REVIEW: Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight

Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight
Audiobook Narrated by Tavia Gilbert, Lauren Fortgang, Rachel F. Hirsch, and Therese Plummer
My rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis

At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions. When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby.

Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts. Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined. (Via Goodreads)

Review

Where They Found Her is a bit of a tough one for me to review because I don't really seem to have any strong feelings about it, in fact, I have found it somewhat difficult to even remember it. To illustrate my point, I know this is my second time listening to this audiobook but I have absolutely no memory of my first. For the first hour or two, I was convinced I had not listened to this book previously, it wasn't until about halfway through when the memories kicked in. I apologize if that seemed like a pointless thing to include but I think it describes the main issue with Where They Found Her, it is just not very memorable.

By about a third of the way through the book, I was very much into it and enjoying the ride but before then I found myself forgetting events, character names, and plot points from chapter to chapter. That might be because there are quite a few different characters and storylines that all blended in for me as an audiobook listener. Looking at the description of the book I know there are four narrators I honestly didn’t realize it while listening, the voices are so similar it genuinely sounded like one person putting on slightly different voices for each character. With the context of the four narrators, this issue is a real weakness, if a production is going to hire readers for individual characters more care should be taken to choose distinctive voices.

I know I have been a bit negative thus far but I really did enjoy Where They Found Her. The last two-thirds of the book grabbed my attention and kept me guessing more than most other books of the genre. Many of the red herrings did genuinely mislead me and I did not guess the final twist before it happened, a great compliment in my eyes. Where They Found Her is a very enjoyable, even surprising, book that probably won't stick with you but will show you a good time.

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