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[C5X]≡ PDF With Malice Eileen Cook Books

With Malice Eileen Cook Books



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Download PDF With Malice Eileen Cook Books


With Malice Eileen Cook Books

“Right now your brain knows there is missing information, and it’s desperately trying to fill in those blanks.” She opened a desk drawer and fished out a paper. “Ever see something like this?”

I looked down. At first the words looked like gibberish, and then they clicked into place.

I cnduo’t bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm.

I passed the sheet back to her. “I’ve seen something like it online.”

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Dr. Weeks knocked on top of the model of the brain she kept on her credenza. “The darn things still fascinate me as much as they did when I started in this field. How they can fill in what’s missing — find patterns and create meaning where there was nothing. One of the most primal survival instincts the brain has is finding pattern and assigning meaning. When there is a breakdown, it will scramble to find those patterns again as quickly as possible.”

###

“I didn’t do this,” I said.

“Of course you didn’t,” Mom said. She patted my hand. “The police aren’t going to be able to prove a thing.”

That’s when I knew beyond any doubt she believed I’d done it.

###

Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital bed with a broken leg, several broken ribs, an assortment of cuts and bruises – and no idea how she got there. Through bits and pieces – angry blog posts and reluctant drips of info from the ‘rents – she comes to learn that she was on a class trip to Italy when the car she was driving barreled through a stone wall and off a cliff. Jill survived, but the passenger – her best friend of eight years, Simone McIvory – did not.

After the was-it-or-wasn’t-it-an-accident, Jill’s hoighty-toighty father whisked her out of the country on a private flight, ostensibly so she could receive top-notch medical care in the states. Then he hired her a lawyer and (wait for it!) a PR team. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that Keith used his wealth to shield his daughter – and, by extension, his family – from the fallout of an investigation and possible murder charge.

While Jill is convinced that there’s no way she’d ever murder Simone, she has no memory of the event – or even the six or so weeks leading up to it. And her brain isn’t exactly cooperating; in addition to retrograde amnesia, Jill’s also dealing with aphasia, which makes it all the more difficult to defend herself. Yet as new facts and evidence come to light – in the form of police interviews, witness statements, cell phone videos, news articles, and Facebook and blog posts – Jill begins to doubt herself: what really happened that fateful day in Montepulciano?

Jill’s present-day narration is interspersed with items pertaining to the investigation. However, the evidence proves as shaky as Jill’s memory, as everyone involved – from Simone’s parents to her friends and even strangers at a quaint Tuscan cafe – is privy to just one part of the overall puzzle. (The secret lives of teenagers ftw.) Conflicting accounts and personal agendas further muddy the waters.

In addition to a murder mystery/psychological thriller, WITH MALICE is also a sly interrogation of internet culture – of how instant gratification and anonymity can bring out the worst in us. Reminiscent of the Amanda Knox case – complete with the reasonably attractive American femme fatale, an Italian Lothario, and a dead roommate, possibly murdered under titillating circumstances – the “Murder Abroad” makes Jill famous, in the worst way possible. Eager to cast Jill (and, later, Nico) as the villain, Internet commentators pile on with glee, twisting everything Jill ever posted online to fit their narrative. Anyone even tangentially related to the case is given an unquestioning platform. WITH MALICE even has a sleazy, Nancy Grace-like true crime reporter, taking mainstream media (news as entertainment) to task as well.

WITH MALICE is a really great beach read – assuming you like your beach reads a little dark and twisted. I’ve seen it compared to WE WERE LIARS – which is the main reason I picked it up, tbh – and, while the both do feature a big plot twist thanks to a handy case of amnesia, the overall vibe is completely different. In WE WERE LIARS, the twist came as a complete surprise to me (somehow I’d managed to avoid spoilers), including the mere fact that there was a twist. Here, they don’t tiptoe around it at all; the twist is part of the appeal.

Also, WE WERE LIARS had a much more likeable cast of characters – mostly privileged but well-intentioned young adults – which made the ending that much more tragic. I could appreciate what they were trying to do, even if they failed in the most epic way possible. In contrast, almost everyone (save maybe for Anna, Mom, and the rehab staff) is kind of awful and hard to stomach, even if you don’t realize it until the end. It’s not a bad thing – GONE GIRL utilized horrible people to great effect – but it does sap a little of the emotional impact from the ending.

You should know that the conclusion is very open-ended; usually I hate that, but it works quite well here. The story keeps you guessing, and the ending guarantees you’ll keep on doing so long after you’ve turned the last page. I don’t usually re-read four-star books – my TBR pile is just too big for that luxury! – but I’m considering revisiting that rule for WITH MALICE, just to see if I interpret anything differently in light of the “reveal.”

** Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. **

Read With Malice Eileen Cook Books

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With Malice Eileen Cook Books Reviews


I'm giving this book 3 stars instead of 2 because I did keep reading. I did read it quickly. It was a page turner. But that's about all it ha going for it.

The book read like it was written by someone who either doesn't spend much time with teenage girls, doesn't remember being a teenage girl, or doesn't have a lot of respect for teenage girls. And the result is characters that are one dimensional and trite. I live with an 18 year old girl, and I Can tell you, they have a rich inner world that this book didn't come close to touching. I found much of the teen dialog forced and not believable. The adult dialog was mostly fine, though I did find even some of those characters written as caricatures of personas instead of as fully fleshed-out individuals. And even though this is a YA novel, I didn't think it paid the reader due respect either the book could have been a lot savvier than it was, even with it's utterly lackluster plot.

