Review - 'Mad Mabel' by Sally Hepworth

Ugh, sorry to always be the contrarian. I see reader after reader calling this their favorite Sally Hepworth, but for me, Mad Mabel fell just a bit short of the author's best.

But first, let's set expectations. Sally Hepworth's books are always labeled as mystery/thrillers, but they are not. In fact, if you went into it thinking you're signing up for some big brouhaha with lots of twists and turns, you'd be sorely disappointed.

Hepworth writes domestic suspense with a heavy emphasis on the characters and their personal and interpersonal drama, and the suspense comes from the story's construction. In other words, there's nothing necessarily suspenseful going on in the plot itself, it's more the way Hepworth weaves the timelines and points of view that creates the tension. 

And maybe, when put like that, I can already see why I felt more lukewarm towards this book than some of her others. None of the things that usually grab me in a Sally Hepworth story did in this one. The characters, the drama, even the tension in here all felt a bit superficial and ho hum, like I've seen it all before.

Old person who's grouchy on the outside and sweet on the inside? Check. Old person and young child form a friendship? Check. Old person's heart finally thaws after said friendship? Check.

This is a dual timeline and I had trouble connecting with Mabel in both, which is difficult to forgive in a character-driven story. The series of bad things that happens to the young Mabel felt overdone, relying heavily on coincidences and piled on past the point of believability to maximize emotional turmoil. And the portrayal of old Mabel felt surprisingly shallow, laying it on thick with the aforementioned old-person grouchiness, but I had trouble finding the sweetness underneath.

Speaking of seeing it all before, there is a revelation towards the end of the book that I figured out almost immediately. [View spoiler below]

And so for all these reasons, it didn't feel like the story was propelling me forward so much as I was dragging it along. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad by any means; it just didn't grab me the same way Hepworth's books usually do.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

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[Spoiler} Like, come on, of course only Mabel could see Daphne! The Sixth Sense has seared this exact feint into the memory of every single person from now until the end of time. It was so masterfully done in the film and so strikingly memorable that no one could ever pull the same wool over our eyes again. M. Night Shyamalan is the first and only person to have succeeded at this sleight of hand, and Sally Hepworth unfortunately did not.