My Lover's Lover

by Maggie O'Farrell

Her award-winning novel, After You'd Gone , established Maggie O'Farrell as a master of psychological depth and supple prose. In My Lover's Lover she has written a haunting page-turner.

When Lily slips on the sidewalk outside a London gallery and literally falls at the feet of a stranger, Marcus, the attraction is instant and electric. Within a week she is sharing this magnetic yet elusive architect's waterfront loft and sleeping in the room that belonged to his girlfriend, Sinead-of whom all he will say is "she's no longer . . . with us." But there lingers a distinct presence, of a woman who seems to have disappeared abruptly-leaving behind a single sexy dress in the closet, a puzzling mark on the wall, and the suffocating scent of jasmine. As Lily falls ever more deeply in love with Marcus, Sinead's aura consumes her with fear and obsession that spark a drama of passion and betrayal.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Chick Lit, Suspense

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Maggie O'Farrell (born 1972, Coleraine Northern Ireland) is a British author of contemporary fiction, who features in Waterstones' 25 Authors for the Future. It is possible to identify several common themes in her novels - the relationship between sisters is one, another is loss and the psychological impact of those losses on the lives of her characters.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard for me to write this review because Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favorite authors and I just can’t give it more than three stars. I’ve been on a mission this month to read those of her novels and a couple of other favorite authors that I haven’t read. This is one of her earliest, so I’ll just chalk it up to that it, and continue to call her one of my favorite writers as her stories after this were just so much more substantive and meaningful.

Lily meets a guy named Marcus and pretty soon after that moves in with him. Poor judgment, to say the least. She at first thinks that his previous girlfriend has died and Lily feels her presence and “sees her”. She eventually finds out that Sinead is not dead and finds out why she left, which comes as no surprise to the reader since it’s pretty obvious what a jerk Markus is. I just couldn’t connect with the characters or their story or their connections with each other. The first part of the book was eerie, and I really couldn’t see the point. Having said that, O’Farrell’s prose is still fantastic, and even though I didn’t care for the characters, she has done a great job of helping me understand why. No other way to say it, other than this was a dissatisfying read saved to three stars because of the writing. I have two more left of her books to read and I’m hoping I love them more than this one . Sorry , Maggie!

Thanks so much to my book buddies, Diane and Esil for reading this with me.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 As with other O'Farrell books I have read, her prose is wonderful. The story itself didn't work as well for me, unfortunately. I understand what it was meant to relay, the lingering effects of a past relationship on the new. She used real sightings to get this point across, which I found very confusing.
As the story went on it made less and less sense. In order for this to work, the new relationship should have been an intense one. It wasn't, on either part, or so I felt. Marcus was a cad, very unlikable, and it was very much a tell not show relationship. The ending made even less sense, there was no reason for it at all.

This book was made bearable by my reading this with Esil and Angela for our monthly buddy read.

[Mark Porton · Rating 5 out of 5]

First things first – One of the character's uses an acronym in this story “GLM”, which means “Good Looking Male”. This is also the acronym of my title at work. Now, I have been strenuously trying to persuade my colleagues to adopt this new definition of “GLM” over recent days. All I’ll say is, it’s been a struggle, I’ve had very limited success and some of the discussions have been explosive.

My Lover’s Lover by Maggie O’Farrell is a book I snaffled at a recent book fair, I started it believing it be to a romance story. Even though there is a romantic element to this riveting tale, it’s mainly a psychological drama/mystery.

Lily meets Marcus in inner-city London at an art exhibition. Marcus is a charming very “GLM” and he quickly discovers Lily is looking for a place to stay, so he offers a room at his architecturally (this GLM is an architect – of course he is) designed warehouse. Lily quickly discovers Marcus’ ex-girlfriend has departed – very recently. Her bedroom still has her clothes strewn across her bed, floor and wardrobe for heavens sake. It even still smells like her!

