ScrappyMags's Reviews > The Unraveling

** spoiler alert ** ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - good

⏰ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫: Meredith McCall endures the death of her husband, but more than that, she endures the fact that he killed 2 other people. One day she sees Gabriel Wright - the man whose life her husband destroyed, except he seems happy, which confounds her in her grief, so she follows him. Before she knows it she’s neck-deep in a game she had no intent to play but now must see it through to the very end…

💡𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: If you read my reviews you know there is one thing I hate - inexorably stupid females. Our protagonist runs in this vein so I have to temper my review with my acknowledgment of this pet peeve clouding my opinion. All things considered I enjoyed the book, despite my strong eye rolls.

There are minor spoilers here but it’s hard to fully enjoy the novel when I don’t like or respect the protagonist. I love the premise of the book - and thought “stalking” Gabriel at the beginning was strangely reasonable, and in a weird way - sweet and sad, but when Meredith starts behaving like a DUMB woman, I’m out. Completely unethical -one of the worst psychiatrists in history. More than that, reading her narrative, she sounds like she has the mental maturity of a teen (at best) I’m rolling my eyes at decisions that don’t seem realistic - how can she make poor decisions not thinking about money? A job? Headlines? Basics? She doesn’t care and I find that implausible… or perhaps inexcusable.

The redemption is that it’s a captivating story and the pacing is swift and sharp. I read the book quickly and found some lovely, well-placed twists to be intensely enjoyable. There is an undeniable guilty-pleasure (and a little smut) aspect to the book that elevated it to 3 instead of 2 stars for me, but it’s a thin line putting this book as “good” for me.

Bottom line: The book is trying too hard to be like The Silent Patient. But it was too obvious.

📚𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Mystery, Psych Thriller, Some smut (lol not a bad thing)

😍𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: If you can suspend disbelief, like a face-paced mystery, those who like some smut

🙅‍♀️ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: those like me who eschew weak, dumb female protagonists.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Atria Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for appreciating that I am ALWAYS telling my truth.