Recent Read: Don’t You Cry

As the summer season has officially begun, let me give you another book to add to what is hopefully a lengthy beach reading list.

Don’t You Cry is the third novel by Mary Kubica. The thriller centers on Quinn and Esther, roommates in Chicago.

Quinn wakes up on a Sunday morning to discover her roommate is gone without a trace. Esther’s keys and cell phone are still in the apartment and a window to the fire escape is open.

Strange, to say the least.

From Goodreads page

Even stranger is a letter Quinn finds among Esther’s things, addressed to “My Dearest” and signed “EV.” And in the shredder, Quinn finds a photograph … which has a familiar face in it.

Meanwhile, in a small town in Michigan, Alex begins his shift at the local diner thinking it will be a normal day. That is until the new girl with the ombre hair and the pearl bracelet walks in and sits down.

Dubbing her Pearl, Alex begins to develop a relationship with someone he feels may be a kindred spirit … until Pearl begins acting strange.

Told in the format of alternating between Quinn and Alex’s viewpoints, Don’t You Cry is a slow burn thriller. There’s a lot of buildup and then — you hit the last 40 pages or so.

This seems to be Kubica’s signature style. In The Good Girl and Pretty Baby, her two previous novels, the plot was developed in a similar way. Alternating viewpoints, a slow build and a fast tidal wave of information and resolution.

The quick release at the end of Kubica’s novels might be the one complaint about her writing. There seems to be so much build for such little reward. And the amount of closure the reader receives isn’t always in proportion to the amount of buildup.

With that being said, I would strongly recommend Kubica’s books. The writing style is easy to follow, the alternating viewpoints keep the reader engaged and the stories are unique.

Pick up Don’t You Cry this summer and you won’t be crying over a bad book while on the beach. (See what I did there …. OK, enough with the puns. But seriously, you should check this book out.)

Recent Read: Pretty Baby

About a year ago, I read The Good Girl, a debut novel by Mary Kubica.

I recently finished Kubica’s sophomore effort: Pretty Baby.

Told in the alternating viewpoint style that has become Kubica’s signature, Pretty Baby tells the story of Heidi, Chris and “Willow.”

Heidi and Chris are married and live with their daughter, Zoe, in Chicago. Everything seems fine until the day Heidi spots a young girl and a baby at the subway station. Then, she sees them again.

From Goodreads page

Eventually, Heidi invites Willow and her young daughter, Ruby, into her home. As a one-night stay morphs into more, Chris becomes more and more skeptical, all while trying to ward off the advances of the young, new associate at work — of whom Heidi is not a fan.

Willow’s portion of the story alternates between the present and telling the past that led to her journey to Chicago.

As a reader, I couldn’t help but try and piece together Willow’s backstory. I got some of it right (there is a death–and the motive becomes relatively clear) but I missed who is responsible for the death.

I also was able to predict who the baby belonged to.

I wasn’t super impressed with Pretty Baby, until I hit the last quarter of the book. Kubica throws this curveball in from left field and just knocks you for a loop. While I didn’t totally agree with the timing or the abruptness of Kubica’s ending, it was definitely a surprise.

Overall, I would recommend Pretty Baby to fans of mysteries and thrillers. Kubica’s most recent novel, Don’t You Cry, was released about three weeks ago.