Lily is obsessed with this woman – how did she depart? What happened? What did she look like? Needless to say, Marcus is very stingy with the details, something I can understand BTW, I always used to get very nervy when a partner enquired about an ex…..it’s an unnerving experience, quite often it's a trap!! This lack of information makes Lily even more obsessed.

I will stop there with details as there are some surprises and I don’t want to spoil it. O’Farrell has written a clever book here; she has nailed the mood and feelings of the characters. Afterall, we’ve all been an ‘ex’ and have had partners who have had an ‘ex’ in our live’s – so it’s very easy to tap into these characters. There’s also a bunch of other, equally identifiable, characters in this story – such as Aiden, the other flatmate of Marcus, now this guy is continually pissed off, and miserable on a good day.

There is some clever switching of third-person and first-person narratives, which bamboozled me at first, but once I got used to it – it was a wonderful way for this author to tell this story.

It seems I’ve been throwing around 5-star reviews like a drunken sailor (does that saying still work with stars?) but this one is so close to 5-stars it’s not funny. I loved it.

5-Stars

[Jaline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is very different. At first, I thought I might recommend it for Hallowe’en reading because it is spooky. And all the characters seem to be wearing disguises.

By that, I mean that the principal characters hide essential parts of themselves from each other – and sadly, even from themselves. When I think about it, this makes sense on one level. These folks all range in age from their early 20’s to (roughly) 30. They are falling in and out of love without knowing the people they are involved with. In one case, after 5 years of being in relationship, these two have no idea who their partner is.

At essence, this is a novel about people who are more in love with the idea of being in love than they are with the realities of loving relationships. This finds them in conflict and puts their relationships in jeopardy. It also causes blowback in the form of stalking, cajoling, whingeing, and disregarding and disrespecting others in their pursuit of their own interests and needs.

Of course, these people: Aidan, Sinead, Lily, and Marcus Gabriel Emmerson (the link between all of them) are all individuals and handle these young love situations based on their own perspectives of “should” and “should not”. We never discover exactly what colour of lenses they are looking through, nor do we find out how their lenses were formed. There is an immediacy in that we are deposited into the middle of a snapshot of their lives. We get glimmers of past situations, but they are fleeting images imprinted briefly on the confusions of the present.

I had one favourite character, the one who appeared the most grounded, and I had some empathy for the others as well, but I admit that this was a slow and challenging read for me. The story did jump around in place and time quite a bit and normally this is a technique I enjoy. In this novel I found it a bit awkward for some reason and spent a great deal of time piecing together why “this bit” was introduced at “this time” and what its impact is, or is supposed to be, on the rest of the story.

As always, Maggie O’Farrell’s writing is terrific, and the premise of this one is very interesting. The only reason I am giving it 4 Stars instead of 5 is because I don’t feel the story was worth my having to work quite so hard to understand it.

I still recommend this to other fans of Maggie O’Farrell’s writing as it is a great example of her versatility and dexterity in her craft.

[Esil · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.33 stars

I love Maggie O’Farrell. Her writing is beautiful. Her stories are unconventional. And the feelings in her books run deep. So it was a bit of a surprise to read My Lover’s Lover, which is only recognizable as a book by O’Farrell for its beautiful writing. The first half is taken up by an odd and unpleasant relationship between Lily and Marcus. They meet at a party. Days later Lily moves in with Marcus, only to realize that his attention is still taken up by Sinead, who it seems has disappeared. Lily then becomes obsessed with Sinead, who starts showing up in Lily’s peripheral vision — a ghost, an apparition? I was pretty unenthusiastic after the first half. Marcus is a cad. I couldn't relate to Lily’s emotions. And I don’t really like supernatural tinges mixed in with my fiction about otherwise normal - even if unpleasant - people.

Fortunately, the second half offered somewhat of a redemption. We learn more about Sinead, Marcus' friend Aidan takes on a good role, and the story makes a bit more sense.

