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Lark Benobi's Reviews > The Need
The Need
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A terrifically promising premise but the prose is very flat and the action so repetitive that I ended up feeling like it could have made a good short story. Also it’s one of those stories that relies on the protagonist keeping a secret so large and ridiculously against her interest to keep that I couldn’t take her dilemma any more seriously than I can feel sorry for those kids in horror films who insist on investigating the noise in the basement themselves rather than calling 911.
This premise could have, with a better editor, become either 1) a novel about the existential terror of motherhood—if any of us stopped to think about the real possibility of losing our young child, would we ever risk having one?—OR 2) a novel exploring an interesting and worthy sci fi premise....
but in this case both possibilities are hinted at and then left half baked.
I liked the author’s deep attention to the rhythms of early motherhood, and the breast pump scenes were particularly spot on, but on the whole this was a skipper.
This premise could have, with a better editor, become either 1) a novel about the existential terror of motherhood—if any of us stopped to think about the real possibility of losing our young child, would we ever risk having one?—OR 2) a novel exploring an interesting and worthy sci fi premise....
but in this case both possibilities are hinted at and then left half baked.
I liked the author’s deep attention to the rhythms of early motherhood, and the breast pump scenes were particularly spot on, but on the whole this was a skipper.
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Reading Progress
August 1, 2019
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Started Reading
August 2, 2019
– Shelved
August 2, 2019
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Finished Reading
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Alison
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rated it 2 stars
Aug 02, 2019 09:11AM
Thanks for reviewing this one! I do love a solid thriller, but it's surprisingly difficult to find a good one. Now I don't have to wonder if I should read it.
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WELL SAID! I felt similarly.
Alison wrote: "Thanks for reviewing this one! I do love a solid thriller, but it's surprisingly difficult to find a good one. Now I don't have to wonder if I should read it."I'd love your recommendations on "solid thrillers," Alison. I usually love them when I stumble over them but it would be a new genre for me to read on purpose. I'll make my own recommendation while I'm at it: The Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson. It slides from mystery to thriller and I enjoyed it a lot.
Mel wrote: "WELL SAID! I felt similarly."What a disappointment! I'm ready to love any novel that puts motherhood in a brand new light--After Birth. Fever Dream. It doesn't even have to be that well written as long as the story is well told--I loved a little novel called Mind of Winter (by Laura Kasischke) for its very subversive motherhood themes, even though the rest of my book club thought it was a little schlocky.
Lark wrote: "I'll make my own recommendation while I'm at it: The Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson...."Thanks! I've made note of it and my library even owns a copy.
I recently read Jo Baker's new novel, The Body Lies and thought it was the most effective book I've read at creating a sense of dread, while also creating a sense of doubt that anything is going wrong.
I actually found the writing excellent but yeah, the story could have been so much more. I kept thinking of Version Control, which does wondrous things with alternate world!
