Named most anticipated book of 2020 by Cosmopolitan, Women’s Wear Daily, Woman’s Day, She Reads, The Nerd Daily, and Sassy Sarah Reads.
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Simple Favor comes an electrifying domestic thriller of how one woman’s life is turned upside down when her brother brings his new girlfriend to visit—and no one is telling the truth about who they really are.She’s … girlfriend to visit—and no one is telling the truth about who they really are.
She’s on the verge of having it all…
But one woman stands in her way.
Charlotte has everything in life that she ever could have hoped for: a doting, artistic husband, a small-but-thriving flower shop, and her sweet, smart five-year-old daughter, Daisy. Her relationship with her mother might be strained, but the distance between them helps. And her younger brother Rocco may have horrible taste in women, but when he introduces his new girlfriend to Charlotte and her family, they are cautiously optimistic that she could be The One. Daisy seems to love Ruth, and she can’t be any worse than the klepto Rocco brought home the last time. At least, that’s what Charlotte keeps telling herself. But as Rocco and Ruth’s relationship becomes more serious, Ruth’s apparent obsession with Daisy grows more obvious. Then Daisy is kidnapped, and Charlotte is convinced there’s only one person who could have taken her.
Ruth has never had much, but now she’s finally on the verge of having everything she’s ever dreamed of. A stable job at a start-up company, a rakish, handsome boyfriend with whom she falls more in love with every day—and a chance at the happy family she’s always wanted, adorable niece included. The only obstacle standing in her way is her boyfriend’s sister Charlotte, whose attitude swerves between politely cold and outright hostile. Rebuffing Ruth’s every attempt to build a friendship with her and Daisy, Charlotte watches over her daughter with a desperate protectiveness that sends chills down Ruth’s spine. Ruth knows that Charlotte has a deeply-buried secret, the only question is: what? A surprise outing with Daisy could be the key to finding out, and Ruth knows she must take the chance while she has it—for everyone’s sake.
As the two women follow each other down a chilling rabbit hole, unearthing winding paths of deceit, lies, and trauma, a family and a future will be completely—and irrevocably—shattered.
From its very first page, Something She’s Not Telling Us takes hold of readers’ imagination in a harrowing, unforgettable thriller that dives deep into the domestic psyche and asks the question:
Is anyone ever really who they say they are…?
more
Another girlfriend? Wonder what this one is like?
Every girl Rocco has brought to meet his sister Charlotte has been a bit odd.
This new one, Ruth, gave Charlotte bad vibes from the minute she met her especially because of the obsession she had with her daughter Daisy.
When Daisy is taken/kidnapped from school, there can be no one else to suspect but Ruth, and Charlotte knew her reservations about Ruth had been correct.
We meet Ruth before and after she became Rocco’s girlfriend and find out she has always wanted a child and had a nightmarish childhood. Could Daisy be the answer to what she always wanted?
SOMETHING SHE’S NOT TELLING US is filled with uncertainty about almost every character and has characters with big secrets, but none as big as Ruth’s.
There is more than the usual share of unlikable characters in this book and an underlying tension from page one.
Just what is Ruth not telling everyone? Or….just what is everyone not telling anyone?
The ending will have you on pins and needles as Ruth continues with what she does best….making up facts, imagining things to be something they aren’t, and telling lies. 4/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
You will not want to put this book down.
A really dark look at a family that is too self-absorbed to see danger when it approaches them. Daisy, the little girl was adorable and precocious, but the other characters were not likable at all. Eli, the father is so selfish that he hardly seems to be involved when his daughter disappears from daycare. Rocco wants to save everyone, but he brought the danger into the family to begin with, so he is really clueless. I liked the book, but I didn’t love it. I continued to read it because I wanted to find out the end of Ruth and how the family made out once they were reunited. I didn’t get all of my desires met with the conclusion which is a main reason for my rating. Genre: family drama, suspense
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I checked out a copy of this book from my local library on the Overdrive App. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.
Something She’s Not Telling Us by Darcey Bell is a real page-turner of a psychological thriller and could easily be read in one sitting. I’m honestly still trying to put all my thoughts together and I am going to keep this review pretty short.
The book is full of unlikable characters which is fine, but I was really frustrated with Charlotte pretty much the entire book and not once did I think she was all that smart. I haven’t read A Simple Favor yet so I really have no idea how the two compare, but I hope in general that I end up liking it a bit more. I loved the fact that Something She’s Not Telling Us was really fast paced and it definitely kept me turning pages, plus it had that fun train-wreck quality. Overall it was enjoyable but not too hard to figure out so I would pick this up if you are in the mood for something quick that doesn’t dig too deep.
I enjoyed the author’s writing style and I am definitely looking forward to reading her first book and anymore that she writes!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book, all opinions and thoughts are my own.
As I read this book, I kept wondering if any of Darcey Bell’s characters could extract their craniums from their anal cavities long enough to PAY ATTENTION. Everything is so clear! Everything is quite evident! And yet no one seems to be able to figure it out until the dismal end.