Final verdict? If this hadn’t been written by O’Farrell, it wouldn't have been worth it at all. O'Farrell's writing carries this one, and allowed me to give it a tad more than 3 stars.

By far, the best part of this one was reading it along with my reading buddies, Angela and Diane.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this, Maggie O'Farrell's second published novel, our narrator, Lily, meets Marcus and falls immediately, and somewhat foolishly, in love. She knows little or nothing of him before she is swept into being his flatmate, replacing his ex-girlfriend, Sinead, by both occupying her room and becoming his lover. She thinks this should be ecstasy, but somehow the girl before her haunts every inch of the flat and her life, and Marcus is more than a little evasive about what happened between them, how long they were together, and what happened to Sinead in the end. The other flatmate, Aiden, is just as silent on the subject, but Lily sees Sinead in every room and Sinead seems to want to tell her something.

She turns away. The flat seems sticky with Sinead’s fingerprints. She doesn’t know what to do.

As the story unfolds, it seems to be Lily’s story, but, the way Rebecca is about the first wife and not the current Mrs. de Winter, this story rapidly becomes Sinead’s story, not Lily’s.

As I read, I kept asking myself what this novel was really about, beneath the plot, where Maggie O’Farrell always hides the gold. This novel might be about infidelity, impulse, compulsion, an inability to see someone else clearly or maybe it is about our need to cling to the image we have created of someone vs. the person they really are. It might also be about the way we can overlook what is good around us by reaching for a perfection that isn’t there or even possible. But I decided this is what this book is really about–the points of collision.

There are always points of collision–moments at which it is possible to say, yes, if I had done that differently or I had been standing slightly to the right or I had left the house two minutes earlier or if I hadn’t crossed the road just then my life would have taken a completely different course.

Each of the characters here, Marcus, Lily, Aiden and Sinead, experience moments that seem careless or unimportant, but which define their lives and influence their futures. If you think about your own life, you will realize it is littered with such points. When I was setting out on my career, I was offered a choice of jobs in San Diego, Dallas, or Washington D.C. I chose D.C., met the man I was to marry, and had a life I could never have expected. The reason I chose D.C. was based on a chance remark a friend made to me the night before I turned in my decision...up until that moment, I had planned to accept the position in Dallas.

This is Maggie O’Farrell’s second novel and the only one of hers I have read that shows a slight need of polish. It is quite good, and held my interest throughout, but I believed the attempt at the ending to project the future and put a bow on was a mistake. It could have been left without the last section, allowed the reader to decide, and profited from the decision. I think the Maggie O’Farrell writing today would have done just that.

I’m glad I read it. It completes my voyage. I have read all of the novels and now have only the memoir left to me. I will be excited every time a new novel is penned from here out. I will be anxious to hold them in my hands and sail off with her again. A rare and wonderful writer.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This was ridiculous. She was being stupid. There's nothing there. It's all in her imagination. All this alarmist shit about ghosts and apparitions. She needs some time out, a holiday maybe. She doesn't really believe she saw anything. Does she?" (PG. 59)

The first half was great and suspenseful. It felt like I was reading Daphne du Maurier's 'Rebecca' but in reverse gender. I liked Lily's personality, also, at first. She seemed sarcastic, kind, independent with a dab of smart ass.

Girl meets charming boy. Boy asks her to move in as a roommate. Things go fast from there and they start sleeping together. Girl asks boy about his ex and he can't seem to talk about her. He then says "She is no longer with us." Is she dead? The ex's imprints seem to be everywhere in the house. Her ghost seems to linger all around the apartment stalking Lily.

The second half is ruined. We find out Marcus is a complete moron and a supercilious person. Then the story just went south from there. It went from suspense to utterly dull. I am so glad it was a short and quick read. I don't think I could have handled anymore blathering. I wish O'Farrell could have continued the suspense all the way to the end. It was eery and mysterious until it was cut off.

