Soon to be a major motion picture from Lionsgate starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Henry Golding, and directed by Paul Feig“Riveting and brilliantly structured, A Simple Favor is an edge-of-your seat domestic thriller about a missing wife and mother that relies on a rotating cast of unreliable narrators to ingeniously examine the cost of competitive mom-friends, the toll of ordinary … the toll of ordinary marital discontent and the fallacy of the picture-perfect, suburban family.”—Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author
She’s your best friend.
She knows all your secrets.
That’s why she’s so dangerous.
A single mother’s life is turned upside down when her best friend vanishes in this chilling debut thriller in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.
It starts with a simple favor—an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. Nicky and her son, Miles, are classmates and best friends, and the five-year-olds love being together—just like she and Emily. A widow and stay-at-home mommy blogger living in woodsy suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a sophisticated PR executive whose job in Manhattan demands so much of her time.
But Emily doesn’t come back. She doesn’t answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong—Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily’s husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It’s the least she can do for her best friend. Then, she and Sean receive shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her disappearance is over.
Or is it? Because soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing—not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor—is as simple as it seems.
A Simple Favor is a remarkable tale of psychological suspense—a clever and twisting free-fall of a ride filled with betrayals and reversals, twists and turns, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge. Darcey Bell masterfully ratchets up the tension in a taut, unsettling, and completely absorbing story that holds you in its grip until the final page.
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Okay, so will admit that I read A Simple Favor because of Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick. But I am happy I did! While it wasn’t a Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train thriller as I think it was striving to be, it definitely kept me interested and entertained. The end didn’t leave me super satisfied but I still enjoyed it overall.
And if you have read the book, the movie is different enough that it will still leave you guessing what’s going to happen! So the book isn’t a movie spoiler (I think for the better).
I heard the book on audio and liked it a lot, not 100% satisfied with all aspects but it really held my interest and I liked the switch off from one character’s view point to another.
Started off a bit slow then OMG! I know there are people like this in the world, which is why I prefer animals LOL. If you like Gone Girl-type novels, you will love this. Cannot believe this is the author’s 1st novel, keep them coming!
I think this book had a lot of potential. I was extremely disappointed in the characters and the story.
I’m not sure where to start in reviewing this book. Maybe, first, I should say that I haven’t seen the movie. I want to, because I love the actresses, but I always like to read a book first to get a feel for what the movie is leaving out. Honestly, after reading the book, I’m not sure I want to see the movie anymore. It was an okay read for me, nothing special though it tried hard to shock and awe. Several of the plot lines seemed pointless and the book would have been better off without them. The big twist was obvious from early on. The characters themselves are unlikable. I pushed through though, hoping for a big breakthrough or another twist and one does come, near the end, it’s just not what I wanted by that point. It doesn’t really wrap up anything and in the end, my opinions hadn’t changed about anything or anyone. It was okay but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to others unless I just wanted to discuss it with them.
I liked it!
Read the book, afraid to see the movie (with 2 of my fave actresses) simply because books are always better than the movies. Classic type of story where you can generally figure out what happened but there are some twists and turns that keep you going.
They also did an amazing job with the movie. The actors were a perfect fit.
I not saying it wasn’t well written – but it was NOT a book for me. Not a single redeeming character – and so sorry I forced myself to finish it.
This book was amateurish from beginning to (especially) end. The characters were completely unrealistic (not to mention unlikeable) and the incest side story was ridiculous. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. I would have given NO stars if that was an option. A complete waste of time.
The characters had no redeeming value, neither had morals. One character was manipulator, and the other was a mess. This book is in my bottom five books, I’ve read.
Twisted is an understatement for this book. I never saw the movie because the trailer looked like a horror/thriller to me and I don’t do well with those movies, but the story still intrigued me. Well, after reading this book, I really want to see the movie! This book is extremely compelling, so much so that it took me less than 24 hours to complete. If you start this book, make sure it’s on a weekend where you have nothing else to do, because you will want to finish it!
