My take on: Pieces of Her

Last year I read A LOT of good reviews for Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter. If the opportunity arose (which of course it did) to review this book, I was going to jump at the chance.

Does it live up to the hype? Does it meet my expectations? Yes. . .and No! By that I mean there is a lot to like but. . .there was just one character who I thought was the weakest link. Let's discuss.

Andrea has always felt like a failure. Moving to NYC from her small town in Georgia didn't work, as her career path and relationships quickly fizzled. Going back home to care for her cancer-stricken mother, Laura, was the perfect excuse to leave the big city.

Now that her mother is healthy again, what's next for Andrea? She can't live above her mother's garage forever. She has to do something with her life. Andrea doesn't have the answers, but life is about to throw a big curve ball at her.

While at the mall, Andrea and Laura find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. A shooter opens fire. While Andrea is quite literally frozen in fear by this act of violence, Laura is not. Laura confronts the shooter and eventually kills him (not a spoiler, this is the catalyst for whole the book), all with a calm and precision that Andrea doesn't recognize. Despite being injured in the attack, Laura remained calm under pressure. How was she able to do that? Andrea is about to find out.

Thirty years ago, Laura had a completely different life. A life which she's been on the run from for the past 30 years. As Andrea begins to piece together her mother's past, she wonders if she ever really knew her mother. Andrea even questions if Laura is her biological mother. The only way to get answers is to keep digging. Keep finding the people who knew Laura thirty years ago. Keep questioning everything in Laura's past until the puzzle is complete.

While Laura is strong and methodical, Andrea, in my opinion, was sooooooooo WEAK!! Every opportunity Andrea gets to rise to the occasion, she either freezes or makes things even worse. I read most of the book either on my commute or on my lunch break, I say this because I was in places where I couldn't scream at this book. Or I could have. . .but I would have gotten a lot of strange looks. Why did I need to scream? Because at times Andrea was just maddening!! I kept wanting her to stand up for herself. To assert herself. Be strong. It takes soooooo long for her to finally find that inner strength. Weak character aside, I did enjoy the book. I hope the eventual Netflix series makes Andrea's character a little bit less of a weakling!

Rating: Superb

Notes: I received a copy of the book from the publisher (HarperCollins) as part of a blog tour with TLC Book Tours.