Book Review: The Night Before by Wendy Walker

This was a weird one, and ultimately a disappointment for it. I had high hopes based on the extremely provocative blurb, and the opening bits. The writing was good, the mysteries and suspense thick on the ground, and the characters seemed promisingly dark and uncertain. Unfortunately, it turned scattered all too quickly and I found myself rolling my eyes at the choices the characters made right up to the Big Reveal – and then I just sighed. I kept reading – Walker’s writing style is engaging, and I’ll admit I was still curious to see how on earth she’d close all the gaps, but things just felt like they were trying too hard to be mind-blastingly original in a genre that I’m starting to think needs to slow down a bit, publication-wise…

It must be exceptionally tough to write psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators these days – there are SO MANY, and the options for suspenseful yet believable twists are not infinite, particularly given that every reader KNOWS they’re coming. Maybe I am just burned out on the genre/concept. If I hadn’t read so many, I might have found this one less eye-rolling- and sigh-worthy. As I said, the writing wasn’t the issue, the plot was. But as it is, I have to admit that this was not one of my favorites…

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.