Boring
Now I would like to see the movie that goes with this book. It was very twisted in some respects but twins have a very different relationship.
This book certainly changed the way I look at my best friends. As the saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” While the book was captivating, it had some clichés and a rather predictable ending. Had it not been for one of my book clubs wanting to see the movie after reading this, I wouldn’t have felt the desire to read it.
It all begins with a simple favor, like the title of the book, how predictable. Stephanie, a mommy blogger, is asked to pick up her best friend, Emily’s kid from school when an emergency at her work comes up. So what happens when mommy blogger’s best friend Emily never comes to pick up her kid? A series of sad, and rather pathetic blog posts ensue. From finding out her best friend is dead, to falling for her best friend’s husband, to then finding out her best friend is not dead, to helping in a murder, to then wind up back where she was before she met Emily, a nobody with her ‘mommy blogging’ online readers.
First pathetic and predictable move — Stephanie feels compelled to reach out to her mommy blogging followers for help. At this point I seriously though I was only going to get Stephanie’s perspective through these preachy, sad blog posts throughout the book. But, nope, we then get to see how two-faced Stephanie is. Publishing her ‘mommy blog’ lies out into the world, and then we get her own narrative a little further in the novel. And that’s where we truly see how, well it might be rather harsh, but how disgusting of a person Stephanie is.
From Stephanie revealing her dark and extremely disturbing secrets, to falling for her dead best friend’s husband, I got a bit of whiplash at how dark this book was going to turn out. I have to give it to the author, Darcey Bell, to think outside the box when it comes to this suspenseful and even dark plot. Taking out some of the creepy aspects of the book, no spoilers, it all became too predictable.
At first I felt Stephanie’s character was sweet and kind of run-of-the-mill mom character. But her development went from sweet, to disgusting, to pathetic. I really didn’t like how desperate she was to gain Sean, Emily’s husband, love and affection. Going so far to listen to the music he likes, to even eating and cooking the foods he likes. She became a psychotic almost obsessed mother grasping for the friendship of Emily, and then the love and desire for Sean, only to then go back to Emily. I couldn’t even pity her at the end, it was a poor character development on Bell’s part.
Here I will insert a slow clap for Emily. This woman is scary as hell. I mean, who thinks like she does. Emily is cunning, manipulative and even dangerous in the end. She has this secretive past, that makes her come off as a vulnerable character at first, but that just adds to her cunning, manipulative desire to see both Sean and Stephanie pay for ruining her plans. Without spoiling the end, Emily essentially losses everyone she had ever cared about except her child, which for me, made it even more terrifying that this woman was now the sole caretaker of a little kid. I felt like someone needed to call social service for the poor kid at the end. You thought Emily’s childhood was bad growing up, could you image what Nicky, Emily’s kids, would grow up to be like with Emily’s influences and cunning ways forced on him?
So, putting characters aside, predictability and even the blogging narrative of Stephanie, well, you really don’t have much do you? I’d say the book was a ‘meh.’ It could have been better but it was captivating at points. Let’s just say it left a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to looking at my best friends. You never truly know what someone’s capable of when it comes to family, money and love.
Read more of my review here: https://bit.ly/2WCOfRi
It is an interesting book that I had a hard time putting it down! Finished it within 2 days. Many twists and turns that I did not see coming.
the book is totally fantastic and full of suspense with unpredictable continuity. the writer is wonderful, i can’t believe the way he express every action on this beautiful book ‘a simple favor. i love the title from the beginning where the favor start from, i most comment the writer for a job well done.
I found the characters utterly lacking in complexity or growth. Perhaps it was my mistake to see the movie before reading the book, but at least the movie makes the characters interesting and relatable.
Quick read- lots of twists. Enjoyable.
Not my favorite book. I could not find a character I could relate to. Not one is a sympathetic character. Even the protagonist is not someone you want to root for.