Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Goodnight Beautiful

I remember reading The Perfect Mother, also by Malloy years ago and loving it. I had such high expectations and none of them were met. This is one of the poorest written thrillers I’ve read in a long time, and a huge disappointment.

Sam is a therapist that likes to lie to his wife and spend 2 million dollars they don’t have. Sam goes missing and said wife stumbles around trying to find him. The novel is from different perspectives, none of which are interesting or cohesive. I hated every character in this book. When Sam went missing, I did not care. When main characters’s lives were in danger I did not care. The characterization and writing were so mediocre in this, I had to make myself sit down and read it.

Along with the subpar character and writing, is the atrocious plot and confusing plot twists. In The Perfect Mother, every twist was well thought out and explained. In Goodnight Beautiful, every twist was confusing, stupid, and a cheap shot at being shocking. There is also so much problematic dialogue from every single character. With the very thinly veiled misogyny, classism, and ignorance in this book I was shocked to see it was published as recently as 2020.

The plot in this book is a mix of Gone Girl and The Shining. Like the author chose her favorite books and just decided to rewrite them with the lamest, most unrealistic ending she could think of. I’m not sure what happened between her debut novel and this release, but it ain’t for me! This thriller came off as a Lifetime Drama where nothing really makes any sense or is any good, but it has all the tropes. If you love Lifetime made for tv moves this could be for you.

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justagirlwithabook's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Oh, this book was unputdownable. I recently posted a little blurb about great psychological thrillers on Bookstagram and was given a handful of recommendations back that I immediately added to my TBR; this was one of those books, and it did not disappoint!

This one gets most of its stars (I'd give it a 4-4.5) for the consistent plot twists thrown into the storyline. I fell prey to every kind of assumption the author was likely hoping that readers would fall prey to, so when the twists hit, my eyes got big, my jaw dropped, and I felt like an idiot having made all the assumptions I had. (And then I of course went back to the beginning to rifle through chapters and review the previous information in an entirely new light.)

This book has SO much plot and just enough character that it kept me utterly interested until the very end. As an added nugget, if you're a bit of a horror fan (think Stephen King's Misery), you'll appreciate the nod and will entirely eat this up.

So! To the brief lists:

What I Loved:

The twists, and not just one huge one but a handful that kept me having to rethink the story and characters that I thought I'd come to know fairly well
The psychological aspects (a main character who is a therapist and another character who eavesdrops and diagnoses all said therapist's clients)
The nod to Stephen King's Misery (as well as The West Wing references that came at perfect moments)
The fast pace (entirely bingeable!)

What I Didn't Love:

I wish the story had a been a little bit longer just because I wanted more (more twists, more backstories, more sordid details into other characters' lives), but for it being under 300 pages and such a great read, this is really more of a compliment to the author than a complaint!

Content Warnings:
Minor: child abuse, cursing, death of a parent, dementia, grief, thoughts of infidelity, medical content, sexism, sexual content, violence
Moderate: mental illness, stalking

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lilifane's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Loved the first half, how the author used the different perspectives and played with my expectations. The second half was okay, it referenced another book a little too much for my taste. I guess it made sense, but was way too predictable because of it. I really liked the reveal at the end but then the ending ruined it a little for me. In conclusion I liked it, it was fast paced and mostly fun to read, just the ending a bit common/disappointing, escpecialy because the first half was so amzing and refreshing.

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thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a psychological thriller at its best, in my opinion! It starts out feeling like your average domestic thriller, but there are so many twists in this. I did not guess anything correctly. 😂

It’s definitely plot-focused, but there are some nice character touches throughout and a small amount of development in our main characters. I didn’t really fall in love with any of the characters, but the story had me caring about what happened to them.

The plot will keep you on your toes, and it’s not very long, so if you’re looking for a book that will completely suck you in for a few hours, this will do the trick. I do think the ending was a bit abrupt and rushed. I can’t recommend the audiobook enough though—another stellar listen!

Thank you to Libro.fm, Harper Audio, and the author for my copy.

I feel like I can’t say much more about this book without it being a spoiler…but it’s one that’s more enjoyable if you go in knowing nothing!

Read if you like: psychological thrillers, fresh takes on thriller stereotypes, eavesdropping, stalking people on social media.

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linesiunderline's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Here’s a title for this review: a thriller I did not hate by the end. Because friends, I think as much as I want to be a girl who finds satisfaction in all the hyped thrillers, I usually just don’t. Some are fun enough in the moment to keep me drawn to the next hot thing. But often, many of them don’t just leave me rolling my eyes, they leave me mad. (Yucky tropes, utterly crap writing, characters with the complexity of popsicle stick paper dolls...).

So, it is a victory for me to say, this is a 4⭐️ thriller in my book. Here’s why.

The real strength of this book is in the twists. And trust me, I’ve read thrillers where people have said there are excellent twists and the twists are in fact not excellent. I admire Molloy’s ability to keep things really surprising. That’s fun. It’s a ride. The satisfaction of the book is the rollercoaster level of drama.

But the thing is, I’ve learned that if I don’t care about the characters, my overall level of caring is affected. Shocker? Probably not. I don’t think these characters are among the most two dimensional of those in many thrillers, but they’re only vaguely more interesting. It’s about plot here people. We are not in Tana French or Jane Harper characterization territory.

Still, Molloy has my attention and I will try her work again. This is big. I recommend this for a fun weekend of reading!

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