Book Review: Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Book: 45/100

Rating: 3.5/5

Read this one if you like: a protagonist on the run, alternating timelines, and mysterious moms!

Summary: Andrea Oliver's mother, Laura, is the perfect small-town mum. Laura lives a quiet but happy life in sleepy beachside Belle Isle. She's a pillar of the community: a speech therapist, business owner and everybody's friend. And she's never kept a secret from anyone. Or so Andrea thinks.

When Andrea is caught in a random violent attack at a shopping mall, Laura intervenes and acts in a way that is unrecognizble to her daughter. It's like Laura is a completely different person - and that's because she was. Thirty years ago. Before Andrea. Before Belle Isle.

Laura is hailed as a hero for her actions at the mall but 24 hours later she is in hospital, shot by an intruder, who's spent decades trying to track her down.

What is Andrea's mother trying to hide? As elements of the past return and put them both in danger, Andrea is left to piece together Laura's former identity and discover the truth - for better or worse - about her mother. Is the gentle, loving woman who raised her also a violent killer?

Thoughts: This one was a page turner right from the get-go. The premise at the beginning was really interesting: you're still trying to get a feel for the characters when they're thrown into the midst of an active shooter situation. I enjoyed the first half of this one more than the second half, because I think there was still so much mystery and I was trying to make sense of what is going on. Once it's slowly revealed what Laura's history is, I was hoping that it would come together in a different way (not going to say what because that would spoil it), but it definitely was something I did not see coming.

ALSO - this book is being turned into a Netflix series and Toni Colette is going to play Laura! I definitely imagined Laura as older than Colette but I think it has the potential to be a great adaptation, and I'm really looking forward to it! Although we all know the book is usually better... so check this one out!

Buy it/loan it/skip it? One that's worth hitting up your library for.