This domestic thriller follows couple Natalie and Will. The two met in law school and bonded over planning the perfect murder. Now they're married with a son and a threat close to home will put those long ago plans to the test. Natalie is a defense attorney so she knows just how rough and broken the legal system can be and is dead-set against her son being caught up in it. Will ends up entwined in Natalie's plans and now the two of them are in too deep to back out so the only way left is to power through to the end.
TW/CW: child molestation, prescription drug abuse, infidelity, child pornography
This book had a really interesting premise and I initially was a bit concerned that maybe the description was a bit sensational and wouldn't actually end up going in the direction it was implying. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the plot went exactly where I thought it would go. Some readers might find this plot a bit over the top and not realistic but I really like those types of plots where it is more focused on entertainment rather than being super realistic. That being said, I think the story did point out some interesting points about the legal system and how much of a double edged sword it can be where the concept of 'innocent until proven guilty' is in theory a good thing but in cases such as child molestation it can be really hard on the victims to be constantly questioned and examined. It is a complicated topic to cover and I think it naturally lead to the premise and plot the story ended up taking.
I was onboard with the plot during the first third of the story and then it started to lose me. I thought the set up of the main conflict was done in a really smart way. The conflict starts close-ish to Natalie and Will but they're still able to distance themselves. Until a reveal actually shows the threat is much closer to them than they initially expected and there's no way they can ignore it now. I thought the set up with the different relationships within the community they're in was interesting in that at first everyone was banding together until the rumor mill started churning and then the cracks in the community started to show. This idea of community values and where loyalties lie was a really interesting aspect that I wished was better explored as the rest of the book progressed. Basically, the set ups for a lot of the different facets of this whole situation were really interesting but the execution after that were really disappointing.
The story really started to fall apart for me when Natalie started her planning. It felt like Hunt couldn't decide if she wanted Natalie to be very good at planning a murder or very bad at it. One the one hand, she had been involved in enough criminal cases to know how the police act and what sort of procedures they'd go through but on the other hand, she wildly underestimated her own competency in many aspects of the planning. At the end, we were given somewhat of an explanation to the why and how of some aspects of this discrepancy, but not all. It felt like Hunt was trying to keep the story a bit realistic but the plot, inherently, leans a bit to the fantastical side. I really wish Hunt would have picked one or the other and just stayed in that lane and I think the tone and overall execution would have been better.
For a domestic thriller, I didn't feel that Natalie and Will's relationship was very well established in the beginning. Once Will becomes involved with Natalie's plan, then we get a much better sense of what they're like as a couple. However, I would have preferred more of a set up so we could have gotten a good before vs after of their relationship. Especially since a main crux of the third act is their relationship and how solid (or not solid) it is. The first part of the story is told from Natalie's POV so we get a good idea of her internal view of the world. We do switch into Will's POV later in the book but by then I found my views of Will had been pretty tainted by Natalie's POV that I didn't really want to read from his POV. On one hand, we did need Will's POV so that we could know what's going on with him but I think it would have played better if the book was told in alternating POV chapters instead of having the big chunks.
I was initially unsure of how I felt about the ending and I think it is the most divisive part of the book. On the one hand, it felt very convenient. The whole third act felt like everything was going one way for Natalie and Will and I couldn't see how the story would resolve at all. I kept guessing "maybe it will do X" but then something would happen in the book that would make X impossible so then I had to make a new guess. Initially, I was excited because maybe there would be a big twist at the end that would tie everything together or change how I viewed a piece of information. And while there was somewhat of a twist, it didn't feel like the ending was earned by the events that took place previously. It didn't feel like Natalie and Will were making a lot of active decisions and were more just reacting to how the events around them were unfolding. However, on a thematic level, the ending worked really well. I think it tied back to the original set up of the premise and made the whole story feel pretty full-circle. I think I would have found the ending more satisfying if Natalie and Will made more active choices that led to the same ending. That being said, since the ending worked on a thematic level and brought the plot back to the points I liked in the beginning, I overall leaned toward liking it.
Overall, I liked the premise and some aspects of the plot but found the execution and character development to be pretty subpar.
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