Book Blog #386: The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

 

Title: The Couple Next Door

Author: Shari Lapen

# of Pages: 308 (paperback)

Genre: Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying. Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour. Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone. You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there.

Review: This is a classic whodunnit mystery that's fast paced and easy to read. Perfect for some light reading that is actually best enjoyed if you turn your brain off.

The Couple Next Door is told in third person omniscient perspective, drifting primarily between the parents Anne and Marco and Detective Rasbach. This works well for the book aside from the weakness where the reader will obviously know more information than the other characters. Usually this is frustrating, but Detective Rasbach is great at his job, and I found that he (and thus the author) was always one step ahead of me. 

The ending was sloppier than I liked. Lapena tried to incorporate too much for the grand finale that made unrealistic, and a particular character's backstory felt too underdeveloped. 

Part of why this story is so easy to read is Lapena chooses to tell the reader all the possible theories rather than showing them implicitly through observations. This story could have been richer and grittier if Lapena showed rather than told, but it was still an entertaining read nonetheless. 

This book definitely leaned more toward the mystery aspect than thriller. There was only one aspect of the book that was ominous but isn't the focus of the plot. 

This was a solid read that I could not put down, but Lapen isn't doing anything groundbreaking here. It's in the low-mid 4 star range (low 4 for execution, mid 4 for enjoyment and readability). I would recommend it if you're a fan of mystery!

Book Blog #385: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine

 

Title: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible

Author: Rabih Alameddine

# of Pages: 323 (hardback)

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: In a tiny Beirut apartment, sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and “the neighborhood homosexual,” Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son’s desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja’s work life and love life, boundaries be damned. When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn’t be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget.

Review: I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected.

What did I expect? Not much; I received this book as a gift. A story about a Lebanese man and his mother didn't seem particularly interesting to me. The protagonist, Raja, tells a hodge-podge first person narrative of his life, and for most of the story it wasn't clear on what this book was even supposed to be about.

However, Raja's narrative voice is amusing; he acts so flippant as literal war and horrible things happens to him and those around him. I found chapter 3 (the middle section) and the ending the most addicting to read. The family dysfunction and Raja's quirks suddenly became endearing, and by the end the reader is filled with a sense of understanding on how Raja and his mother each express their love for each other. 

Although Raja's unorganized rambling slowed down the pacing of the story, I enjoyed the story enough for that to nearly be cancelled out (net neutral read). I wouldn't recommend it in a hurry, but if this already sounds like something you would be interested in, then you should give it a try.