What She Left

by T.R. Richmond

Alice Salmon
young, smart, ambitious -
with her whole life ahead of her.
Until the night she mysteriously drowns.

Nobody knows how or why.

But Alice left a few clues:
her diary, texts, emails, and presence on social media

Alice is gone but fragments of the life she led remain - and in them might lie the answer to what really happened to her - if only someone can piece it all together before it vanishes for ever . . .

Genres: Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Suspense

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

T. R. Richmond is an award-wining journalist who's written for local, regional and national newspapers, magazines and websites.

Reviews

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pégadas Digitais


"O que ela deixou" não é , quanto a mim, uma leitura viciante. É sim , uma leitura que ronda o factual e que tem tudo a ver com o tipo de comunicação que flui hoje em dia!
Nos tempos que correm, a internet é um gigantesco Fórum, onde se conta, comenta e partilha -- fala-se do que se faz, do que se fez e do que se há-de ou não vir a fazer!
São dores que se libertam, alegrias que se celebram, opiniões que se trocam...

Aprendemos! Mudamos! Melhoramos! Pioramos! Evoluímos! Involuímos!...

Estamos Todos Lá e uns para os outros!
Deixamos um rasto do nosso percurso até àquele instante em que sumimos! Fragmentos da nossa vida -- peças dum puzzle que alguém suficientemente perturbado pela nossa ausência poderá solucionar, obtendo alguma paz!...

O professor Jeremy Cooke, estabelecera em tempos um relacionamento flash com Alice Salmon -- alguns momentos fugazes que por razões diversas fôram truncados, deixando um pouco de água na boca! Aquele leve sabor a esperança do "talvez um dia", que só a morte ceifa de vez! Podiam ter sido mais, mas não fôram! Como aquelas sementes que se atiram à terra mas não dão frutos nem flores!...

Jeremy Cooke, agarrou-se aos diários de Alice Salmon e a tudo o que pôde deitar mão online, com vista a descortinar um sentido para a sua morte e preencher um pouco do vazio que ficara para trás!

Por estranho que pareça, pode ser mais fácil relacionarmo-nos com os mortos que com os vivos!!!

Não sendo um livro de leitura empolgante, "O Que Ela Deixou" levanta algumas questões pertinentes, e daí ser legítimo incluí-lo na categoria dos títulos recomendáveis.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up on this one at 40%, just couldn’t go on any more. 25 year old Alice Salmon’s body was found floating in a river and her story is told “mostly” by University Professor Jeremy Cooke who tries to rebuild an image of her life by collecting her digital footprint. At the start of the story we don’t know the connection between Jeremy and Alice, although as the book goes on it does become apparent.

The whole story is told by way of emails, blog posts, texts etcetera from many different viewpoints and at different points in time and the whole thing just doesn’t quite work. It feels disjointed and doesn’t flow nicely. Alice’s viewpoint is told by diary extracts and they just seemed to get lost in amongst all the other testimony. I didn’t feel that I was getting to know her as, to be honest, her diary entries weren’t that interesting and didn’t really make me care for her. There was nothing about them to make them stand out, or even to explain why Alice was such a special person.

Jeremy’s side of things is told in letter and email format and, I have to say, I just didn’t take to him at all.

There were quite a few typos which I expect will be dealt with before official publication but on the whole , this was just a bit too dull and boring for me to continue with.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

[Figgy · Rating 5 out of 5]

LINK UPDATED

Who is Alice Salmon?
Student. Journalist. Daughter.
Lover of late nights, hater of deadlines.

That girl who drowned last year.

Gone doesn’t mean forgotten.
Everyone’s life leaves a trace behind.
But it’s never the whole story.

We’ll all have to be strong for them now: your lovely dad with his mad sweaters and that way he has of saying Al-ice, pausing between the ‘Al’ and the ‘ice’ as if he’s asking a question, and your mum, your gorgeous mum, a one woman dynamo, who you’re an absolute spitting image of and take after in so many ways, but you won’t take after anyone anymore. It’s stopped, you have, a line’s been drawn under you, the last page in your book, and there’s a huge hole where you and that laugh and that AWFUL taste in music and those OUTRAGEOUS leggings should be.

Through the pages of this book you will come to know Alice, her best friend Megan, boyfriend Luke, family, loved ones, and even Jeremy Cooke, anthropologist, lecturer… lech?

I’m drunk, Liz. Not that it’s apparent. Can’t even do that well: get drunk. Look at this email: even the god-damn punctuation is right. I’m going to have another drink. The lecherous lecturer is going to get pie-eyed. A sober drunk. That’s an oxymoron if ever I heard one. Listen to me, an oxymoron. I’m even pretentious when I’m sozzled.

Dr Jeremy Cooke is quickly becoming the person who knows Alice best, through her diaries, emails, and anything using her voice, and you’ll find yourself quickly drawn into the lives of those within these pages.


At its heart, What She Left is a mystery – did she slip, commit suicide, was she killed? – but that’s not the most important thing about this book.

The rest of this review can be found here!

[ReadAlongWithSue ★⋆. ࿐࿔catching up · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in such a way it’s creepy and obsessive.

I couldn’t connect with this as the obsession is this girl whose now dead. He uses her blogs, emails, diary to open up her life except it wasn’t that interesting really.

There was no huge big reveal.

I think this is another book I left on my kindle expecting to try again and forgot about…oops.

[Estefani · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Thank you, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review also on Fiction Jungle

I just find it incredibly pleasing when an author can so easily pull you in and yet deliberately not show you an absolute picture of a story. In a intricate way we discover what happened to ordinary Alice, who she surrounded herself with, how we are led to believe, it was mysterious death.

You shouldn’t hesitate on picking this one up because of its format. Told from all sorts of files, transcripts, and social media updates by unreliable sources; the closest people to Alice, and watching it all unfold, how it doesn’t fail at creating this complex web of human reaction. It’s all kinds of wonderful.

Staying away from the reglementary pace of events of other mysteries you’ll realize the posts aren’t in chronological order, you’ll be jumping back and forth between fragments of the story, slowly trying to put the pieces together; making it an even bigger enigma.