Then Lily got disappointing and desperate. After knowing him for like 10 minutes she was in love? Marcus hardly paid attention to her and seemed to be using Lily for sex. Talk about the "roommate from hell" situation, which would've been a cool twist keeping with the suspense theme.

The reason for the 3 stars was O'Farrell's writing style. I am such a fan of her books and was bummed this wasn't along Hamnet greatness. But I see 'My Lover's Lover' was her earlier work and I will be kind in my words for her. She probably didn't know her groove or rhythm yet but no one can deny she is talented.

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This night is the saddest. Or so it seems. What she doesn’t know yet is that there will be a long, long string of sad nights, some of a different kind, some worse. What she doesn’t yet know is that ending a relationship cannot be done in one conversation over one evening, that such extrication takes days and months and sometimes years.
*
She wants to return to her other life, to step back into it, but doesn’t know how.
*
She is surprised at how easy it is to dismantle her life. She leaves a message on the agents’ voicemail saying she’s not coming back. She writes a letter to the shop. She visits Laurence and his mother, and hugs him goodbye. He squirms in her arms, affronted by this sudden display of emotion. She inserts her card into an auto-teller to find her bank balance. She calls up a number she finds among adverts in a newspaper and buys a flight out of Heathrow.

[Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun)]

A book that builds up a sinister atmosphere only to become more and more banal as it goes along. I enjoyed the tone as a whole; this is a novel about people who feel oddly divorced from both their bodies and their feelings, and the disjointed quality of the writing reflects that uncertainty. There are also interesting ideas floating around about the ways past love affairs can haunt us. But the protagonist doesn't have even a single discernible personality trait, the "love" she feels for the main male character is so poorly developed that it has no emotional resonance, and every element of the plot feels a little stale. I'm not surprised this is one of O'Farrell's less popular novels, but having said all that, I'm still excited to explore the rest of her work.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good book gone bad. Seriously, it started out with such promise and took a horrible turn. I felt like O'Farrell had this great idea and did not know how to finish it. I hated the whole second half of the book finishing it in hopes that it would somehow redeem itself. It didn't even make sense. I'm glad this was not the first of her novels I read or I definately would not have bothered with another. The back cover even compares it to Rebecca-not even close! There is nothing ghostly, haunting, gothic, or thrilling about this confusing book. Yuck.

[Katya]

Esta leitura foi uma experiência diferente. Longe de estar à altura do primeiro título de O'Farrell, Incertezas do Coração acaba por estar ao nível a que eu esperaria que o Stephen King que li há umas semanas estivesse. É que, se nunca tive um arrepio com o senhor King, por qualquer estranha razão, Maggie O'Farrell deu-me três pesadelos fantasmagóricos no espaço de tempo que levei a ler este livro: 5 dias. Isto foi estranho, no mínimo.

Adiante. Há pontos positivos (muitos) que merecem devido destaque neste livro. Entre eles:
uma prosa límpida;
personagens multidimensionais;
domínio da linguagem erudita e coloquial...
No entanto, por qualquer razão, a partir da segunda parte de Incertezas do Coração, a narrativa até então com traços sobrenaturais e de thriller, toma outras roupagens - com o intuito de descodificar alguns simbolismos que vêm de trás, é certo-, que acabam por tornar a leitura mais maçuda, menos intuitiva e várias vezes confusa. Rapidamente estamos perante um romance a que a autora tenta dar substância, mas a coisa não funciona muito bem (estaria este volte-face previsto?). Daí em diante, fica mais difícil manter o interesse, embora não deixe de ser uma leitura saborosa, mas há momentos difíceis, sobretudo porque O'Farrell tem o hábito pouco simpático de alternar narradores e tempos de narração dificultando ao leitor a tarefa de acompanhar uma história que se desenrola dentro de caixinhas cada vez mais pequenas à medida que se aproxima do final. De facto, o impacto que tem Depois de Tu Partires não se mantém em Incertezas do Coração, mas a autora não se esqueceu da obra-prima anterior e chega a premiar com um miminho os seus leitores trazendo a história de John e Alice de volta numa referência indireta ali para os finais da narrativa (é, literalmente, a recompensa por levar este livro até ao fim). Fora isso, o livro acaba por se tornar relativamente insípido.

