Reviews

Det. Frankie Loomis investigates the death of university student Taryn Moore. At first it looks like suicide, but the girl's phone is missing, which makes Frankie suspicious, and she and her partner start looking at other possibilities. Meanwhile, the book takes us into the past to look at the unfolding relationship between Taryn and one of her professors, Jack Dorian. Taryn is fixated on her ex-boyfriend, Liam, not accepting the end of the relationship. She becomes more and more drawn to Jack. Her best friend, Cody, is likely in love with her. Were any of these men responsible for her death?

If you're after a mystery thriller with lots and twists and turns, you should probably choose something else. But this was still an enjoyable, engaging story. While hardly profound, it casts a critical eye over how women have been conditioned throughout history, particularly through fiction, to sacrifice themselves for the men in their lives. Jack runs a course on literature featuring star-crossed lovers, so the book is full of literary examples of this. We get dual points of view from Taryn and Jack, looking at their developing relationship through different eyes. Choose Me is the rare occasion where I enjoyed this aspect more than the mystery/thriller/police procedural part of the story. In fact, the book has stayed with me some hours after finishing it.

Spoiler

I was particularly interested in how we, as readers, are conditioned to feel bad for the male in the story. Here, after Jack breaks off his affair with Taryn, she engages in semi-Fatal Attraction style behaviour, trying to ruin his life. She's pregnant with his child, is determined to keep it, and to use him as leverage to further her career and position in life, finally tired of "not being good enough". As readers, we're supposed to think that Taryn is in the wrong, that she should give up her life so Jack can resume his life with his wife, who is also pregnant. But this quote later in the book really struck a cord with me:

"The world would be better off without women like Taryn, women whose turbulent emotions and desperate choices complicate the lives of men."

Taryn's emotions and behaviour don't exist in a vacuum. Liam ghosted her, but still slept with her after he had apparently broken up with her. Jack thought with his dick, had a weak moment, and tried to pretend like it never happened, and simply expected Taryn to go along with what he wanted. But why should she? Taryn was as much a victim of the selfishness of the men in her life as she was some of her own questionable choices. In most media, Taryn would be painted as the unreasonable, unbalanced harpy out to ruin lives, and that's exactly what this book is railing against. There are other little examples in the book of how the female characters remain conditioned to protecting the men in their lives, even when they don't deserve it.

I looked forward to coming back to this book whenever I put it down. No, the mystery/thriller aspect isn't the greatest, and it was very easy to spot whodunit. But it was a book that had something to say, and said it simply and effectively without bashing you over the head with it. Taryn and Jack (especially Taryn) are well-drawn characters and you want to find out what happens to them, which is what kept me reading more than the police procedural element.