Justine Sullivan

He Said He Would be Late is Justine Sullivan's debut novel. It is a tense, sometimes frustrating, domestic drama about a new mother convinced her husband is cheating on her. My frustration came because, in her obsession to confirm her husband's infidelity, Liz Bennett is remarkably self-destructive. She ignores her therapist's advice, drinks way too much, ignores her job, and alienates the people in her life who are there for her support. It is hard to watch. But that tension makes for good fiction. It was like watching a train wreck, but I couldn't stop reading.

Aside from the substance of the story, I was also frustrated by the marketing of the book. Based on the title, cover, and jacket description, I thought this was a murder mystery. I kept waiting for the dead body to show up. There is no murder. The only mystery is whether Liz's husband is faithful or not. This isn't a thriller, despite the packaging.… (más)

*THANKS TO HENRY HOLT PUBLISHING for this free book in GOODREADS GIVEAWAY** It took me FOREVER to read this book. It was boring, too wordy, and long. The words gobsmacked, flummoxed, & Wellesley were used over and over again along with the descriptions for clothing, food, & landscaping that were paragraphs long. Story is that Liz finds a text message on her husband Arno's phone that has her spiraling into anxiety attacks and stalker mode. The message is from Viv, a beautiful younger co worker of Arno. Liz starts stalking her on social media to find out more about her and starts imagining scenario of Arno & Viv together. Arno hires a nanny for Liz so she has more free time to write her second novel but instead she drinks and obsesses about how her husband is cheating on her. She finds a receipt and sees her husband purchasing jewelry that she never receives and doesn't really question him about it and turns sneakier in her stalking. Between frenemy neighbors and her therapist, Liz tries to get to the bottom of things. She finds some relief after witnessing something on a secret trip and revelations with Arno and then a bombshell happens and the book ends.… (más)

Ugh, this book was tedious. It's a familiar trope in books these days: A mom with a seemingly ideal life, married to a seemingly perfect husband who is also a great father and successful in his work, one day accidentally sees a text on her husband's phone with a seemingly suspicious kissy-face emoji. From that point on things spiral out of control as she tries to find out if perfect hubby is cheating on her, etc., etc., etc.

Liz is an unlikeable protagonist. She seems to resent being a mom, having to manage her toddler daughter, seemingly at the expense of her own identity as a writer and desirable woman. Combine that with her insecurity after seeing the text on her husband's phone, and you have a woman whom I just wanted to slap silly.

The book had a couple of interesting people - the nanny, Kyle, and the supposed mistress, Viv - but Arno, the husband, wasn't fully fleshed out and had little depth to his character, which made me completely ambivalent about his role in Liz's angst. I couldn't like or dislike him because he was just a flat, two-dimensional character.

I received this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Therefore, I read the whole book. If I had picked up this book on my own, I would have quit after 50 pages.… (más)