Who Would Like This Book:
If twisty, psychological thrillers are your go-to, you’ll have a blast with this one! A Simple Favor offers a rollercoaster of secrets, lies, and unreliable narrators told from multiple perspectives. Readers who relish complex female friendships, domestic drama, and page-turning suspense will find plenty to devour. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl or anyone who loves dissecting messy relationships and jaw-dropping plot twists.
Who May Not Like This Book:
If you’re looking for deeply likable or relatable characters, you might find yourself a bit frustrated - most of the cast are intentionally unreliable and occasionally downright irritating. Some readers weren’t fans of the writing style or structure, feeling it could be inconsistent, repetitive, or even a bit melodramatic. If a book needs to have a tidy plot or plausible character decisions, this might not be your cup of tea.
About:
A woman leaves her son with a friend while she works late, but she never comes back to pick him up. Now her friend is raising her son and getting close to her husband, but why did she disappear? The story dives into the deep and twisted secrets hidden within the conflicting main characters, unraveling a tale of exhausting yet rewarding motherhood, disloyal friendships, and sinister hidden truths. The narrative is filled with suspense, mystery, and intrigue, keeping readers hooked until the very end.
Stephanie, a lonely widow, forms an unlikely friendship with Emily, a glamorous and carefree mother, whose disappearance sparks a chain of events revealing dark secrets and hidden motives. As Stephanie delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Emily's vanishing, she discovers that friendship, love, and loyalty are not as simple as they seem. The book explores themes of motherhood, buried secrets, and the complexity of human relationships, all intertwined in a thrilling and captivating storyline.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings for A Simple Favor include themes of manipulation, death, loss, and psychological distress.
Has Romance?
The book includes some romantic elements, particularly in the context of the characters' relationships and emotional entanglements.
From The Publisher:
Soon to be a major motion picture from Lionsgate starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Henry Golding, and directed by Paul Feig
"Riveting and brilliantly structured, A Simple Favor is an edge-of-your seat domestic thriller about a missing wife and mother that relies on a rotating cast of unreliable narrators to ingeniously examine the cost of competitive mom-friends, the toll of ordinary marital discontent and the fallacy of the picture-perfect, suburban family."-Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author
She's your best friend.
She knows all your secrets.
That's why she's so dangerous.
A single mother's life is turned upside down when her best friend vanishes in this chilling debut thriller in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.
It starts with a simple favor-an ordinary kindness mothers do for one another. When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky after school, she happily says yes. Nicky and her son, Miles, are classmates and best friends, and the five-year-olds love being together-just like she and Emily. A widow and stay-at-home mommy blogger living in woodsy suburban Connecticut, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a sophisticated PR executive whose job in Manhattan demands so much of her time.
But Emily doesn't come back. She doesn't answer calls or return texts. Stephanie knows something is terribly wrong-Emily would never leave Nicky, no matter what the police say. Terrified, she reaches out to her blog readers for help. She also reaches out to Emily's husband, the handsome, reticent Sean, offering emotional support. It's the least she can do for her best friend. Then, she and Sean receive shocking news. Emily is dead. The nightmare of her disappearance is over.
Or is it? Because soon, Stephanie will begin to see that nothing-not friendship, love, or even an ordinary favor-is as simple as it seems.
A Simple Favor is a remarkable tale of psychological suspense-a clever and twisting free-fall of a ride filled with betrayals and reversals, twists and turns, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge. Darcey Bell masterfully ratchets up the tension in a taut, unsettling, and completely absorbing story that holds you in its grip until the final page.
Ratings (14)
Loved It (4) | |
Liked It (6) | |
It Was OK (2) | |
Did Not Like (1) | |
Hated It (1) |
Reader Stats (23):
Read It (16) | |
Want To Read (6) | |
Not Interested (1) |
3 comment(s)
the movie is way better. the book doesn't even have an ending. but it has underdeveloped characters and snobbism.
Predictable as a Lifetime movie, with one note characters
Normally I can find a redeeming quality in any book I read- not in this one. Every “twist” was trite and predictable, and the characters are all one note, and unfortunately every single one of those notes is awful. Stephanie truly is the dumbest character ever, Emily is a caricature of a psychopath, and Sean is just worthless. I really wanted to like this because I’m excited for the movie (due to the cast) but hope they change it from the source material drastically!
Movie was better, saw it first
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