"It’s wintertime in the Hamptons, where Scott and his wife, Elise, have come to be with her terminally ill father, Victor, to await the inevitable. As weeks turn to months, their daily routine—Elise at the hospital with her father, Scott pretending to work and drinking Victor’s booze—only highlights their growing resentment and dissatisfaction with the usual litany of unhappy marriages: work, love, passion, each other. But then Scott notices something simple, even innocuous. Every night at precisely eleven, the lights in the neighbor’s bedroom turn off. It’s clearly a timer…but in the dead of winter with no one else around, there’s something about that light he can’t let go of. So one day while Elise is at the hospital, he breaks in. And he feels a jolt of excitement he hasn’t felt in a long time. Soon, it’s not hard to enlist his wife as a partner in crime and see if they can’t restart the passion.Their one simple transgression quickly sends husband and wife down a deliriously wicked spiral of bad decisions, infidelities, escalating violence, and absolutely shocking revelations.
Matt Marinovich makes a strong statement with this novel. The Winter Girl is the psychological thriller done to absolute perfection."
Sounds intriguing right? I was highly disappointed. It did not live up to my expectations. The book starts off well. The two main characters are well layered. Both going through a lot personally with their jobs and family which is in turn highly affecting their marriage. Coupled with the stress of Elise's dying father and moving to the Hamptons in the winter, you have a recipe for disaster. But the book takes a weird turn. Things get strange real quick. And the stranger things get, the less the characters seem to be worried or concerned by the different events. This I found extremely odd. Without giving anything away, I'll just say I'd be freaking out. Plain and simple. I never understood how Scott was okay with everything that he learned about Elise and Victor. The writing itself wasn't terrible but it wasn't great. I didn't feel like everything flowed throughout the book. Certain sections jumped around quickly and could have gone into more detail. I think there was definitely room for more throughout the entire book, especially concerning Elise's past. This would have vamped up the book and may help the reader have a better view towards the book as a whole.
As always, feel free to share any thoughts, comments, or suggestions!
Happy reading fools :)
