When this book came out last year, I was instantly sold on the summary. It sounded so dark and twisted and I was dying to read it.
I made room for it on my review schedule and was so glad that I did. Recently a few of my closest girlfriends have been tossing around the idea of starting a muderino-esque book club where all we read is thrillers and/or true crime books. Being THE reader in this group, it has fallen to me to pick books that I think would be great for our little book club.
This was the first book I had thought of when we started talking about our little book club and even though I had read it, I remember reading it so fast that I knew there was plenty that I was missing and that it would be fun to read again.
Summary
Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting…
Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored.
We look like a normal couple. We’re your neighbors, the parents of your kid’s friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with.
We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive.
Ours just happens to be getting away with murder. (summary from Goodreads)
Take Two Review
This time around, I listened to the audiobook rather than reading the physical book. I love listening to books while running errands or grocery shopping etc so this was an easy one to fit in. I had no doubt that I would love it just as much the second time around. The narrator was excellent and the fact that I was able to slow my pace a bit this time, made me feel like I got a lot more out of this one.
I also had a list of book club discussion questions that I actually stopped to think about which again helped me get more out of this book. Having read a lot of domestic or psychological thrillers in the last few years this one always seems to stand out to me. I think because the reader is never really comfortable with the narrator. We never learn the narrator’s name and the epilogue really leaves readers with a shit-ton of questions (no spoilers just know that it’s a curve ball!). I also felt that at times the narrator was unreliable so that coupled with the insane combination of the husband and wife really make this book stand out in the sea of psychological and domestic thrillers similar to pioneering books in the genre like Gone Girl.
I had forgotten how much craziness happened in this one and how many different little nuances there were when it came to the relationship between the narrator and his wife, Millicent. I never really liked either character but at times I could sympathize with their struggles. I didn’t even really like their kids. The first time around when I read this book I really felt sorry for the kids but this time around I just didn’t really like them. The whole family was a complete mess but again it’s like this idyllic, normal family on the outside but on the inside it’s crazy town and I loved it just as much this time around as I did the first.
This is a book that truly stands out for me in this genre. It’s a great read with lots of strange twists and little bits of the story that don’t seem like they are going to fit together some how find their way to each other by the end. It’s crazy good and I am so glad we picked this one to read for our book club! This is a great starter book for book clubs because the content is so disturbing but yet oddly relatable so it’s great for discussions! If you haven’t read this one, it’s out in paperback now and obviously I loved it and have been recommending it to everyone I know! Read it!
The Lit Bitch 
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