This is one of those books where you don’t like anyone very much. Yeah, there are moments when Charlotte is palatable, and you might kind of like Rocco in fleeting bursts, but you won’t sustain much affection for them. Charlotte is a smothering, overbearing, paranoid, and insecure mother (and those are her good points). As for her husband, let’s just say that Charlotte pays him whatever attention she has left after hovering over daughter Daisy’s first morning breath to her last lucid one before sleep. Rocco, delightfully feckless, has a job thanks to a favor and a girlfriend thanks to his utter, complete blindness to reality.
This is supposed to be a psychological thriller, but, like I said, it’s all so obvious. Darcey Bell tells you everything. Alas, her characters pay no attention.
So why three stars? Because I kept turning the pages, and for that, Bell deserves some credit.
Domestic Thriller
I feel like I may be generous in giving this book 3 stars. However, I think the story has good parts along with problematic parts which is why I’m staying neutral with my rating.
My first thoughts after finishing this book is that it was dull. I expected a bit more of a buildup in terms of the kidnapping and some feelings of suspense, but I never got these impressions. Perhaps if the kidnapper didn’t have her own POV it would have felt more intriguing but because she did the suspenseful aspects were missing. Secondly, I felt the lead up to the twist (which was presented about halfway through the book) was slow. It dragged on at a snail’s pace and I almost stopped reading. Once the twist was shown things took a turn and started to speed up. The chapters got shorter, the “waters got choppier” and the reveals got exciting. I don’t read a lot of books where mental illness plays a role in characters motives (this is not a spoiler as I’m not say who is mentally ill and as a reader you won’t know WHO it is until it’s revealed anyway), but I like how Darcey Bell used this technique in the story. Some readers won’t care for it and that’s fine, but it IS one of the things I liked about the it.
The second thing that bothered me a bit were the characters. None of them were remotely likable. Some authors can pull this off while others shouldn’t bother unless they add some semblance of likability in the story. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen here. The only character I liked a little bit was Daisy and she was the kid so… That tells you something.
The third thing that perturbed me was the twist that Charlotte was hiding. Darcey threw in a major curve ball with her character and NEVER finished it. It seems like such a huge part of the story, yet it went nowhere INSIDE the story. I was confused and feeling aggravated about it. Readers who have read the book will know what I mean. I won’t say because I don’t want to spoil it for potential readers but be warned that there are no satisfactory answers for it.
Finally, the ending was so ABRUPT. I was reading and then BAM it was over. There was so much left unsaid and left me feeling like I read the book for nothing. I need SOME answers when reading thrillers like this and was left with feelings of confusion. How does it end? What will they do? Etc. Some readers may like books that are fairly open ended but that is NOT me. I need clear, concise answers.
Now, I don’t want my whole book to be a major bashing of the book because it’s not deplorable by any means. Instead, it’s just not MY cup of tea. Some of the things I did like (which kept me reading despite my issues with it) were the fact that mental illness plays a role in character actions and motivations, the plot was an overall catchy one, the book can easily be read in one sitting if you have the time and interest in it, and Darcey Bell is quite a writer. I look forward to reading more of her books in the future even though this wasn’t a favorite of mine.
Charlotte’s brother’s latest girlfriend Ruth is greeted with some justified suspicion in Darcey Bell’s Something She’s Not Telling Us. His history of dating highly unstable women, occasional lapses in sobriety and a demonstrated lack of judgement cause his family to scrutinize his latest conquest. On the other hand, Charlotte is revealed to be an overprotective, paranoid and obsessive person who has some serious problems with objectivity and a tenuous grip on reality herself. Such a character makes for an interestingly biased perspective. This type of “protagonist” is an unreliable narrator akin to those Bell has employed in the past—one that causes the reader to immediately be on guard when evaluating her version of events. Other chapters feature the point of view of Ruth, another source that is transparently skewed. Fans of A Simple Favor and the film upon which it is based may be somewhat disappointed by Bell’s latest effort, for although the novel contains some innovative twists and is well written, it suffers from an overabundance of side plots that distract and stretch credulity. The psychology of the villain is incompletely developed, and her motives are insufficiently substantial to warrant the extremity of her actions. The reader is also left guessing as to why Ruth elects to victimize Rocco’s family, and Charlotte and her family are so unlikeable that not a lot of pity is generated for them. The big revelations are a bit predictable and banal, and the ending falls short of climactic. In sum, Something She’s Not Telling Us is diverting enough as a standard suspense story, but unfortunately is not one that is particularly remarkable or memorable.
Thanks to the author, Harper Collins and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Darcey Bell offers a short narrative with a purposely evasive plot and unlikeable characters. The allure of the book is that the plot is as unstable as the cast. Characterization is well developed, though a bit unconventional in this twisted storyline. Those seeking a fast-paced psychological suspense will not find it here. This is a story of instability and desperation told in moderation. A good read. 3 stars.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #SomethingShesNotTellingUs. It was read and reviewed voluntarily by Tarrah Marie (@wayward_readers)