Overall reaction:
A big thank you to Simon & Schuster who kindly gifted me an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review, and to Tandem Collective for inviting me to take part in the official read along.
Tess is coparenting her daughter, Poppy, with her now-ex, Jason. When returning from a weekend stay with her father, the three-year-old is acting strangely, drawing disturbing pictures, swearing, and asking Tess when she had died.
The Unheard is a story that highlights just how one event can spiral your reality into utter chaos. This book sneaks up on you and pulls you in as you become invested in trying to understand if the concerns are in Tess’s head or if there is truth in a three year olds words? In addition, it quickly becomes clear that Jason is neither who nor what she thought, and the lines becomes blurry. Who is the real Jason? The one she thought she knew or the Jason of now?
This is a story that I wanted to love but a couple of things niggled me. Tess, the protagonist was very annoying, very. While I empathized with her at times, especially when Jason was essentially bullying her, I still couldn’t help but agree with the fact that she came across as a crazy person, and a lot of her actions were quite foolish, which made for a long read. She came across as the jilted ex-girlfriend that couldn’t let go.
Yes, she was investigating some troubling behaviour in her daughter, but she cared way too much about her ex-partner’s life and his extra marital activities.
I don’t know if this is clever character development on the authors’ part, or if I just simply didn’t like her, but I was happy when this was over! Talk about an exhausting character! In fact, for the most part, all the other characters were unlikeable too.
Unfortunately, I was really quite disappointed. I was intrigued throughout despite finding it all a bit far-fetched, but when the culprit was revealed, I didn’t quite see how everything tied up and the details felt vague. As the murder mystery began to slowly unfold, I simply disliked everyone even more, except for perhaps the ex's new wife, Emily.
All in all, this one was much longer than it needed to be and the plot was all over the place. Worth a read, but unfortunately, The Unheard just didn't really do it for me.
Overall reaction: