Hey everyone! Today’s review is a Shari Lapena book I read last month and let’s just say I have some… opinions. It was a good book all in all, but there’s definitely some things I would love to discuss so let’s just jump right in!
Title: Someone We Know
Author: Shari Lapena
Pages: 304
Format: hardcover
Genre: Adult mystery/thriller
Publication Date: July 30, 2019
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
“This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out.”
In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses–and into the owners’ computers as well–learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.
Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they’re telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?
In this neighborhood, it’s not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .
- Neighborhood Aspect- I don’t read many books with the neighborhood theme to them just because it never really interested me, but this book definitely helped me change my mind. I loved learning about all of the neighbors, all of the secrets, and I’ve noticed that Lapena really likes writing books for characters with multiple points of views. I hope she keeps at it because I’m enjoying it as well.
- Olivia- I liked Olivia’s character. At times she would seem almost so innocent that she was guilty of something and it definitely kept me interested in her character. Honestly I was trying the whole time to have it make sense that somehow she was guilty of something.
- Suspenseful- There was definitely suspense in here.. especially whenever the detectives found something that just completely twisted the story up. It wasn’t more of like a roller coaster type of suspense where you just keep going up and down, the whole duration of the book you just kept creeping up that roller coaster, things getting more and more intense until bam, you’re there and you just fall immediately back down, signifying the end of the book.
- Kept Me Guessing- I was definitely guessing throughout the whole thing, and looking back at my book notes I really did a lot of it. That’s what makes a good thriller mystery book in my eyes… is when you’re just guessing all sorts of different outcomes and scenarios.
- The writing- Although the different point of views was entertaining, it wasn’t as well written as like ‘An Unwanted Guest’ was. I hate to compare different works dealing with the same author, but I thought this was something I should mention. An Unwanted Guest was Lapena’s book she published before this one, and that had like 13-ish point of views maybe? She did a really nice job with that one. There was about the same, maybe a little more point-of-views in this book and it just didn’t grip me like it did with her last book. I hope she continues on doing multiple views, but just not like this.
- Lack of Evil- Usually the person who’s found guilty in these books are like honestly evil and they just shock you at the end of the book. I don’t really like the mystery/thriller with a sob story at the end… I like a twist of evil and crazy.
- The Lack-Luster Ending- Going off of the last bullet a little bit, due to the no-crazy/evil character thing, the ending was something I didn’t expect but in a bad way… It just wasn’t fulfilling for me and I just needed a little bit more.
Nice review, Ali. I have read all of Lapena’s previous books, and will start this one quite soon. Glad you enjoyed most of it!
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Adding to my TBR right now! Awesome review.
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