Review: Things Don't Break on Their Own
- tatedecaro
- 13 minutes ago
- 2 min read
3/5 stars
TW: Domestic & child abuse
Friends Willa and Robyn meet in boarding school, not long after Willa's younger sister Laika disappears. Throughout the year at school, they slowly develop a strong friendship, which develops into a romantic relationship. But the relationship fizzles when Willa learns that her father may be responsible for Laika's death, and leaves school to return home. As time passes, Willa never gives up hope that her sister will be found. She is convinced that Laika is still alive, and her entire life is built around this belief. Where everyone else has moved on, Willa cannot. She starts a website for people to report sightings, and often chases down complete strangers in the streets who she thinks could be Laika.
Now, more than 20 years later, Robyn is married and has a child. She invites Willa and her husband Jamie to a dinner party with Robyn's wife Cat, and Robyn's siblings and their significant others. One of Robyn's brothers brings his new girlfriend from France, Claudette. But Claudette is not what she seems, and the dinner party goes haywire when everyone's assumptions are questioned (and meanwhile Jamie, Willa's husband, just gets drunk and insults everyone).
There are different timelines that play out, including Willa & Laika's childhood and their overbearing and abusive father, Willa and Robyn's college years, and Robyn's new relationship with Cat. And the story is told from multiple POVs, including Willa, Robyn, Cat, and Claudette.
The book is advertised as a "thriller mystery" but it absolutely isn't thrilling. In fact, it's quite slow, and by the time we reach the finale/resolution stage of the story, I kind of didn't care anymore, to be honest. And the ending itself was completely unbelievable. It's one of those stories where there are so many coincidences that it becomes preposterous.
I guess I'm only giving this 3 stars because I liked the first 3/4 of the book... so, use that information however you want!
UP NEXT: Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende
Comments