I mainly picked this book up because of how pretty the cover looked––I know everyone says not to judge a book by it’s cover, but let’s be honest, we all do it, and this book had a stunning cover.
The Last Thing He Told Me is a thriller, and it follows our main character Hannah, whose husband Owen disappears, leaving her with nothing but a note that says protect her––her, meaning his sixteen-year-old daughter Bailey, who tragically lost her mother when she was little.
Soon after his disappearance, the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, and a US Marshall and FBI agents arrive at her home, unannounced––and Hannah very quickly realizes that her husband was not exactly who he says he was, leading to Hannah and Bailey desperately trying to figure out the truth about Owen, and Bailey's past.
I thought this book was okay? The premise was intriguing, and I was definitely drawn in, but the actual pacing of the story was oddly slow. I’m someone who has a lot of patience regarding books, so I was able to push through, but the beginning was just really hard to get into.
I also just didn’t really like how the actual mystery aspect played out? Not only was the 'twist' completely out of left field, I also just thought it was a very disappointing route to take. I guess I was just expecting the book to go in one direction, and it went in a whole other direction. I also just hated the ending? It was very unsatisfying, and mildly disappointing.
This book is marketed as a thriller-–and it is-–but a good portion of it is centered around the relationship between Hannah and Bailey. The issue with this is that I just had a really hard time caring about either of them? Hannah as a character was very bland, and even though the story was told from her point of view, I was unable to connect with her. Furthermore, Bailey was just a complete bitch. To a certain extent, I understand where she was coming from, in terms of losing her mother at a young age, but at the same time, I couldn’t get why she was so mean to Hannah? It just made her very unlikeable and difficult to read about.
I appreciate the message the book was trying to get across––that family goes beyond blood relations––but the execution fell a little bit flat to me. This was an average read.
Rating ➳ 3/5 stars
(tw: abandonment, death of a parent, car accident, murder)
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