(25)You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Saturday, March 22, 2014

You Should Have Known

Page: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: March 18, 2014


Grace Sachs and her husband Jonathan seem to have the perfect life.  Jonathan is a successful pediatric oncologist and Grace is a successful therapist who just wrote a rather successful book based on the stories her patients have told her and their young son attends one of the most prestigious private schools in New York City. As far as she is concerned her life could not be better.  It all changes on the day word gets out that the mother of scholarship student at their school has been murdered. Grace is even more confused when the police show up at their apartment and starts asking questions about her husband. He is off at a medical conference somewhere in the Midwest, WHY are they asking about Jonathan?  As the days move past the murder the story unfolds and Grace realized that she may have never really known her husband, but did he really murder that woman?

You Should Have Known got off to a slow start.  I wasn't really all that fond of Grace at first, that made it really hard to get into the book.  Grace had this air of superiority that was just plan annoying. And Jonathan?  He is just an ass. But when the shit starts going down you can see the change in Grace's attitude and you can't help but feel for her. The first visit from the detectives in when I felt myself becoming hooked with the story.   She was so completely unaware of what was going on in her marriage her pain was almost palpable. The term "blindsided" has never been more appropriate.   I think what I enjoyed most about this book was Grace's transformation.  She went from this woman who was pretty absorbed in herself to this woman who was the first to identify her flaws and became only focused on how to help her son get through this mess. 

Bottom line, even though You Should Have Known was a little slow going, the second half of the book makes up for it.  This book will suck you in with the mystery and challenge you to think about your own relationships and how well you really know someone. Definitely worth the read.

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