Those looking for a story with a good twist? Please keep looking. There isn't a twist so much as a general feeling of, "....Oh. That's all? I see." Like, you might not have guessed that's where you were headed, but once you got there, you weren't punched in the face like perhaps you were with Gone Girl. This book just sort of...ends. And you're like, "Ok, well, thanks for nothing."

I found some of the devices the author used awfully convenient ("My friend knows stuff about computers!" "AWESOME! Can he solve this riddle for me?" "TOTES!" "RAD!") and the entire book was riddled with cliches. (The interview with the Italian guy who describes the girls as bellisima while kissing his fingertips LITERALLY made me cringe)

Overall, weak plot, weak twist, poorly developed characters, but a fast-paced read that does leave you wanting to know what happened, even if that desire hits a wall at the end of the novel.
“Right now your brain knows there is missing information, and it’s desperately trying to fill in those blanks.” She opened a desk drawer and fished out a paper. “Ever see something like this?”

I looked down. At first the words looked like gibberish, and then they clicked into place.

I cnduo’t bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm.

I passed the sheet back to her. “I’ve seen something like it online.”

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Dr. Weeks knocked on top of the model of the brain she kept on her credenza. “The darn things still fascinate me as much as they did when I started in this field. How they can fill in what’s missing — find patterns and create meaning where there was nothing. One of the most primal survival instincts the brain has is finding pattern and assigning meaning. When there is a breakdown, it will scramble to find those patterns again as quickly as possible.”

###

“I didn’t do this,” I said.

“Of course you didn’t,” Mom said. She patted my hand. “The police aren’t going to be able to prove a thing.”

That’s when I knew beyond any doubt she believed I’d done it.

###

Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital bed with a broken leg, several broken ribs, an assortment of cuts and bruises – and no idea how she got there. Through bits and pieces – angry blog posts and reluctant drips of info from the ‘rents – she comes to learn that she was on a class trip to Italy when the car she was driving barreled through a stone wall and off a cliff. Jill survived, but the passenger – her best friend of eight years, Simone McIvory – did not.

After the was-it-or-wasn’t-it-an-accident, Jill’s hoighty-toighty father whisked her out of the country on a private flight, ostensibly so she could receive top-notch medical care in the states. Then he hired her a lawyer and (wait for it!) a PR team. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that Keith used his wealth to shield his daughter – and, by extension, his family – from the fallout of an investigation and possible murder charge.

While Jill is convinced that there’s no way she’d ever murder Simone, she has no memory of the event – or even the six or so weeks leading up to it. And her brain isn’t exactly cooperating; in addition to retrograde amnesia, Jill’s also dealing with aphasia, which makes it all the more difficult to defend herself. Yet as new facts and evidence come to light – in the form of police interviews, witness statements, cell phone videos, news articles, and Facebook and blog posts – Jill begins to doubt herself what really happened that fateful day in Montepulciano?

Jill’s present-day narration is interspersed with items pertaining to the investigation. However, the evidence proves as shaky as Jill’s memory, as everyone involved – from Simone’s parents to her friends and even strangers at a quaint Tuscan cafe – is privy to just one part of the overall puzzle. (The secret lives of teenagers ftw.) Conflicting accounts and personal agendas further muddy the waters.

In addition to a murder mystery/psychological thriller, WITH MALICE is also a sly interrogation of internet culture – of how instant gratification and anonymity can bring out the worst in us. Reminiscent of the Amanda Knox case – complete with the reasonably attractive American femme fatale, an Italian Lothario, and a dead roommate, possibly murdered under titillating circumstances – the “Murder Abroad” makes Jill famous, in the worst way possible. Eager to cast Jill (and, later, Nico) as the villain, Internet commentators pile on with glee, twisting everything Jill ever posted online to fit their narrative. Anyone even tangentially related to the case is given an unquestioning platform. WITH MALICE even has a sleazy, Nancy Grace-like true crime reporter, taking mainstream media (news as entertainment) to task as well.

WITH MALICE is a really great beach read – assuming you like your beach reads a little dark and twisted. I’ve seen it compared to WE WERE LIARS – which is the main reason I picked it up, tbh – and, while the both do feature a big plot twist thanks to a handy case of amnesia, the overall vibe is completely different. In WE WERE LIARS, the twist came as a complete surprise to me (somehow I’d managed to avoid spoilers), including the mere fact that there was a twist. Here, they don’t tiptoe around it at all; the twist is part of the appeal.

Also, WE WERE LIARS had a much more likeable cast of characters – mostly privileged but well-intentioned young adults – which made the ending that much more tragic. I could appreciate what they were trying to do, even if they failed in the most epic way possible. In contrast, almost everyone (save maybe for Anna, Mom, and the rehab staff) is kind of awful and hard to stomach, even if you don’t realize it until the end. It’s not a bad thing – GONE GIRL utilized horrible people to great effect – but it does sap a little of the emotional impact from the ending.

You should know that the conclusion is very open-ended; usually I hate that, but it works quite well here. The story keeps you guessing, and the ending guarantees you’ll keep on doing so long after you’ve turned the last page. I don’t usually re-read four-star books – my TBR pile is just too big for that luxury! – but I’m considering revisiting that rule for WITH MALICE, just to see if I interpret anything differently in light of the “reveal.”

** Full disclosure I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. **
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