Essencialmente, e talvez seja mesmo esse o handicap aqui, aquilo que O'Farrell procura explorar é o cerne das relações autofágicas, a autocomplacência, a bagagem emocional que acompanha os relacionamentos amorosos, as ilusões e expectativas que criamos face aos outros - e face a nós mesmos, porque não?

Estes espelhos perturbam-na: já por várias vezes vislumbrou uma mulher que se parece perturbadoramente com ela antes de o seu cérebro perceber e dizer-lhe: «És tu.» De alguma forma obscura, estes reflexos assustam-na; não está à espera deles, não se parecem com a imagem que tem de si mesma, aquelas mulheres nos espelhos parecem aprisionadas, chocadas e frias por detrás do material reflector.

Girando em torno de personagens jovens e imprevistos, e de relações pouco esclarecidas, Incertezas do Coração desdobra-se numa espécie de análise emocional e psicológica moderna, assim ao estilo do cinema francês (não me estou a queixar!), mas acaba, apesar de algumas reflexões maravilhosas, por se revelar insuficiente.

As pessoas estão sempre a perguntar: «O que é que vais fazer da tua vida?» e eu odeio isso. Isso não significa nada para mim.(...) E o que é que a vida vai fazer comigo?

Admito, no entanto, que há uma maturidade e um certo desencanto difícil de alcançar e assimilar, à primeira vista, neste romance - um olhar desapaixonado sobre as falências sentimentais e as capacidades sociais praticamente nulas que parecem acompanhar todas as juventudes; uma forma de contar a história que obriga o leitor ao desacerto e à desilusão (perante as formas de vida que habitam esta narrativa) - e isso poderá estar na origem do desagrado geral de que partilho.

O presente é apenas o passado retificado.

Resumindo, não adorei Incertezas do Coração. Mas também não será este soluço a fazer-me renegar esta recém descoberta autora. Siga a leitura cronológica que será a primeira que concluo (se concluir...).

[Eylül Görmüş · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bu sefer olmadı sevgili Maggie O’Farrell valla. İlk romanlarından biri olduğu için çok üstüne gelmek istemiyorum ama sahiden olmamış bu kitap. Üstelik de olması çok mümkünmüş, o nedenle ayrıca üzüldüm. Ama yazmayı öğrenmenin yolu şüphesiz ki yazmaktan geçiyor ve senin de yaza yaza vardığın yeri görmek açısından çok iyi oldu bu okuma.

Sevgilimin Sevgilisi, kız arkadaşından yakın zamanda ayrılan Marcus’un, Lily ile tanışmasıyla başlıyor. Lily, Marcus’a fena halde aşık oluyor ve hızlıca beraber yaşamaya başlıyorlar, kasa süre içinde de Lily evin içinde Marcus’un eski sevgilisinin hayaletini görmeye başlıyor ve ayrılık sebeplerini öğrenip kendini bu takıntıdan kurtarmak için uğraşmaya başlıyor. 

Aslında bu hayalet görme meselesi bence çok iyi düşünülmüş bir metafor, hayatımıza girmiş ve bizde izler bırakmış herkesin hayaletlerini bir ölçüde beraberimizde taşıyoruz şüphesiz. Lily’nin eski sevgiliye dair gizemi çözmeye ve aşık olduğu adamı anlamaya çalıştığı ilk bölüm hem bu nedenle, hem de yazarın her zamanki nefis üslubu sayesinde epey iyiydi. Bu sürükleyici, tekinsiz ve güçlü ilk bölümün ardından kitap düşüşe geçiyor bence ve vaadini gerçekleştiremiyor.