I loved that What She Left doesn’t shy away from showing honest human condition, it makes the reader go through all kinds of emotion, it’ll make you doubt about your feelings for its questionable characters, it’s entertaining, it leaves some of it aspects unsettled, it is up to you to make whatever you want of it.

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[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel takes as its starting point the death of a young woman, called Alice Salmon. It demonstrates the way people communicate now via the internet; feeling utterly free to comment about the most personal events. In fact, the book virtually begins with tweets, speculating on the fact that police are down by the river and, gradually, we learn that the body found is that of Alice. Alice was a student at Southampton University and had recently began working in the media, as a journalist in local news.

As the book progresses, we gradually learn more about Alice’s life – and death – through emails, blogs, letters and interviews. Much of the written material comes from Professor Jeremy Cook, who decides to reconstruct her life out of all the fragments of material he can find. Professor Cook taught Alice and also had links to her mother, Elizabeth. We are introduced to all the important people in her life; from the three girls on a night out with her on the evening she drowned, to boyfriend Luke Addision, sometime lover Ben, the people she shared a flat with, her best friend Megan, brother and parents.

I found this quite an uncomfortable book in parts. Like so much online speculation, what begins as a tribute turns often into character assassination. Alice had been drinking on the night she drowned and this is used against her by people feeling free to comment, not only about Alice, but also about her friends and family. Although some of the words are from Alice herself, I never really felt that I got to know her. By far the most interesting character, for me, was that of the elderly Professor; although your perceptions of him change as the book goes on. I suspect that one of the issues I had with this novel was that I did not find the characters particularly sympathetic, or likeable, and I found it hard to engage with them. However, this is a very different approach to a thriller and I certainly found it an interesting read. Ultimately, though, I found it a bit of a struggle to get to the end and I was not sufficiently engaged to care too much about what happened to Alice on that fateful evening. It is, though, a debut which shows talent and I would certainly read another novel by this author.

[jennyliest · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rezi folgt ...

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely brilliantly constructed story, compelling and actually really quite scary when you can see, all in one go, how much of our lives are just out there in the ether for people to see. The little things and the big, the people who know you and who do not but will speak as if they do, even the smallest of details that you would not think twice about. When Alice Salmon dies, Jeremy Cook starts putting together her life and death through a series of interviews, online information and personal knowledge. Shocking and insightful this is a book you will NOT want to miss!

There is some wonderful writing, wrapped up in an almost matter of fact documentary style story, with surprises and emotional upset along the way,, exploring some extremely intriguing themes beyond that of the digital footprint and I was entirely wrapped up in the story of Alice from start to finish. A truly great read.

Even though we only see Alice through “What She Left” her character comes to life – it truly gives you pause for thought on how much information might inadvertently be out there about you and is an intelligent look at the onslaught of social media and what that means for privacy. How easily we give ourselves away. The author has wrapped this up in a truly compelling mystery that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happened to Alice – and indeed to the man who is writing about her life.

A very intriguing tale indeed.

Very Highly Recommended.

There is an interview with the author available on my blog:

http://lizlovesbooks.com/lizlovesbook...

Happy Reading Folks!

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is written quite differently: telling the story of Alice Salmon's life and death through diary entries, blogs, twitter posts, emails, letters, text messages and police interviews. One of the main characters in the book, Professor Cooke, is putting together all these pieces of information to publish an account of Alice's life. He comes across as being obsessed with Alice and is a little creepy and quite clearly crossing the line between appropriate teacher-student relationships.

The first half of the story I was really into and found it difficult to put down. I quite liked the way Alice's life and character were being revealed through the emails, blogs etc. However, after about 50% I found that I lost interest and began to lose any sympathy I had for Alice, and any of the other characters. By the end, I didn't really care how she died, though I did finish the novel to find out. I think it just went on for a bit too long for my liking.

I liked the idea and how it illustrated all the different traces we leave of ourselves online and just how easy it is to gain access into someone else's life. I had read mixed reviews of 'What She Left', some people seemed to love it while others couldn't finish it. I guess I fall in between, finding it ok but a bit boring at times.

[Tracy Fenton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some books are easy to review and the words come naturally... unfortunately not this one... I feel like I need a thesaurus just to start the opening sentence.! Firstly the primary narrator Cooke (Cock) made my skin crawl.. the most unpleasant, predatory slimy man with a pompous attitude didn't help matters much. All the characters were pretty unlikeable in their own unique way, and whilst in other books I have actually enjoyed reading about characters I despised... this one is not one of them. A rather long and in certain parts laborious journey to reach the end... an interesting idea which unfortunately falls short in my opinion!

[Deborah (debbishdotcom) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost put this book down several times and struggled with it on MANY levels. So I’ll be blunt.

1. Quite frankly Alice’s life wasn’t all that interesting.
2. Given the first point, Professor Cooke’s interest in Alice’s life is incredibly creepy. His interest becomes obsessive and it’s almost difficult to know how much of his narrative to believe given the way he justifies his interest. As for their ‘relationship’, I would have preferred suppositions about Alice’s parentage to be true.
3. The book jumps about a lot. I was constantly flicking backwards and forwards to look at dates. I don’t mind novels unfolding over multiple periods but this one was challenging. I think the fact that Jeremy’s letters to his friend cross several time periods don’t help (ie. we know when they’re written but he’s often talking about events from the past).
4. The book starts very slowly and it took me a LONG time to engage.
5. None of the characters are particularly likeable.

There were also some positives.

In the end I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened. So, the plot itself—despite more red herrings than Agatha Christie could poke a stick at—was sufficiently alluring. Richmond’s writing was fine and I liked the underlying messages about social media, our online identities, privacy and society’s interest in the macabre. I think Richmond also provided some thinking fodder in relation to how we perceive ourselves vs how we’re perceived by those around us. We certainly had the opportunity to ‘see’ most of the main characters through several sets of eyes.

My final thoughts: The book started a little too slowly for me. I eventually cared enough to keep reading, but it was pure resilience and my need for closure, which kept me going.

2.5 stars.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes.

[Bill Kupersmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I give a low rating to a book that some of my GR friends loved I fear appearing an awkward & nit-picking churl (nits of course being something you’d expect churls to have a lot of) or an old pedant, especially when the nits involve health-care or sailing. But it’s even more discomforting when I want to promote a book to field-marshal status that some of my discerning friends gave but a star or two @ most. But that’s my response to What She Left. Some Amazon Kindle books have this great feature where you get both Kindle & audio versions for only a bit more & that’s a must for this one. I was ready to award four stars when the audio finished & after using the search feature to check some details & read some sections again, I’ll give T. R. Richmond the baton. One of the main characters is supposed to be a lecturer in anthropology @ Southampton University. According to the league table, that uni ranks about 20th amongst British universities & I think I’d put my own University of Iowa @ roughly the same level over here. (Actually I’d rank our undergraduate programme in English much higher, @ least whilst I was actively teaching!). T. R. Richmond has absolutely nailed uni culture, especially the gossip & backstabbing amongst the faculty & their ceaseless anxiety about their status & reputation. Jeremy Cooke is your perfect example of a middling-level academic guilt-ridden by failure to live up to what he thought was his early promise, & now facing a diagnosis of prostrate cancer with an expectancy of 3 to 5 years. Tho’ that news hasn’t quite given him a sense of proportion - much less anything in the way of spiritual values - he’s @ least found a worthwhile project to occupy himself with, trying to discover what really happened to a 20-something alumna who recently drowned in the river Dore by reconstructing the past few years of her life from what the Victorians would have called her ‘remains’. These are constituted not only by diaries, newspaper cuttings & letters, but by emails, twitters, & blogs as well. So this book is in effect an 18th-century epistolary novel for the 21st century.

The victim is Alice Salmon,who loves Jane Austen, took her degree in English, started as a reporter for Southampton newspaper & has just made it to a national in London, when she falls into a weir (how like Victorian fiction!) whilst out on a drunken hen pub crawl revisiting Southampton. Like Cooke, I was utterly fixated on Alice & she recalled for me a lot of my best ex-students. (Friend me on Facebook & you can meet a few.) I was especially struck by the review of a rock group she was supposed to have written as an undergraduate, which begins: ‘The Dynamite Men are a band to watch They burst on to the stage at the Pump House, full of swagger & style & performed a sixty-minute set of hugely entertaining songs to a packed student audience.’ I had the privilege of teaching non-fiction writing for quite a few years & read numberless undergraduate reviews of rock concerts & T. R. Richmond caught perfectly the breathless tone of a writer trying to sound like a sophisticated rock & roll insider but not quite ready for the Rolling Stoner or NME. Alice is a wonderful character & her voice on the audio was utterly captivating. Cooke calls it ‘grammar school’ in the book. The audio voice sounded fairly up-scale but with a slight tendency to swallow her vowels - not quite that bell-like clarity of a home-counties voice. The accents of the other characters cover the whole range from the ex-roommate who’d been studying ‘Sport, Media, & Culture’ (he had the good sense to take up the more respectable pursuit of blackmailer instead) to the voice of Jeremy Cooke - read beautifully by Charles Dance, who will always be Sgt Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown for me.

Some readers will find Cooke odious - one reviewer called him ‘a dirty old man’. Obviously I’m prejudiced but as the book developed & we hear more of his version both of the backstory of the relationship with Alice’s mother Liz & with his encounter with the undergraduate Alice, he emerged in a different light. If you’ve had the experience of being estranged from someone to whom you never meant any harm & with whom you’d dearly like to be reconciled, only that person isn’t buying, you may feel some sympathy for him. Compared to the escapades of numerous former colleagues (mostly men but including some women) I’ve encountered in academe, Cooke’s affair with a junior colleague scarcely registers on the sleazeballicity scale.

The notion of a scholarly researcher who turns his skills to solving a mystery is old, tho’ applying it to mostly internet data (Cooke’s handwritten - with a fountain pen - letters to a Canadian friend are a wonderful anachronism) is a fairly recent take on the epistolary form of novel & after listening to the audio, I am rather vague on some of the details myself & am now slowly assembling the disjecta membra with the Kindle version, but it is worth the effort @ least for me. Personally, I would not have done what Cooke does in the popular book he writes from the results of his research. I would have kept silent about what really happened to Alice. I found Megan quite likeable & I thought she was only carried away by a sudden impulse & that she’d really loved Alice. I suspected all along that Megan might be the villain - it’s almost always the bestie who’s the betrayer. I’m not a cop. I don’t need a Solve. What good would it do Alice now to tell? But if you like let me know what you think you would do.

[Carlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I finished this book and logged into Goodreads to leave my review, I was shocked to see the low rating. I almost wondered if I had somehow built the book up to be more than it was, but after taking a day away from it I can say, without a doubt, this was a phenomenal book. Easily a 4.5 star book for me, but it may just be one of those books that you either love or you hate.

Alice has passed away, she is gone, and her death may not be solved any time soon. Her family and friends, while in mourning, are not the ones who really know her best anymore. Dr. Jeremy Cooke has made Alice's life his newest project. He is piecing her life back together, using her diary, shared information, passing communication, and voice mails to understand the women that people didn't really know. As truths are unfolded, he finds something even more shocking, something unexpected.

What She Left is a mystery, did Alice commit suicide, did she fall, did someone murder her? Who was Alice really anyway? We open the book to a winning writing entry about what's in a name. We glimpse into the young mind of Alice, who she thinks she is and who she may not be at all. In this brief, 1000 word entry, Alice comes to life and she can be anyone you want her to be. She's an enigmatic woman; she's brilliantly smart, haunted by a depression of sorts she calls IT, and what starts as drinking has turned into a sampling of other drugs. She uses words in the fight against criminals, answers questions in an odd sort of way, and has three men in her life that know her in very different ways. She was a beautiful character to read, both from her POV and from the POV of the other people in her life. You see, this isn't a normal prose novel, it is written from several POVs in the form of diary entries, blog posts, letters, forum postings, emails, and news articles. We don't ever really know Alice, except from her words, but we know her family, her friends, her passing acquaintances, and we know the man who's studying her after death. Dr. Cooke is what you expect him to be, an aging academic who never reached his full potential. Who's life crossed Alice's in way it never should have, but left such an impression on him. It was a lot like reading from the perspective of someone who felt they'd lost the one, the one that got away, but with no romance. I enjoyed his letters and how he told stories of his past, his current interactions, and his writing style for the book her is releasing to the world about Alice.

At times, this book was hard to follow, the 380 pages started to feel like they were 500. At times it was uncomfortable, boring, or too much unrelated to the story, but it all comes together at the end. I found myself skimming pages at times, then had to go back and read to understand. The fragments of Alice's life are just that, fragments. As a reader it is impossibly hard to read this book and not really know the character, but to only feel the emotions in the words from those who knew her. There are also some parts of the book that are tough to read, the relationships aren't pretty, Alice's spiral and struggle with IT definitely isn't pretty, but it all was just a shadow of who she really was, a person the reader can never really know.

I took a lot away from this book, but mostly I ended this book with an understanding that it wasn't really a story about Alice at all, but a glimpse into how life is for a twenty-five year old and how easily her life was recreated through words. It is a look into the human condition and how much our use of media puts our life out there for anyone. I loved that the main story teller, Dr. Cooke, who writes in letters to a pen pal, tells his side of the story from the eyes of an elder who doesn't use media the same was as the younger generation does. He sees where they have overshared on blogs, that words are deleted, that communication is easily found when you look. Over the course of the novel, we start to truly see Alice, to understand her life, and even begin to see what happened to her on the fateful night when she died. I loved the modern take on the epistolary style writing and the gradual character formation we get from those who knew Alice. I liked that I didn't really know all the characters that well until the very end, I liked the slow increase of characters sharing information about their relationship with Alice, and I really liked how we finally find out all the truths.

I purchased the audio version today, I am really looking forward to starting this one over from a new perspective. Plus, Emilia Clarke is the voice of Alice and I cannot wait for that.

I would like to thank Netgalley for providing an ARC of What She Left in exchange for my honest review.
For more of my reviews and personal thoughts, visit my blog Carlene Inspired.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel takes as its starting point the death of a young woman, called Alice Salmon. It demonstrates the way people communicate now via the internet; feeling utterly free to comment about the most personal events. In fact, the book virtually begins with tweets, speculating on the fact that police are down by the river and, gradually, we learn that the body found is that of Alice. Alice was a student at Southampton University and had recently began working in the media, as a journalist in local news.

As the book progresses, we gradually learn more about Alice’s life – and death – through emails, blogs, letters and interviews. Much of the written material comes from Professor Jeremy Cook, who decides to reconstruct her life out of all the fragments of material he can find. Professor Cook taught Alice and also had links to her mother, Elizabeth. We are introduced to all the important people in her life; from the three girls on a night out with her on the evening she drowned, to boyfriend Luke Addision, sometime lover Ben, the people she shared a flat with, her best friend Megan, brother and parents.

I found this quite an uncomfortable book in parts. Like so much online speculation, what begins as a tribute turns often into character assassination. Alice had been drinking on the night she drowned and this is used against her by people feeling free to comment, not only about Alice, but also about her friends and family. Although some of the words are from Alice herself, I never really felt that I got to know her. By far the most interesting character, for me, was that of the elderly Professor; although your perceptions of him change as the book goes on. I suspect that one of the issues I had with this novel was that I did not find the characters particularly sympathetic, or likeable, and I found it hard to engage with them. However, this is a very different approach to a thriller and I certainly found it an interesting read. Ultimately, though, I found it a bit of a struggle to get to the end and I was not sufficiently engaged to care too much about what happened to Alice on that fateful evening. It is, though, a debut which shows talent and I would certainly read another novel by this author.

[Jeann (Happy Indulgence) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review appears on Happy Indulgence! Check it out for more reviews!

What an absolutely frustrating book with deplorable characters! My emotions ran high while reading What She Left, a thriller where a girl has died drowned in a river. What results is a media storm, social media commentary and the vested interest of Professor Jeremy Cooke who collects all mentions of Alice’s life and death, which frankly, wasn’t that interesting.

I do enjoy a story told using creative mediums, and this one features snippets of Alice’s diary, Jeremy’s letters, emails, media clippings and social media snippets. But at the risk of sounding callous, the circumstances surrounding Alice’s death were hardly suspicious, so much of the collected media pieces on it were quite boring.

The story is rather slow going which made me more and more frustrated – especially when I discovered that each and every character featured here, including Alice, were incredibly unlikable. Jeremy was super creepy with his obsession with Alice and her mother, and he was overwhelmingly pompous with how he got away with cheating on his wife. The guys which Alice were involved in were abusive jerks and her mother, gosh I wanted to slap her so hard at getting involved with her previous affair.

Once I hit the 40% mark and realised the story wasn’t going anywhere, I started skimming furiously and realised I didn’t miss much at all when I got to the end. More of Jeremy’s self-inflated commentary, more of Alice’s stupid decisions and more people getting involved with Alice’s life that I did not care about.

It’s not often that I give out 1 stars but What She Left just did not float my boat. With supremely unlikable characters, an agonisingly slow pace and a lot of resulting frustrating, I just wanted this to be over.

I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Esil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an opportunity to read an advance copy of What She Left. Closer to 2 1/2 stars. I was attracted to the concept of this book, but I didn't feel particularly engaged as I read it. Alice Salmon -- a 25 year old journalist -- drowns in a river in Southampton on a night of heavy drinking. What She Left is meant to be a reconstruction of Alice's life and death as seen through the writings of many people in Alice's life -- including tweets, emails, diaries, transcripts of interviews and letters -- and as edited by Jeremy Cooke -- an unreliable editor and narrator who's had his own sordid dealings with Alice and her mother. As I say, this was a good concept but ultimately it felt disjointed and I wasn't clear on who Alice was or why her story should interest me. And as is often the case, What She Left reminded me of another book I read recently that I liked far more that worked on a similar concept -- The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2.... I don't like to slag a first novel, but this one didn't really work for me.

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wer war Alice" ist mir bereits vor dem Erscheinungstag ins Auge gesprungen und somit stand für mich sehr schnell fest, dass ich dem Buch unbedingt eine Chance geben wollte. Da die Kurzbeschreibung einfach großartig klang, habe ich hier eine spannende und ereignisreiche Geschichte erwartet und muss sagen, dass ich dies zum Großteil bekommen habe - wenn auch etwas anders, als zuvor erwartet.

Die Geschichte ist nämlich kein klassischer Roman, sondern eine Zusammensetzung aus Briefen, Emails und Co. An sich ganz nett, da ich solche Bücher sehr mag, allerdings empfand ich die Geschichte besonders auf den ersten fünfzig Seiten als sehr anstrengend, weil ich mich stellenweise nicht so drauf einlassen konnte, wie ich es zuvor noch erhofft habe. Allerdings wurde es mit der Zeit immer besser und ich erhielt zahlreiche Informationen über Alice und ihren Tod.

Die Geschichte ist schnell erzählt: Alice stirbt in einem Fluss. Mit gerade einmal 25 Jahren. Ihr Tod lässt dabei viele Menschen nicht los und somit wird nicht nur über die junge Frau viel geredet und falsche Gerüchte verbreitet, sondern auch ihr gesamter Tod aufbereitet. Wer hier also wirklich einen Roman erwartet hat, der wird enttäuscht sein, da die Geschichte eher an ein Puzzle in Buchform erinnert.

Und dies ist auch ein kleiner Kritikpunkt, denn durch den Schreibstil sind mir die Charaktere leider fremd geblieben. Ich habe zwar ihre Worte in mich aufgenommen, wurde mitr ihnen allerdings nicht warm und somit konnte ich niemanden von ihnen großartig Sympathie entgegenbringen. Dies ist ein wenig schade, denn ich hätte mich gerne mehr in sie hineinversetzt, allerdings habe ich mich nach spätestens fünfzig Seiten damit mehr oder weniger abgefunden.

Das Cover ist sehr schön anzusehen und hat mir direkt zugesagt, sodass ich auch umgehend die Kurzbeschreibung gelesen habe. Beides zusammen war für mich so ansprechend, sodass ich dem Buch sehr gerne eine Chance gegeben habe.

Kurz gesagt: "Wer war Alice" ist eine spannende und interessante Geschichte, deren Schreibstil zwar aufgrund des Aufbaus aus Briefen, Emails und Co. nicht jedermanns Sache sein dürfte, mich aber dennoch gut unterhalten konnte. Wer schon immer mal eine Art Puzzle in Buchform lesen wollte, der ist hier genau richtig. Wer eher einen klassischen Roman erwartet, der könnte dagegen enttäuscht sein.

[Nikki "The Crazie Betty" V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strange read. Interesting. But strange nonetheless. The entire book is told through news articles, tweets, texts, voicemails, and letters. There is absolutely no narrator due to us only getting this story through ad hoc modes of media. The, I guess you call him, MC (Old Cookie) is an anthropology professor who makes it his goal to recreate Alice's life before her death, and unearth previously unknown facts and secrets about her and those close to her. (this is not a spoiler, it is the entire point of the book. Alice literally dies in the first 2 pages of the story).

Anyway, Old Cookie wants to write a book with all the information he collects called, yep you guessed it, "What She Left". We are basically reading Old Cookie's book that he's written after Alice's death. Overall the story was fairly depressing as we find out truly what kind of person Alice was in life, what she had been through, along with all the sordid details of the secrets that tend to come to light after a person has passed away. At times you will be absolutely convinced that you know what happened and that you know her secrets. Let me just tell you. You don't. You don't have any clue and you won't know until you start getting to a close. I kept going back and forth from 3 to 4 stars but ultimately decided on 4 purely for the fact that I had no idea what the twist was going to be so the author definitely surprised me.

I would recommend this book to fans of The Girl on the Train and maybe also Gone Girl. Even though I personally didn't care for GOTT but loved GG.

I received a copy of this arc for free through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Malia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so wanted to like this, and be sucked in the way other reviewers were, unfortunately, I was rather disappointed:-(
I usually like multiple POVs, and I don't even mind jumping around in time, as long it's made clear, but I just felt that was taken a step too far in WHAT SHE LEFT. I read a lot of crime fiction, and can generally follow the flow of a story quite well, but I felt rather confused with this book at multiple points, particularly the ending.
The premise is quite clever, and I give Richmond credit for trying it. The story is told through a variety of sources - emails, twitter, letters, blogs, etc. - and by various people who knew the dead woman, Alice, as well as Alice herself. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the story quickly veered into several directions, all of which didn't amount to much in the end. My issue was more with Alice and Jeremy (the main storytellers), both of whom seemed like rather arrogant, unpleasant people. Both were obviously meant to be flawed, something that actually tends to make characters more memorable than perfection, yet their flaws were such that I would not want to know them, and, to be fair, they would probably not click with me either.
I really hate giving less than three stars to any book, because as a writer myself, I truly appreciate the work that is put into creating it. In this case, however, it was simply not for me. Others obviously enjoy it greatly, but I couldn't connect with the characters, and the plot felt ultimately unsatisfying.

Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book opens with the discovery of the body of Alice Salmon, a 25 year old journalist. The police treat her death as suspicious, not ruling out suicide, murder or accidental death. The narrator, a professor at the Southampton university that she attended, decides to reconstruct her life from her online posts, text messages, photos, friends posts, diary entries, etc. The book has a slow start and is somewhat difficult to follow, as it switches back and forth between the various entries and letters/emails written by and to the narrator. I found the narrator to be a rather creepy person, who had an adulterous affair with the mother of the deceased woman. Liz, the mother, tried to commit suicide when he broke off the affair. When the police focus on a suspect in the possible murder of Alice, there are witnesses who suggest that her death may have been a suicide.
One review blurb(Huffington Post) called this a classic whodunit, with a modern twist. The ending was a surprise to me. I rate it 3.5(rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.
One quote: "The seminar guy had asked what a photograph actually was and when no one answered he asked me... and I'd gone red and blurted out, A fragment, a bit like freezing time,..."
Thanks to the publisher for sending me this book through the Goodreads Giveaway program.

[Ivo Stoyanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Доста добър роман за циничността на обществото днес , Алис си отива от този свят по неизвестни причини и след себе си оставя куп имейли и следи в социалните мрежи . Дали е посегнала на себе си или е била убита ?Дали хората днес преодоляват по-лесно различията между поколенията благодарение на соц мрежи или пропастта става още по-голяма .

[Paulo Pires · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.3)

«Alice Salmon jaz num rio! Será suicídio? Haverá algum responsável pela morte da jovem? É besta a dúvida que é alimentada ao longo do livro. Em cada página as hipóteses multiplicam-se. Estaremos preparados para a resposta?




Esta foi uma leitura diferente! A forma como o livro é apresentado é inusual e a conexão entre as cenas marcam um livro que não obedece a uma ordem cronológica dos factos, mas vai-nos servindo lentamente, a seu belo prazer, os vislumbres e as revelações do que realmente aconteceu, tentando ludibriar a percepção do leitor.

Enquanto não nos adaptamos e absorvemos a mecânica do enredo a leitura faz-se lentamente, a medo que deixemos perder algum detalhe que possa revelar-se imprescindível para a resposta pretendida: O que aconteceu a Alice Salmon? Mas depois de quebrada a resistência das primeiras folhas a curiosidade mantém o leme da leitura.




Cartas, mails, posts de blogs, diários, SMS's, interrogatórios, publicações nas redes sociais e comunicação social, aparentemente desconexas compõem o tecido em que nos é servido o enredo. Numa mistura de relatos íntimos introspectivos, de confissões entre amigos e amantes, de revelações inusitadas e da exposição pública dos meios de comunicação, vamos colectando os fragmentos de uma história que podia ser a de qualquer um de nós!

Vejo neste livro uma pintura muito próxima e coerente com o que é o dia a dia da nossa sociedade, da urgência em obter respostas, na "criação" incoerente dessas mesmas "respostas" de forma a obter uma rápida e efémera satisfação pessoal. Na superficialidade do nosso olhar e na propensão para colocarmos rótulos e opinarmos sobre tudo e todos.

O que mais gostei no livro: (...)

Ler mais em:
Opinião: O Que Ela Deixou de T.R. Richmond |Livros e Marcadores

[Ελενη Ηλιαδου · Rating 4 out of 5]

📕📕📕 Η άποψη μου 📕📕📕

Τίτλος: Τι άφησε πίσω της

Ο καθένας μας καθημερινά αφήνει μια σειρά από ίχνη, ένα αποτύπωμα, ένα σημάδι. Το σημάδι μας !
Άραγε θα ήταν δυνατό να ανακατασκευάσουμε μια ζωή από τέτοια σπαράγματα ; Να ανασυνθέσουμε ένα πρόσωπο, να το ξανα συναρμολογήσουμε από τέτοια εφήμερα θραύσματα;
Αυτά τα ερωτήματα μου πρόσφερε αυτό το πρωτότυπο μυθιστόρημα !
Γνωρίζουμε πλέον ότι το υλικό της ζωης μας εισρέει άφθονο ξεδιπλωμένο σε φωτογραφίες, μέιλ, μηνύματα κινητών, συνομιλίες στο Facebook...σε μια σύγχρονη κοινωνία που τρέχει με καταιγιστικούς ρυθμούς κάνοντας μας να ξεχάσουμε ότι παλιά δεν ήμασταν τίποτα περισσότερο από μερικές καταγραφές σε επίσημα έγγραφα... ήμασταν μόνο χάρτινα αντικειμενικά αρχεία... ένα πιστοποιητικό γέννησης, ένα δίπλωμα οδήγησης, ένα πιστοποιητικό γάμου και τέλος ένα πιστοποιητικό θανάτου!
Τώρα βρισκόμαστε σε χίλια μέρη...ετερόκλητοι αλλά πλήρεις...εφήμεροι και ωστόσο μόνιμοι ψηφιακοί αλλά πραγματικοί...Ναι και σε αυτόν τον κόσμο είναι αδύνατον να έχουμε πια μυστικά !
Ένα βιβλίο που ο συγγραφέας κατάφερε να μου αποδώσει άριστα όλα αυτά τα ερωτήματα όλα αυτά τα συμπεράσματα προσφέροντας μου τροφή για σκέψη !
Με μάγεψε η γραφή του γιατί συνδυάζει δυο στοιχεία όσο παράδοξο και αν ακούγετε... προσφέρει ένα λεξιλόγιο απλό...νεανικό της σύγχρονης κοινωνίας μας...σε συνδυασμό με ένα πλούσιο λεξιλόγιο που έχει χαθεί από την νέα γενιά...και όλα αυτά χωρίς να κουράζει τον αναγνώστη...θα βρείτε λέξεις μαγικες...λέξεις που θα διαβάζαμε σε ένα άλλου είδους λογοτεχνικό εγχείρημα!
Με κούρασαν λιγάκι οι πολλές εναλλαγές που κάνει στα πρόσωπα που τοποθετούν την δίκη τους ιστορία για την πρωταγωνίστρια του βιβλίου αλλά με κράτησε με την μαγεία των λέξεων !
Το συστήνω ανεπιφύλακτα και περισσότερο στην νέα γενιά! Θα αποκομίσουν πολλά διαβάζοντας το!
Του βάζω 4/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💋

Σύνοψη του βιβλίου "Τι άφησε πίσω της"

Η ζωή της Άλις Σάλμον βρίσκεται στο διαδίκτυο. Εσύ, θα λύσεις τον γρίφο του θανάτου της.

Η εικοσιπεντάχρονη Άλις Σάλμον πέθανε πέρσι το Φεβρουάριο. Ο τραγικός πνιγμός της έγινε πρώτο θέμα στις ειδήσεις, στο διαδίκτυο και στις καρδιές των κοντινών της προσώπων. Τι, όμως, πραγματικά συνέβη στην Άλις; Ο πνιγμός της ήταν ατύχημα, αυτοκτονία ή, μήπως, δολοφονία;

Ο καθηγητής Τζέρεμι Κουκ γνώριζε την Άλις. Κάποτε ήταν φοιτήτριά του και τώρα το αντικείμενο της εμμονής του. Μια εμμονή που τον οδηγεί στη συγγραφή ενός βιβλίου που καταγράφει τη ζωή της Άλις μέσα από όλα όσα άφησε πίσω της: το ημερολόγιό της, επιστολές, γραπτά μηνύματα, άρθρα, αναρτήσεις στο Facebook και tweets.

Μέσα από την έρευνα του Κουκ αναδύεται η πραγματική Άλις και σελίδα με τη σελίδα ξεδιπλώνεται μια συγκλονιστική ιστορία γεμάτη μυστικά, ψέματα και παρεξηγήσεις όπου όλοι -ακόμη και ο ίδιος- έχουν κάτι να κρύψουν.

Το "Τι άφησε πίσω της" είναι ένα σύγχρονο, τολμηρό και εξαιρετικά πρωτότυπο μυθιστόρημα γεμάτο αγωνία και ανατροπές, όπου ο αναγνώστης μετατρέπεται σε ντετέκτιβ και καλείται να λύσει τον γρίφο του θανάτου της Άλις Σάλμον μέσα από τα ψηφιακά αποτυπώματα που άφησε πίσω της.

Συγγραφέας: Richmond T. R.
Ημερ/νία έκδοσης: 2/2016
Εκδότης: Bell
Σελίδες: 408

[Mónica Pereira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foi uma leitura interessante na qual só o facto de a história nos ser contada através de cartas, passagens nos diários, emails, mensagens por texto e voice mail, como através de notícias, entre outras aqui começamos pelo fim, pela morte de Alice Salmon e o que esse acontecimento desencadeia em todas as pessoas ligadas a esta jovem!
Fiquei surpreendida, claro, no final, não estando à espera que isso acontecesse!
Gostei da leitura sim, mas não me consegui ligar muito ao livro em si, não pela a história ser real ou por estar escrito de forma diferente mas porque não tive o suspense e a curiosidade como tenho em muitos policiais/thrillers!
Mas mesmo assim não deixa de ser uma leitura que pode agradar qualquer leitor pela maneira de escrita ser totalmente diferente de que estamos habituados!

[Judy Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A special thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

T. R. Richmond delivers a clever contemporary psychological suspense, WHAT SHE LEFT, centered around social media—love, obsession, and revenge. What happened to Alice Salmon? A mysterious, dark, and intriguing debut.

Alice Salmon is a journalist. Twenty- five years old, her body is found washed up on the riverbank in Southampton, south of London—creating a media frenzy. A music fan, bookworm, and a lover of the outdoors. An accident, a suicide, or murder?

Professor, Jeremy Cooke (Old Cookie), is an anthropologist, ready to retire. Alice was his former student. He is obsessed with documenting her life through her social media (Facebook, Twitter, blog posts, comments, diaries, texts, letters, etc.). He sets out interviewing everyone she came in contact with. A strange bird, he is not well liked. Jeremy has no male friends except Larry, a childhood pen-friend he confides in. However, what is Mr. Cooke hiding? He has his own agenda. His legacy.

A gripping modern suspense, the author combines today’s digital age of social media, where nothing is a secret---and twisted entries and musings of Alice and her friends for a chilling tale, leaving your head spinning. An untold news story unfolds piece by piece.

Not any really likable characters, readers will need to put on their detective hat to try and read between the lines. Allowing readers to see temptations, moral consequences, stalkers, obsessions, and the dark side of cyberspace. Unlike a footprint in the sand, social media and the internet is more permanent. Opinions and judgments are formed. Where privacy is made public and cannot be so easy erased.

On Tumblr we often see “My Blog Speaks For Me.” Yes, we learn a lot about someone, by the pictures they post, even if there is no text or words. We form an opinion about the person behind the images.

“The lie that reveals the truth.” "A lie’s halfway round the world before the truth’s got its boots on." "Being honest isn’t hard; it’s the lying that’s hard." "The lie that reveals the truth." "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” ― Mark Twain

As always, I enjoy learning the inspiration behind the novel—the spark.

Background:
In 2012, journalist Tim Relf (pseudonym T R Richmond) was scrolling through his Twitter feed when he spotted someone musing on what song they would want played at their funeral. Millions of conversations like this play out on Twitter every day, but it struck him that it was actually a hugely intimate detail to share. It got the author thinking: what else could he learn about this person on social media?

That kernel of an idea grew into the plot for What She Left - a ‘whodunnit’ which attempts to untangle the death of a twenty-something woman by piecing together her digital legacy. The story is told through a series of tweets, Facebook posts, emails, playlists and forum comments, along with more traditional letters and diary entries.

I also enjoyed the author’s humor and other tidbits which I have included on my website.

I listened to the audio book prior to reading the digital copy. While the audiobook is very well done, Emilia Clarke (Alice Salmon) and Charles Dance ( Professor Cooke), it can get confusing with the back and forth of the dates and times; however; the narration and voices were true to their characters. I enjoyed following up with the digital copy, in order to follow along with the date entries, while bookmarking..

The novel is more about the journey than the destination, for me. Very cool, in real life---as an extension of the book, both leading characters have their own social media presence. Alice-Facebook; Cooke-Tumblr/Twitter.

Leaving us all with a question of what do we really leave behind? Perception. Interpretation. Perspective. We are leaving a trail in this complex internet world in our daily communication and interactions.

At its core, an intriguing well-written mystery and an exploration of human dynamics, grief, and loss with a unique twist. Fans of both literary and psychological suspense will enjoy the entertaining adventure. Look forward to reading more from this talented author and savvy journalist.

JDCMustReadBooks

[Georgia Zarkadaki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Απο τις βαθμολογιες που του εβαλαν στο Goodreads φαινεται πως οι αναγνωστες που επελεξαν αυτο το βιβλιο χωριζονται σε δυο στρατοπεδα: αυτους που του εβαλαν 4/5 αστερακια και αυτους που του χαρισαν μονο ενα. Εγω ανηκω καπου ενδιαμεσα (;) και θα του βαλω δυο. Δεν μου αρεσε, αλλα δεν με εκνευρισε κιολας.

Λοιπον, η Αλις μια 25χρονη δημοσιογραφος βρισκεται νεκρη στο ποταμι του Σαουθαμπτον μετα απο ενα βραδυ bar-hoping και αγριας καταναλωσης αλκοολ. Εχει ηδη πεθανει οταν ξεκιναει η ιστορια μας, αν το πρωτο πραγμα που διαβαζεις ειναι μια εκθεση της που κερδισε καποιο βραβειο, ετσι για να παρεις μια γευση απο την πρωταγωνιστρια μας. Το νημα του μυστηριου του θανατου της θα αποφασισει να ξεδιπλωσει ενας παλιος της Καθηγητης που της εχει μια καποια αδυναμια. Καποιοι θα ελεγαν και οτι ειναι εμμονικος μαζι της. Οι χαρακτηρες ηταν μονοδιαστατοι και βαρετοι. Αν και ο μονος που ξεχωριζε καπως ηταν ο Καθηγητης Κουκ, δεν γλυτωσε και αυτος απο την πενα του συγγραφεα. Τα κομματια του ηταν τα μονα που πραγματικα μου αρεσε να διαβαζω, αν και συχνα βαριομουν. Η Αλις δε, μια γυναικα που υποτιθεται πως ειναι εξυπνη,ενδιαφερουσα και πολυ ω μα πολυ ιδιαιτερη ηταν μια βαρεμαρα και μιση. Εμοιαζε με ολες τις αλλες κοπελες που κυκλοφορουν εκει εξω. Την σχεδιασε ο/η (πραγματικα δεν μπορω να βρω το φυλο του συγγραφεα) συγγραφεας τελειως meh. Αν και ειμαι σιγουρη πως δεν ηταν αυτο που ηθελε.

Α, θα πρεπει να σας ενημερωσω πως ολο το βιβλιο αποτελειται απο blog posts,facebook posts,tweets,emails και μηνυματα. Μονο.

Και δυστυχως ενω ηταν το στοιχειο που με επεισε να το αγορασω, ηταν και ενας απο τους κυριους λογους που δεν μου αρεσε. Ενιωθες οτι επρεπε συνεχως να κοβεις τον ειρμο της ιστοριας για να πας στο tweet που ακολουθουσε ή σε καποιο email και αυτο εσπαγε την ιστορια στο μυαλο μου.Αλλο επισης πολυ κακο στοιχειο του ηταν η συνεχης χρηση στοιχειων της εποχης μας (οπως συγκροτηματα,εκπομπες κτλ) που εκανε το βιβλιο πολυ dated και που σιγουρα με εκανε να νιωθω πως ο συγγραφεας προσπαθει παρα πολυ να γινει συμπαθης. Το μυστηριο παλι ηταν πολυ,πολυ ευκολο και χιλιοειπωμενο. Τα εχουμε πει, και με περισσοτερη επυτυχια. Ουφ.

Δεν ξερω, διαβασε το και πες μου την αποψη σου, ισως και να σου αρεσει. Εμενα παλι,μπα.

[pfaffingers_bibliophilie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worum geht´s?
Der Name des Buches verrät hier schon, worum es gehen soll. Wer war Alice? Alice ist eine junge Journalistin, die eines Morgens tot aufgefunden wird. DIe Polizei geht zunächst von Selbstmord aus. Ein alter College-Professor versucht nun herauszufinden, wer Alice wirklich war.

Meine Meinung:
Ich wollte dieses Buch unbedingt lesen und war mehr als begeistert, als ich es bei @rebuy_recommerce in einem hervorragenden Zustand bekommen habe, da die 1. Auflage im Handel nicht mehr erhältlich ist.
Das Buch begann so gut, hat mich aber dennoch sehr enttäuscht. Ich mag die Aufmachung des Buches. Es ist eine Collage aus verschiedenen Textarten. Briefe, E-Mails, Blogeinträge wechseln sich mit SMS-Nachrichten, Twitterbeiträgen und Zeitungsartikeln ab. Toll empfand ich auch die verschiedenen Perspektiven, man erfährt, wie Freunde und Familie mit Alice Tod umgehen. Leider ist der Weg durch das Buch aber ziemlich langatmig und zäh. Ich meine, ja es ist ein Roman und kein Thriller, aber etwas mehr Spannung hätte dem Buch gut getan. Die unendlich langen Ergüsse des Professors an seinen Freund … gäääähn… Ehrlich, die hätte es nicht gebraucht! Sicher gab es Impulse, die der Autor setzte, die Spannung brachten, aber leider überwogen die langweiligen Passagen.
Ich habe tatsächlich mit mir gekämpft und wollte das Buch abbrechen, weil ich einfach keine Lust hatte, weiter zu lesen und mich mit allem anderen beschäftigt habe, um der Lesezeit zu entrinnen. Das Ende war okay, konnte mich aber auch nicht mehr beschwingen, um beim Verlag um eine 2. Auflage zu betteln.

Fazit: Tolle Idee, schwache Umsetzung. Von mir persönlich gibt es keine Leseempfehlung.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teaser Review: Full review to come upon publication.

An absolutely brilliantly constructed story, compelling and actually really quite scary when you can see, all in one go, how much of our lives are just out there in the ether for people to see. The little things and the big, the people who know you and who do not but will speak as if they do, even the smallest of details that you would not think twice about. When Alice Salmon dies, Jeremy Cook starts putting together her life and death through a series of interviews, online information and personal knowledge. Shocking and insightful this is a book you will NOT want to miss!

There is some wonderful writing, wrapped up in an almost matter of fact documentary style story, with surprises and emotional upset along the way,, exploring some extremely intriguing themes beyond that of the digital footprint and I was entirely wrapped up in the story of Alice from start to finish. A truly great read.

Very Highly Recommended. A full and in depth review will appear in a feature day for the novel nearer the time of publication.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the premise of What She Left is good and I was excited by the idea of the epistolary format, yet somehow the story didn't quite live up to it's potential for me. There seemed to be more focus on Professor Cooke, Alice's former tutor, than on Alice and her life. I also struggled with the scattered timeline and fairly slow pace

[Joana’s World · Rating 2 out of 5]

Não me cativou desde o início nem consegui termina-lo apesar de até ser de leitura fácil. Decepcionante, tinha imensas expectativas para este livro.