DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES

I’m on a winning reading streak lately! Let’s face it, choosing a book can be a crapshoot (even with GoodReads) and I feel lucky when I win!

C’mon snake eyes, keep those good books coming in!

I listened to DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES through a new site called Scribd. I keep trying to find something cheaper than Audible. Scribd works much, much better than the other one I tried (and hated), Playster. It is very easy to stop and start the audio in the place you left off, much like Audible. I’m not sure how large the Scribd audio selection is, but overall I was pleasantly surprised by how well their listening app worked for me. I believe it is $8.99/month for one audio and three e-books. The downside for me is they don’t use a Kindle format for the e-books.

Back to this wonderful little family drama of a book. The subtitle could be “Don’t Split Up the Twins When You Divorce.” That’s what happened to Sarah and Robin, the two narrators of this story. The estranged sisters grow up on different continents and suffer separately through traumatic life events. They eventually meet back up, but so much has happened by then.

The story is a slow burn, but still captivating- virtually a handbook illustrating how adults’ bad choices affect children’s lives forever. I had basically resigned myself that this book was going to be just that. A juicy, but sad family drama, void of any real mystery to solve.

Then at around the 90% mark, BANG! A whopper of a plot twist that caught me completely off-guard. Yikes! What is going on here? Things aren’t what I thought they were and that made me smile on the inside. I love when that happens!

My complaints are minimal. I couldn’t really connect to the characters, I wish they were more extensively developed. The story was still compelling and a fast one to read (well, listen). The narration of the book was very good, though the actress that read as Robin had an irritating quality. I cringed just a little every time it was her turn to read.

DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES is a four star book for me. The narrators are unreliable, the plot is dramatic and, ultimately, twisty. Holly Seddon is a solid writer and I look forward to reading her again.