Gizem kitabın ortasında çözülüyor, ayrılık sebebini öğreniyoruz ancak bu merakla beklediğimiz bilgi hikayenin akışında pek bir şeyi değiştirmiyor açıkçası, biz de “ee, niye bizi bu kadar meraklandırdın ki” diye soruyoruz haliyle. Bu kısımdan sonrasında da kendini epeyce tekrarlamaya başlıyor kitap.

Karakterler bence oldukça tek boyutlu, sadece birbirleriyle ilişkileri üzerinden tanımlanıyorlar, yazar hiçbirini derinleştirmeyi başaramamış. (O’Farrell’ın sonraki eserlerinde bunu ne biçim becereceğini düşünüp gülümsedim, insan sahiden zamanla pişiyor.) Sonuçta hikayeyi bağlayan düğüm sıradan, karakterler zayıf, diyaloglar yavan olunca ortaya da biraz sabun köpüğü bir kitap çakmış haliyle.

Okunacaksa Maggie O’Farrell’ın her şeye rağmen lezzetli üslubunun hatırına okunur, yoksa pek başka bir niteliği yok bence kitabın. Arz ederim.

[Martinxo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was this book really written by Maggie O'Farrell? I loved her other three books and was expecting similar high standards...but what a disappointment this turned out to be!

Maybe she needed the money and whipped something off quickly...who knows?

Tedious plot, banal dialogue. Really Maggie, pull yourself together please!

[Anna Van Someren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shoot. I wanted to love every Maggie O’Farrell book. But the ghost makes no sense. There’s just no sense made of it! I felt this unspooling crescendo, building up... to what? Marcus isn’t a murderer, Sinead doesn’t have a dead twin, Aidan and Marcus weren’t secretly in love. The big reveal: Marcus is just a total asshole. Well. That’s disappointing. Lots of guys are total assholes. I mean I still love the writing, she’s still my fav right now. Just a bummer.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read because I've enjoyed several of Maggie O'Farrell's other novels. However I was disappointed by this one. The prose was fine - O'Farrell could definitely write, even at this early stage of her career - but the story just didn't hang together. I feel like I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen, for something to start making sense, and I never got there. The characters are flat, insipid, except for one, who is, in the words of another character, "a feckless emotional retard". There was never any explanation for the "sightings", which continue right up to the end of the book, and there was no resolution to the plot, or to any of the relationships within the story. 2* for the prose, no more stars for any other aspect.

[Melani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it is fair to criticize O'Farrell, as other Goodreads reviewer have, for creating "two-dimensional" characters in this novel. Having read two other of her novels, I am certain that she is able to give depth and detailed definition to her people if she so chooses. This novel left me wondering if Lily, Sinead, Aidan and Marcus were meant to be read more as archetypes in a universal story. There was a dreamlike quality to it, ghosts were allowed to take part without resolution or explanation, and who hasn't known and/or played all of the people in this tale of love?

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited, a few years ago, to find battered copies of this and After You’d Gone in a local charity shop for 50 pence each, even though it appears a mouse had a nibble on one corner here. They were her first two books, but the last that I managed to source. Whereas After You’d Gone is a surprisingly confident and elegant debut novel about a woman in a coma and the family and romantic relationships that brought her to this point, My Lover’s Lover ultimately felt like a pretty run-of-the-mill story about two women finding out that (some) men are dogs and they need to break free.

Lily meets Marcus, an architect, at a party and almost before she knows it has moved into the spare room of his apartment, a Victorian factory space he renovated himself, and become his lover. But there’s an uncomfortable atmosphere in the flat: She can still smell perfume from Marcus’s ex, Sinead; one of her dresses hangs in the closet. We, along with Lily, get the impression Sinead has died. She haunts not just the flat but also the streets of London. It becomes Lily’s obsession to find out what happened to Sinead and why Marcus is so morose. Part Two gives Sinead’s side of things, in a mix of third person/present tense and first person/past tense, before we return to Lily to see what she’ll do with her new knowledge.

As in some later novels, there are multiple locales (here, NYC, the Australian desert, and China – a country O’Farrell often revisits in fiction) and complicated point-of-view shifts, but I felt the sophisticated craft was rather wasted on a book that boils down to a self-explanatory maxim: past relationships always have an effect on current ones. I also found the writing overmuch in places (“the grass swooshing, sussurating, cleaving open to her steps”; “letting fall a box of cereal into its [a shopping trolley’s] chrome meshing”; “her fingertips meeting the ceraceous, heated skin of his cheek”). However, this was an engrossing read – I read most of it in two days.

It’s bottom-tier O’Farrell, though, along with The Distance Between Us and Hamnet – sorry, I know many adore it. (If you’re interested: middle tier = The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Instructions for a Heatwave, her two children’s books, and The Marriage Portrait; top tier = After You’d Gone, The Hand that First Held Mine, This Must Be the Place, and I Am, I Am, I Am.)

I’ve gotten in the habit of reading one of Maggie O’Farrell’s works per year, so I will just have to reread my favourites until we get a new one. I’m already tapping a foot in impatience.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Chana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another disappointing read from Maggie O'Farrell. It wouldn't be so disappointing if she were a terrible writer. She writes pretty well but her endings are .. just.. well.. I have seen worse, but they are bad. Can't bring myself to use a really derogatory term but it is in my head and it isn't pretty. I wonder if she has a complete story in her mind when she starts writing or if she just stream of consciousness, writes wherever it takes her? I mean what was this book? It wanders all over. It is a ghost story, no, it is a stalking story, no, it is an infidelity story. It is a darned disappointment is what it was. Maybe Lily hit her head and is lying in a coma somewhere and all these people and this entire story are the result of her brain injury.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The end was too vague and the story was a little disjointed. I have read better work by this author so I was a little disappointed.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since the stunning "Hamnet" I have been smitten with Maggie O'Farrell. This is my fourth MOF, and her first book, I believe, and although it started out shakily, halfway through it began to fly. I love the detail she brings to a story (in this one we leave the UK and travel to China briefly) and I love her observations on relationships. Here is one I picked out at random:

"He walks past his car, past the end of the street, and on. And he feels as though she is holding on to the end of one of his essential fibres and that every step he takes away from her is, bit by bit, unravelling him."

(On the negative side, the cover needs work. It does nothing for the book. What were they thinking? I also found a number of typos. MOF deserves better, Tinder Press!)

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing and premise let down by a lacklustre ending and too many loose ends. All the tension that was built up in the first half of the novel petered out like the author ran out of steam.

