Review - 'The End of Her' by Shari Lapena

"You're a liar! I'm going to tell on you!"

"I'm not the liar... you are! Liar liar, pants on fire!"

Ok, that's not actual dialogue from the book, but it might as well have been.

Patrick and Stephanie are enjoying life as new parents with their colicky twins, when some woman shows up and claims that Patrick killed his first wife. The shock! She demands money for her silence, of course. Instead of going to the police with this threat, the couple decides to fight back by engaging in a Who's the Bigger Liar contest with the blackmailer. After that, all hell breaks loose.

You guys, sometimes I don't even know what I'm reading anymore. Have domestic thrillers lost all sense of reality? Don't go to the police when randos threaten you; you should talk them out of it instead! Getting blackmailed over something minor or false? Best to freak out and give in! And accusing someone of murder? You just need evidence of an affair and a life insurance policy!

Where is the logic in here? No one behaves like this, I tell you! And yet, this book is full of these loonies, and we are forced to read about them overreacting to every little thing, having paranoid breakdowns, and making one bad decision after another. Nothing they did or said made any sense. My eyes rolled so hard I was seriously afraid of permanent damage.

Then, as I'm getting towards the end of the book, a thought popped into my head: "You know what would totally cement the insanity? If this happened." And guess what... that was indeed the big twist of the story. So I didn't even get to enjoy the surprise after all that.

Honestly, what a completely silly, nonsensical, ridiculous story this turned out to be.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars