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The Missing World
What if--by a stroke of fortune--you could start afresh, could wipe away that catastrophic blunder in your past? And to what lengths would you go to establish that in fact you'd done nothing wrong at all? After an accident robs Hazel of three years' worth of memory, just such an opportunity is granted to her ex-boyfriend Jonathan. What follows in Margot Livesey's The Missing World is a brilliant inverted love one man's desperate attempts to realize and rationalize a lie, and a woman's harrowing attempts to recognize the truth.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
About the author
Margot Livesey
34 books543 followersMargot grew up in a boys' private school in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught, and her mother, Eva, was the school nurse. After taking a B.A. in English and philosophy at the University of York in England she spent most of her twenties working in restaurants and learning to write. Her first book, a collection of stories called Learning By Heart, was published in Canada in 1986. Since then Margot has published nine novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on Fortune Street, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Mercury and The Boy in the Field. She has also published The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing. Her tenth novel, The Road from Belhaven, will be published by Knopf in February, 2024.
Margot has taught at Boston University, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon, Cleveland State, Emerson College, Tufts University, the University of California at Irvine, the Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers, and Williams College. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the Massachusetts Artists' Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Margot currently teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Margot has taught at Boston University, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon, Cleveland State, Emerson College, Tufts University, the University of California at Irvine, the Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers, and Williams College. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the Massachusetts Artists' Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Margot currently teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
July 8, 2015
Just awful. All the characters were absolutely miserable people, and one in particular was a borderline psychopath. After Jonathan and Hazel broke up, Hazel was in an accident which left her with no memory of the last 3 years. Jonathan sees this as an opportunity to rewrite their past and reclaim her, so he brings her back to his home and proceeds to nurse her back to health, all the while claiming to love her. But he doesn't love her so much as he wants to control her. And he will go to any means to do so.
There are other characters who are unlikable in their own way: Charlotte, a would be actress with no ambition who depends on others to support her. She might as well have a big L for loser stamped on her head; Freddie, an African-American who is currently working as a roofer but prefers to lie on his couch and is still trying to find himself; Maud, Hazel's best friend, but with an ulterior motive for hanging around her and Jonathan; and some other assorted crazies. There is one character, Mrs. Craig, who is initially described as a nut, but is probably the sanest of the lot.
I almost gave up on this book about halfway through, after Jonathan raped Hazel during a seizure; I was just so disgusted. But I wanted a small book to take to the hair salon and I was mildly curious as to how the author would handle the aftermath of this incident. As with the rest of the book, it was very disappointing.
So there it is. I've got nothing good to say about this book. The writing is mundane, the characters are horrible people and I am so glad to be done with it.
There are other characters who are unlikable in their own way: Charlotte, a would be actress with no ambition who depends on others to support her. She might as well have a big L for loser stamped on her head; Freddie, an African-American who is currently working as a roofer but prefers to lie on his couch and is still trying to find himself; Maud, Hazel's best friend, but with an ulterior motive for hanging around her and Jonathan; and some other assorted crazies. There is one character, Mrs. Craig, who is initially described as a nut, but is probably the sanest of the lot.
I almost gave up on this book about halfway through, after Jonathan raped Hazel during a seizure; I was just so disgusted. But I wanted a small book to take to the hair salon and I was mildly curious as to how the author would handle the aftermath of this incident. As with the rest of the book, it was very disappointing.
So there it is. I've got nothing good to say about this book. The writing is mundane, the characters are horrible people and I am so glad to be done with it.
November 30, 2023
DNF at the end of chapter 2 because of language and the inability of the story to draw me in. Too many books and so little time to read something I know I won't like.
January 19, 2015
What if - by a seeming stroke of fortune - you could start again, could start afresh and wipe away that one catastrophic blunder in your past. Just how far would you go to establish that you had, in fact, done nothing wrong at all? After an accident causes Hazel to have amnesia, and she loses three years' worth of her memory, just such an opportunity is presented to her ex-boyfriend Jonathan. He is absolutely undone by his betrayal of this woman, whom he professes to love above all, and he is determined to do everything within his power to make it up to her; to earn her forgiveness.
While Jonathan begins to rewrite his and Hazel's history together, two other misfits - an American sojourner and an unlucky English actress - travel around London, each of them haunted by indelible memories which they would much rather forget. Eventually their hopes for redemption draw them toward Jonathan and Hazel, who has become a virtual prisoner of Jonathan's most cherished whims and desires. The story that follows is a brilliantly inverted love story: a story which chronicles one man's desperate attempts to realize and rationalize a lie, and a woman's harrowing attempts to recognize the truth.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Margot Livesey is, in my opinion, a terrific writer, and she captures the essence of characters beautifully. As a matter of fact, the character of Charlotte is so like my sister-in-law, they could have been twins. I give The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey a definite A!
While Jonathan begins to rewrite his and Hazel's history together, two other misfits - an American sojourner and an unlucky English actress - travel around London, each of them haunted by indelible memories which they would much rather forget. Eventually their hopes for redemption draw them toward Jonathan and Hazel, who has become a virtual prisoner of Jonathan's most cherished whims and desires. The story that follows is a brilliantly inverted love story: a story which chronicles one man's desperate attempts to realize and rationalize a lie, and a woman's harrowing attempts to recognize the truth.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Margot Livesey is, in my opinion, a terrific writer, and she captures the essence of characters beautifully. As a matter of fact, the character of Charlotte is so like my sister-in-law, they could have been twins. I give The Missing World: A Novel by Margot Livesey a definite A!
December 10, 2008
Interesting premise, but did not quite live up to its promise. In the end, none of the characters were completely likable. Perhaps that was the point? It took me a few times of picking it up and putting it down until a long flight motivated me to finish. (Frustratingly, I was landing back in Hartford with 15 pages to go. When I got home, at 1:30 in the morning, I had to stay up, bleary-eyed, to finish). My one specific, nit-picky comment is that I wish the author used a bit more of the beekeeping/hive life metaphor.What she did use helped tie the book together and more would have been better.
September 17, 2012
I didn't love this book the way I loved THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, which I felt was tighter and more emotionally satisfying. THE MISSING WORLD has the pacing of a psychological thriller,i.e. the suspense is driven by the characters (their motives and desires) rather than external events. So it's an engaging read, compelling even. There are four main characters--Jonathan, Hazel, Freddie and Charlotte--and the narrative alternates between Jonathan, Freddie's and Charlotte's povs. They are brought together by Hazel. At the beginning of the book, she's living separately from her boyfriend Jonathan, with whom she's had a huge falling out. When she loses her memory to a series of seizures, Jonathan takes the opportunity to move her back in with him and win her back. Sounds charming enough, but gradually, the reader sees how controlling Jonathan is, and when the real reason for Hazel's departure is revealed, it becomes impossible to take Jonathan's side.
Charlotte and Freddie are fuzzier. Charlotte is depressed and somewhat hapless following a breakup with her boyfriend, Walter. Freddie is an American living in London (forgot to mention its London), drifting from one job to another (after a stopover in Lourdes, where he tended to the infirm and dying). He paying a lifelong penance for something the reader won't learn about until later, and he becomes obsessed with Hazel when he sees her unhappiness.
I can't say much else without giving away the plot. Perhaps it's unfair to compare this to the other two books because the point of view is quite different.
Charlotte and Freddie are fuzzier. Charlotte is depressed and somewhat hapless following a breakup with her boyfriend, Walter. Freddie is an American living in London (forgot to mention its London), drifting from one job to another (after a stopover in Lourdes, where he tended to the infirm and dying). He paying a lifelong penance for something the reader won't learn about until later, and he becomes obsessed with Hazel when he sees her unhappiness.
I can't say much else without giving away the plot. Perhaps it's unfair to compare this to the other two books because the point of view is quite different.
February 25, 2024
Avastasin selle raamatu oma riiulist ning mul pole aimugi, kuidas või millal ta võis sinna sattuda, aga eks ta vist on seal päris pikalt lugemata olnud. Halb ei olnud, aga jäi kuidagi poolikuks. Algus oli paljutõotav: lugu Hazelist, kes kaotab õnnetuse tagajärjel mälu, ning tema endisest elukaaslasest Jonathanist, kes appi tõttab, kuid Jonathanil on midagi varjata ja Hazelist saab tema vang, kelle paranemist Jonathan ei soovigi, vaid pigem kardab ja teeb kõik selleks, et ta mälu ei taastuks. Lisaks hulk kõrvaltegelasi, kelle lood olid ka põnevad, kuid jäid lõpuni välja arendamata. Lõpp oli ootamatu, aga mitte positiivses mõttes, vaid pigem nagu liiga palju lahtiseid otsi. Ega raamatul ei peagi alati konkreetne ja selge lõpp olema, eks lugeja saab oma peaga ka mõelda, aga sel korral minu meelest kuidagi liiga järsk sai see finaal.
Lisaks põnevale sündmustikule käsitleb raamat mälu ja mäletamist, inimeste haavatavust, kuna kõik tegelased olid kuidagi katki, võib- olla Mrs. Craig välja arvatud. Kas me ikka kõrvalseisjatena teame, mis teisele inimesele parim on ja kui kaugele on mõistlik oma suures abistamissoovis minna? Eriti ettevaatlik peaks olema nende inimeste abistamisega, keda me eriti hästi ei tunne. Hazel ei olnud tegelikult see abitu ja abivajav naine, nagu nii Jonathan kui Freddie arvasid või oleksid soovinud, et ta oleks.
“She doesn’t like dogs, he thought dumbfounded as he squeezed toothpaste onto the brush. Hadn’t he, a couple of weeks ago, considered giving her a puppy? This was not going the way he’d imagined. He’d pictured himself up hours before Hazel, getting everything spick and span, then her waking up, sweet and befuddled. He’d bring her tea in bed, maybe oatmeal, and sit beside her to talk and hold her hand.”
Hindeks paneksin 3,5, aga kuna poolikuid ei saa panna, siis ümardan neljaks, kuna oli ilusas stiilis ja intelligentselt kirja pandud lugu.
Lisaks põnevale sündmustikule käsitleb raamat mälu ja mäletamist, inimeste haavatavust, kuna kõik tegelased olid kuidagi katki, võib- olla Mrs. Craig välja arvatud. Kas me ikka kõrvalseisjatena teame, mis teisele inimesele parim on ja kui kaugele on mõistlik oma suures abistamissoovis minna? Eriti ettevaatlik peaks olema nende inimeste abistamisega, keda me eriti hästi ei tunne. Hazel ei olnud tegelikult see abitu ja abivajav naine, nagu nii Jonathan kui Freddie arvasid või oleksid soovinud, et ta oleks.
“She doesn’t like dogs, he thought dumbfounded as he squeezed toothpaste onto the brush. Hadn’t he, a couple of weeks ago, considered giving her a puppy? This was not going the way he’d imagined. He’d pictured himself up hours before Hazel, getting everything spick and span, then her waking up, sweet and befuddled. He’d bring her tea in bed, maybe oatmeal, and sit beside her to talk and hold her hand.”
Hindeks paneksin 3,5, aga kuna poolikuid ei saa panna, siis ümardan neljaks, kuna oli ilusas stiilis ja intelligentselt kirja pandud lugu.
September 23, 2022
When his estranged girlfriend loses three years' worth of memory, Jonathan finds himself in a uniquely tempting quandary: should he tell Hazel anything and risk her leaving him again, or...not.
Bright writing and a surprisingly suspenseful examination of the dynamics of power in a relationship.
Bright writing and a surprisingly suspenseful examination of the dynamics of power in a relationship.
July 8, 2013
I liked it. Similar premise to Watson's Before I go to Sleep, but more artfully written. The characters were all real in that they were grey (and not just black or white); they were all complex and (with the exception of Jonathan) I liked parts of them all.
I did not like that all of them came together. It seemed to contrived and convenient that they would merge in LONDON (hello, very big city) and have similar psychoses (I think both Mr. Early and Freddie have issues with leaving their home, clearly Charlotte and Freddie are both averse to work). I think some of the point of the novel is that we are all a bit alike (even though we can be vastly different), but the links between all these folks were too strong given that they started the novel as strangers.
I loved the sex scenes between Hazel and Jonathan. They were certainly creepy, but nicely done (not overblown and over the top, just matter-of-fact from Jonathan's viewpoint).
Mr. Early's comment: "helping. Not my subject. Can one person ever help another? Often I think the answer is a resounding no" parallels my thinking on the matter. Frequently people wait to be rescued or hope to save another (or convince them to cease self-abusive behaviors) when really we can only make choices regarding ourselves. Of course, this is the echoed moral of the novel. None of us can save another (even alas, poor Freddie cannot rescue Hazel), but we must be left to make our own choices and live with the results.
Overall it was compelling, thoughtful and well written. Certainly worth the time.
I did not like that all of them came together. It seemed to contrived and convenient that they would merge in LONDON (hello, very big city) and have similar psychoses (I think both Mr. Early and Freddie have issues with leaving their home, clearly Charlotte and Freddie are both averse to work). I think some of the point of the novel is that we are all a bit alike (even though we can be vastly different), but the links between all these folks were too strong given that they started the novel as strangers.
I loved the sex scenes between Hazel and Jonathan. They were certainly creepy, but nicely done (not overblown and over the top, just matter-of-fact from Jonathan's viewpoint).
Mr. Early's comment: "helping. Not my subject. Can one person ever help another? Often I think the answer is a resounding no" parallels my thinking on the matter. Frequently people wait to be rescued or hope to save another (or convince them to cease self-abusive behaviors) when really we can only make choices regarding ourselves. Of course, this is the echoed moral of the novel. None of us can save another (even alas, poor Freddie cannot rescue Hazel), but we must be left to make our own choices and live with the results.
Overall it was compelling, thoughtful and well written. Certainly worth the time.
June 8, 2009
Hazel gets into an accident that results in partial-amnesia and seizures. Her ex-boyfriend Jonathan, who is still obsessed with her, sees an opportunity to get her back and takes her into his care. It's the ultimate second chance for the insurance claims-adjuster and beekeeper, but then things get complicated. Lives intertwine--there's the African-American roofer, Freddie, who'd rather lie on the couch than report to work--that is until he meets Hazel and senses something's not right in their household. Then there's sensible nurse Bernadette and her flaky sister, an aspiring actress who just can't catch a break--until she meets Freddie. And then there's Hazel's friend Maud who nurses a secret crush.
This is a creepy novel with lots of twists and turns. There are many characters introduced and I'm not sure they're all necessary. Some plotlines seemed to be left unresolved or just dropped completely. I do respect that the author didn't present a tidy ending. But I didn't feel as satisfied with the resolution here as I did with Livesy's other book, The House on Fortune Street. Could be that since this is an earlier book (published in 1999), she just hadn't completely caught her stride yet.
This is a creepy novel with lots of twists and turns. There are many characters introduced and I'm not sure they're all necessary. Some plotlines seemed to be left unresolved or just dropped completely. I do respect that the author didn't present a tidy ending. But I didn't feel as satisfied with the resolution here as I did with Livesy's other book, The House on Fortune Street. Could be that since this is an earlier book (published in 1999), she just hadn't completely caught her stride yet.
May 19, 2013
Well written. Thoughtful. Slow moving. Entertaining.
But what a load of miserable characters they all are. All of them have major character flaws, and none of them appear to have more than a fleeting grasp of honesty.
Notwithstanding the above, I would still recommend this book. I did not want to end.
But what a load of miserable characters they all are. All of them have major character flaws, and none of them appear to have more than a fleeting grasp of honesty.
Notwithstanding the above, I would still recommend this book. I did not want to end.
September 25, 2012
I don't think I'm cerebral enough for this book. It felt like it took me forever to get through it, and I didn't like any of the characters. Just not the book for me.
February 11, 2021
I don’t know what misfortune led me to picking up this book, but I do know that reading it all the way till the end is no one’s fault but my own. Awful book. Truly, truly awful. The writing is bland, and desperately in need of some (read: a lot of) editing. I feel bad saying this because I know a lot of work goes into producing even a decent, readable story but that doesn’t seem to be the case with this one. It reads like a first draft. How is this a national bestseller? Mediocre writing isn’t a dealbreaker for me but I genuinely cannot find a redeemable aspect of this book to salvage.
The story has multiple POVs that are supposed to intertwine but don’t, really. It’s so forced. The characters are very two dimensional and none of the reasoning behind their actions makes sense at all. Their personalities are so inconsistent and simply adhere to whatever is convenient to drive the plot. I can't believe there isn’t a single likable character even when there are multiple POVs? I’ve never experienced this before. How can they all be so annoying and so mind numbingly boring? Except Jonathan, of course, whose a borderline sociopath. He’s the ex boyfriend of the girl who partially lost her memory. He’s still very much in love with her. And guess what? She loses just enough memory to forgot that they’ve broken up. How convenient! (None of the hows and whys of her losing her memory are explained at all btw. She just has these vague seizures, during which she starts saying random cryptic shit and none of it is explained even though it’s set up like a mystery. There’s literally no point to it. Hah, bamboozled.) She doesn’t even remember her parents (how does that even work? Did she forget she was BORN?). She just remembers the guy, which is a poorly written way to make her move in with him to drive the plot.
The main POV is of the guy, and being inside his head is Hell, to say the least. However, I gotta say the author definitely went all out with those rape scenes with how creatively disgusting they were. They feel like the only parts that she put some thought into, as awful as that sounds. The first time, he rapes her when she's having a seizure, which was so disgusting that I had to stop reading this book for 2 days. The second time, he rapes her when she’s menstruating. He's described removing her tampon and everything. Lovely :) He raped her two times. Two. Times. And what's ABSURD is that the author doesn't deal with the aftermath of it at all. The second time it happens, it’s supposed to be the climax of the book because she's “rescued” midway through it by another guy (another POV whose also in love with her, which just happened out of nowhere. They literally had 2 five-minute very casual conversations. That's it. And suddenly he's going bezerk trying to be her knight in shining armour). The girl is almost unfazed? The people who saved her don’t even call the police, and keep saying that he “hurt her.” I just don’t have the mental energy to nitpick exactly how much they downplayed the fact that she was raped, but just know that they did. It’s so disgusting. The book overall just has so many rapey undertones. The guy sleeps with the girl’s best friend and even the way that’s written is so awful and rapey, even though that’s with consent. Then, the other POVs (one of the guy whose in love w the memory loss girl and one of this other irrelevant actress whose POV wasn’t necessary at all but then again, nothing was) also sleep with each other and that scene also leaves you feeling vaguely disturbed, despite being consensual. All of this stems from the fact that all of these characters are generally awful people, and are never doing the act out of genuine love. Also, when the girl has just been raped and then rescued by them, the actress girl is jealous of the other guy giving her attention. Wow. Actually, never mind. It’s because it’s poorly written and the author doesn’t know how to form meaningful connections and parallels between the cast of characters without making them attracted to one another.
God, I hate this book, and I hate the fact that I hate it because this haphazardly thrown together plot doesn’t have enough substance to warrant being truly hated. There are so many unfinished sub-plots that were just forgotten about? So much build up that eventually led to nothing? It’s so messy. No plot, no character development. I can’t help but wonder what exactly was the point of this story? What was the takeaway? Something about the formation of memory, and the body remembering what the mind’s forgotten? Something about sociopathic boyfriends that’ll sabotage your life in the name of love? Something about unnecessarily long and supposedly metaphorical monologes about bees? There’s... no point. Whatever the author was trying to accomplish with this, they didn't succeed.
The story has multiple POVs that are supposed to intertwine but don’t, really. It’s so forced. The characters are very two dimensional and none of the reasoning behind their actions makes sense at all. Their personalities are so inconsistent and simply adhere to whatever is convenient to drive the plot. I can't believe there isn’t a single likable character even when there are multiple POVs? I’ve never experienced this before. How can they all be so annoying and so mind numbingly boring? Except Jonathan, of course, whose a borderline sociopath. He’s the ex boyfriend of the girl who partially lost her memory. He’s still very much in love with her. And guess what? She loses just enough memory to forgot that they’ve broken up. How convenient! (None of the hows and whys of her losing her memory are explained at all btw. She just has these vague seizures, during which she starts saying random cryptic shit and none of it is explained even though it’s set up like a mystery. There’s literally no point to it. Hah, bamboozled.) She doesn’t even remember her parents (how does that even work? Did she forget she was BORN?). She just remembers the guy, which is a poorly written way to make her move in with him to drive the plot.
The main POV is of the guy, and being inside his head is Hell, to say the least. However, I gotta say the author definitely went all out with those rape scenes with how creatively disgusting they were. They feel like the only parts that she put some thought into, as awful as that sounds. The first time, he rapes her when she's having a seizure, which was so disgusting that I had to stop reading this book for 2 days. The second time, he rapes her when she’s menstruating. He's described removing her tampon and everything. Lovely :) He raped her two times. Two. Times. And what's ABSURD is that the author doesn't deal with the aftermath of it at all. The second time it happens, it’s supposed to be the climax of the book because she's “rescued” midway through it by another guy (another POV whose also in love with her, which just happened out of nowhere. They literally had 2 five-minute very casual conversations. That's it. And suddenly he's going bezerk trying to be her knight in shining armour). The girl is almost unfazed? The people who saved her don’t even call the police, and keep saying that he “hurt her.” I just don’t have the mental energy to nitpick exactly how much they downplayed the fact that she was raped, but just know that they did. It’s so disgusting. The book overall just has so many rapey undertones. The guy sleeps with the girl’s best friend and even the way that’s written is so awful and rapey, even though that’s with consent. Then, the other POVs (one of the guy whose in love w the memory loss girl and one of this other irrelevant actress whose POV wasn’t necessary at all but then again, nothing was) also sleep with each other and that scene also leaves you feeling vaguely disturbed, despite being consensual. All of this stems from the fact that all of these characters are generally awful people, and are never doing the act out of genuine love. Also, when the girl has just been raped and then rescued by them, the actress girl is jealous of the other guy giving her attention. Wow. Actually, never mind. It’s because it’s poorly written and the author doesn’t know how to form meaningful connections and parallels between the cast of characters without making them attracted to one another.
God, I hate this book, and I hate the fact that I hate it because this haphazardly thrown together plot doesn’t have enough substance to warrant being truly hated. There are so many unfinished sub-plots that were just forgotten about? So much build up that eventually led to nothing? It’s so messy. No plot, no character development. I can’t help but wonder what exactly was the point of this story? What was the takeaway? Something about the formation of memory, and the body remembering what the mind’s forgotten? Something about sociopathic boyfriends that’ll sabotage your life in the name of love? Something about unnecessarily long and supposedly metaphorical monologes about bees? There’s... no point. Whatever the author was trying to accomplish with this, they didn't succeed.
December 11, 2025
Great writing, though I’d hoped it would go in a different direction after the end of chapter 18: “He pressed his forehead against hers as if his sympathy, the whole fluent current of his goodwill, could pass from his cranium to hers; and somewhere, far behind her eyes, wherever she stored the pain of the last year, a small, clear light sparked.” Beautiful, poignant writing but then it went in a totally different direction where the characters have a chance to redeem themselves and do a little bit, but not really and then everything goes to chaos and falls apart at the end. The unbelievable magical thinking of some of these characters just doesn’t feel true. I didn’t want Freddie to be as damaged and selfish (?) as he was. And Charlotte and her sister, (and maybe the neighbor although she was a flat tropey character) are the only ones who seemed to have the depth of humanity that could move me and sadly neither one of them was able to change by the end of the book. And did Jonathan prevail? If he did, disappointed at that. He was a monster. A page turner, still, and fun to read even if it did skirt the larger themes. And the bees? I do get where the author was going with that metaphor but it just missed.
July 9, 2017
I am increasingly disturbed by how often central events of a woman's life are depicted as actually being about other people and the woman herself then treated incidental in fiction (more often film). The driving issue in this book is a brain injury/amnesia of a woman, Hazel, who is then treated as the least important character in the book, and is a sort of MacGuffin for other characters, particularly Jonathon. I dislike the author's coyness at trying to initially depict Jonathon as semi-sympathetic while he is exploiting Hazel's illness, as if that could be a mere misjudgment rather than a serious lapse in character. And although such character flaw was at least recognized later in the book, the author's attempt to minimize that behavior in service of dramatic tension, is irresponsible.
July 3, 2018
(2.5 stars) Hazel has an accident that robs her of her memories from the past 3 years; her ex-boyfriend, Jonathan, takes advantage of this to reunite, and is aided by one of Hazel’s friends, Maud. Other characters come in to the story, and we begin to see that Jonathan’s feelings for Hazel are starting to take on a controlling and negative bent. As Hazel starts to regain some memories, she begins to realize that something is very wrong. While the premise of the story is interesting, most of the characters range from moderately unpleasant to downright despicable. It was an intriguing, but disagreeable experience, not unlike a gruesome accident, where you long to look away.
