COMING TO NETFLIX!Mother. Hero. Liar. Killer. How can you tell when all you have is…PIECES OF HERWhat if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?Andrea knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a … town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?
But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.
The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .
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Love Karen Slaughter’s books. They keep you on edge until the mystery is solved.
Karin Slaughter has done it again! Love her books!!
Pieces of Her was totally unlike the other Karin Slaughter books I have read and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.
What it’s about: Andrea (Andy) thinks she knows all there is to know about her mother Laura until a terrifying act of violence at a mall changes everything. Laura has been running from her past for years, and when Andy is forced into a road trip for answers the things she finds out are enough to make her wonder who her mom really is. Told in present time with flashbacks to the past, we are in the mind of both Andy and a couple of other people as the carnage grows, and answers slowly come to light.
The pacing in this book was different from Slaughter’s other 2 novels that I have read (The Good Daughter and Pretty Girls), and instead of being fast-paced throughout the entire book this was more of a fast/slow/fast/slow pacing. The pacing was fine for me and it was still an incredibly quick read, but I think the book could have been shorter and I wasn’t thrilled with the “past” plotline.
Another thing that I struggled with was Andy as a character. Sure I felt bad for her, and the characterization was on point as always, but I wanted to smack her every time she couldn’t figure out how to use her mouth to make a sentence… and this happened A LOT. I will probably be the only person to complain about this, but I was constantly frustrated with her and it took away from the book a bit for me. I’m sure it will be fine seeing this on TV, but in written form it just drove me up a wall.
I also figured out a large part of the story pretty early on, which was disappointing for me since I NEVER figure out what Slaughter is up to. Having the shock value diminished was another thing that didn’t make this a 5 star read for me.
Final Thought: This was like a totally different style for Slaughter and people are either going to love it or they won’t. I’m on the fence, but I still appreciate what an awesome writer she is and her ability to be a bit of a chameleon. I would still recommend reading the book because of who wrote it, but I can’t say I absolutely loved this book like her others. That being said, I can’t wait to see this in film (wonder if it will be a movie or series) and I’m sure whatever Slaughter writes next will be amazing!