[Filipa Ribeiro Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Até agora tenho adorado tudo o que tenho lido da Maggie O'Farrell e não ter adorado este não quer dizer que tenha ficado a gostar menos dela como escritora. Se tanto, até acaba por a tornar uma escritora mais humana!... Mas este livro não deixa de ser perturbador e é escrito da mesma forma que nos envolve e eu gosto muito. Começa por descrever o início da relação entre Marcus e Lily, que se conhecem quando ela cai à entrada de uma festa e, pouco depois, se muda para o quarto livre no apartamento dele; entretanto deixa-se literalmente cair de amores por ele, mas nunca conhecemos o ponto de vista dele. Está empenhado ou é um aproveitador?... Também há Sinead, a ex-namorada misteriosa, morta ou desaparecida, que a assombra e Aidan, o melhor amigo dele, que também vive no apartamento e afinal é de poucos amigos. Há várias situações que são mesmo assustadoras e a certo ponto achei que era um livro de terror. Mas a pouco e pouco vamos conhecendo melhor a relação entre estas 4 pessoas a partir do ponto de vista de todos, menos do Marcus... E como andamos para atrás e para a frente no tempo, o resultado é um bocado confuso, mas mesmo assim gostei muito.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This early Maggie O’Farrell, her second novel, is quite engaging, but seems to swerve mid-book from being one thing to quite another. The early part of the book is a visit to the realm of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, in which susceptible young Lily moves into a London flat share with breathtakingly handsome Marcus, to fill the place left by his beautiful former lover, “no longer with us.” Though they are soon having sex, Lily is sure the brooding Marcus is still enamoured of his vanished lover and becomes deeply obsessed, even feeling menaced by her haunting presence. (In the highly unlikely event the reader is missing the Rebecca vibes, O’Farrell even plants an Easter egg; at one point Lily and Marcus are watching an unnamed vintage black and white movie, a scene on a spiral staircase is delineated, and Marcus mansplains how much more the also unnamed British director was able to do with the much larger budget of his first Hollywood film—obviously Hitchcock and his film Rebecca.) The story does leave behind the Gothic trappings and becomes a more standard he-done-her-wrong story. We backtrack to the story of Marcus’s romance with the vanished girlfriend, and Lily, unsurprisingly, gets her heart broken. O’Farrell does some set pieces extremely well, including a scene at Marcus’s work do in which Lily overhears a cruel conversation she’s not meant to. The vividness of Lily’s shame and distress were breathtaking.

[Cassie Mcadams · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I give a book a low rating I feel like I have to explain my reasons maybe its so others aren't put off by it I don't really know. but this book just made absolutely no sense to me. I could have gone my whole life and been fine never reading this book. one of the things that really throws me with this novel is on my cover it says "a novel of suspense" I didn't find this book suspenseful in any way shape or form. the characters didn't click with me. I couldn't bring myself to care the least bit about what happened to any of them. through the first half of the book I was just confused. when I finally made it Sinead's take on what happened I couldn't figure out the big deal then I was just waiting for some crazy plot twist that never came. I feel shorted with this book. for me its like someone switched dust jackets and I read the wrong book. this book may be one some people really love but its just not for me.

[Yak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly disappointing entry by O'Farrell, whose other work I love. Starts as a cheesy supernatural-ish thriller and then morphs into the story of a past relationship, which is pretty interesting until we find out what an unambiguously amoral creep the lead male character is. His actions are just inexplicable and left me frustrated by the whole thing, especially since they never really explained the ghosty stuff from the beginning.

[reejy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This man doesn’t like lentils. He really is the worst.

[Akona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Believe the reviews.

[Kathrin Passig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich glaube, ich brauche eine Goodreadskategorie "Es fing so gut an". Es fing so gut an! Aber ungefähr nach dem ersten Drittel wechselt die Erzählerin, und dann passiert nur noch das allerbanalste, inhaltlich und stilistisch langweiligste Zeug. Ich habe dann immer schneller und unaufmerksamer gelesen, weil ich dachte: Das kann doch nicht sein, vielleicht kommt ein Schluss, der den interessanten Anfang wieder aufgreift. Aber nein. Ich werde trotzdem weiter Bücher von Maggie O'Farrell lesen, weil vieles in den anderen – und manches eben auch hier – super war. Nur nicht so bald, erst muss ich das hier vergessen.

Das Cover der Ausgabe hier bei Goodreads kündigt die Langweiligkeit korrekt an. Das Cover der Ausgabe, die ich in der Libby-App ausgeliehen hatte, sah nach einem viel interessanteren Inhalt aus.

[Melanie O'Neill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a lover of Maggie O’Farrells books, I think this was an earlier one of hers. Sorry to say I just wasn’t invested in this one and speed read it on the beach to finish it. Sorry just wasn’t feeling it.

[Andrijana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Megi O'Farel ima takav stil da je neopisivo uživanje čitati njene rečenice. Ali mi se sama priča nije dopala. Valjda je trebalo da prođu godine, pa da Megi O'Farel sazri i napiše knjigu kakav je njen „Hamnet".