July 19, 2017
In a strange way, I almost feel as if this novel, though a gripping read, was a rehearsal for Livesey's decidedly more accomplished The House on Fortune Street. Again a quartet of voices, and again explorations of performance, falsity, and what, exactly, we owe to our friends, lovers, and family when disaster strikes. She's such a precise writer that I found pleasure on most every page, though, and there is much cool, creeping horror to be found in this book.
June 10, 2021
Unusual in that by the end of the book nearly all the characters were returned to exactly the same places as they started: Hazel heading back to her own apartment, Charlotte once again homeless and broke, Freddie feeling once again like a loser, Jonathan still working on trying to win back Hazel. Only Maud ended up more of a loser than she started, because Hazel now had cause to question their friendship. I didn't like any of the characters (except maybe Mrs. Craig) but I admire the author's skillfulness.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 27, 2022
I found the book confusing to start with, like there were 3 separate storylines with no clue as to how they were going to intertwine. None of the main characters were likeable and Maud being in love Jonathan was just laughable, I kept thinking it was all part of an elaborate plot twist. Unfortunately not. Also the dead puppy was unnecessary. It kept me intrigued as I kept expecting big plot twists and when I read a review which said the last line of the book was chilling I thought this is where the big plot twist will come in. It wasn’t. It had lots of potential but it wasn’t realised.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2023
Livesey does a wonderful job of creating sympathy for unlikable characters then slowly revealing how truly despicable they are, as well as making characters you initially dislike more sympathetic as the novel goes on. By using very narrow and specific points of view, she is always surprising you and touching unexpected nerves. For most of the characters (not all), redemption is never too far away, but whether they grasp it or push it away is always in question--so you never know whether the book will ultimately be a dark comedy or a tragedy. For me, that's where the best suspense lies.
April 9, 2025
I am a big fan of Margot Livesay, but found this particular book to be rather disappointing. The first third was good as Hazel was ill and trying to recover her lost memories, but the secondary characters (whose paths you know musts eventually cross) were distracting. The middle third of the book was rather boring, and I felt I was waiting for something interesting to happen. I expected a better ending, but found it very disappointing. No real resolution, no new or mended relationships, it just ended : (
February 11, 2020
I really disliked this book. There are 3 different story lines, all dull, and by chapter 4, the author still did not offer any connection between the main characters in each plot. I'm sure it eventually all comes together, however I'm just not interested enough to find out. It is very rare for me to DNF a book. But, I read for entertainment and this book is lacking in the entertainment department for me.
August 4, 2018
It's funny, I have had this book for years and years! I finally pulled it from the shelf and dusted it off, yes literally had to dust it off! It was definitely a really interesting premise for a book. Some of the story being more silly and unrealistic made the rating lower that I would have given the overall plot.
August 21, 2024
A story with many characters that finally fit it together at one point but is very confusing at first. All the characters were very complex with many faults but also many redeeming qualities. It would be awful to lose one’s memory and the book clearly shows that. Hazel was very brave to battle such a loss. And there were a lot of heroes to save her.
June 8, 2017
Content warning: If I'd known this book had such absolutely disturbing rape scenes I would never have picked it up. A horribly uncomfortable little book about unpleasant people taking advantage of each other, without enough of a so-what to justify the misery it depicts.
March 23, 2020
Starts interesting but becomes bleak and foul. A waste.
Starts interesting but becomes bleak and foul. A waste of time and thought. Violence against women treated passively. Wish I had not bought it.
Starts interesting but becomes bleak and foul. A waste of time and thought. Violence against women treated passively. Wish I had not bought it.
December 31, 2025
Maybe it's because I am not English, and never lived in London, but after getting through 21 pages I still haven't a clue what this author says. Her writing style seems to be popping all over the place and I just cannot keep up.
May 25, 2017
Very slow.... boring.... took me forever to finish because I simply couldn't get into it. In fact, I never got into it.
July 26, 2017
Wow, some disturbed characters here.
July 27, 2018
Lots of people with problems. One character was almost likeable. The others? The book finishes leaving you unsettled and with more closure.
June 8, 2019
Would be good for book group - interesting concept plus the mystery.
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