Book Review: The Reunion by Samantha Hayes

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: February 9, 2018

The Reunion is a realistic thriller that explores the devastating effects of secrets and lies while playing on a parent’s worst fears. Sometimes a little white lie isn’t so little, and sometimes people do the wrong things for the right reasons.

Summary:

In 1996, Eleanor, a.k.a. Lenni, is given some money for ice cream by her older sister, Claire, and told to hurry back. But Lenni’s not supposed to be going off on her own because she’s “different” than other kids. She’s a little slower. Lenni never returns, and all that’s found of her are a pair of shorts and an ice cream cone.

By 2017, Lenni’s disappearance has become a cold case, and life has moved on for the Lucas family, for the most part. Lenni’s room is still the same, and the family still lives on Trevellin Farm—for now. After all, they’d made a promise that someone would always be there, just in case Lenni found her way home, and even after so many years, not everyone’s ready to give up hope. But Patrick’s suffering from the early stages of dementia, and Shona is finding it hard to manage both her husband’s deteriorating health and the farm, despite Claire and her husband, Callum, living next door. So she’s determined to sell Trevellin Farm once and for all.

In a last-ditch effort to improve her father’s memory and possibly convince her mother to change her mind, Claire organizes a reunion. She invites her brother, Jason; her childhood best friend, Maggie; and her former crush, Nick, all of whom regarded Patrick like a father. All of whom were also there the day Lenni went missing. What was meant to be a fun time quickly goes downhill as everything from the past is dredged up again and new secrets emerge.

Then, another girl goes missing, and the similarities are too obvious to deny. If they find her, they might just discover the truth behind Lenni’s disappearance all those years ago. But they have to hurry; time’s running out.

The Good:

• That cover, though. I know, I know, you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover. Well, I happen to be a judgmental person (aren’t we all?). So sue me. I’ll be honest, though, the reason I looked at this book in the first place is because the cover caught my eye. The simplicity of it is interesting and further highlights the pop of the butterfly, which is a very bright red—danger, warning, death, blood? All of the above? Not only that, but the butterfly is disintegrating. One side is strong, healthy, and normal, while the other is falling apart, which is a visual that I love (and which, having read this, perfectly sums up the plot).

• Lenni’s alive! I can say this without it being a spoiler, because guess what? Surprise! She’s a point-of-view character. Actually, I thought this was quite masterfully done. Lenni’s point of view is woven between present-day chapters. There are glimpses of the life that she’s been living, the sort of place she’s in, and how she’s treated. It shows that she’s got a personality (a fantastic one, actually) and isn’t always complacent, but it does show what a toll it’s taken on her. I thought this was actually unique, and it definitely builds the suspense, as I was trying to piece together where she was and who her captor was.

• The secrets! Oh, the delicious secrets. I mean, everyone has to have at least one, right? But secrets have the ability to shatter lives, especially in this book. Some of them are quite upfront, like the fact that Rain’s father is a big-wig politician who cheated on his wife with Maggie and doesn’t want the world to know about his illegitimate daughter. Most are not, though, and while Hayes hints quite often that something’s there, it’s a slow build up, which I thought created a marvelous amount of suspense.

• THAT ENDING. Fdjiafjdla. Okay, so, it’s subtle. Which I love. Hayes doesn’t just come out and say who the “villain” is. In fact, there are a lot of villains to varying degrees and in a lot of different ways, and for the most part, the villains themselves had motives for their actions (whether they were good motives or not, I’ll leave you to decide). Instead of just blurting out what happens, Hayes makes you work for it. I know, work is hard, but it’s worth it. The subtlety was beautiful and made a lasting impression on my mind.

• I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. Actually, I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. As it made perfect sense and was a fantastic way to wrap up the book, I’m going to include it in the good. Some might say it’s bad because there weren’t more obvious signs, but like I already said, you gotta work for it, man! I pieced together who did it before it was revealed, but not far before, so the clues were there. It wasn’t like a velociraptor jumping out of an alleyway at night sort of surprise. But it was a surprise, nonetheless, one that pulled me in so many different ways emotionally, and I consider that pretty darn good storytelling.

The Bad:

• Some of the characters were unbearable. Well, namely, Callum and Rain. I hated them both from the start and just wanted to yell. Gah, they were so annoying. I understand what they were going for with Rain’s character. Broken family, troubled girl starving for attention, acting out, yadda yadda, but it went too far, to the point where I couldn’t sympathize with her. Yes, I understand that perspective, but you, ma’am, are just a jerkface. Also, I’m still not sure why anyone would put up with Callum, let alone marry him.

• It starts off really slowly. Well, if you discount the immediate kidnapping, of course. There’s a nice hook provided by that glimpse of the past, but other than that, it takes a while to build the mystery. It’s worth hanging in there, but there are some slow scenes to start off with.

• Jumping points of view. You know what? I’m seeing this a lot lately in books, but I’m going to count it as a negative here. Not all the jumps are bad. As I said before, I loved the chapters from Lenni’s point of view. Unfortunately, as I said before, there were characters I couldn’t stand, and it’s really hard to read anything from their point of view without feeling like I should throw the Kindle. But, you know, it was expensive. Actually, I almost feel that most of the non-Claire and Lenni point of views were unnecessary. I don’t think it would have lost anything if this had been just purely Claire and Lenni’s story, which is why this earned a spot in my negatives. I mean, there is one major red herring that would be lost, but you know what? It was too obvious for me to consider, even for a second, which means it’s really no loss at all.

• I didn’t understand the characters’ motives. If this had happened once, I could have brushed it off, but it happened multiple times, where someone makes a big decision to lie. Not a little lie, but a massive one, for reasons that I don’t get. In really shady situations, for basically no reason, and even their thought process (because remember, everyone’s a point of view character) makes no sense at all. I mean, even if you’re my best friend, I’m not covering a felony for you. Especially an obvious felony that I have proof of. The book is a whole series of questionable character decisions that I just didn’t at all understand, which was frustrating at times.

• A couple of loose ends. I feel like I say this a lot. In fact, I probably do. If you’re writing a series, I expect loose ends, but in a standalone? Especially a mystery? Loose ends drive me a little wonky. As these constitute spoilers, I won’t elaborate. However, there’s a major “mystery” that’s alluded to in Nick’s character arc, and since there was such a big deal made about it, I expected there to be a conclusion at some point, but there wasn’t. Now I’m not really sure what to think. Was I right to be suspicious of this “accident,” or am I just reading too much into it? It’s driving me crazy! Also, there is no closure regarding one of the characters. He just poofs. Which is a fairly big deal because of his role in the novel, so I felt a bit cheated that there was no real resolution with that.

Overall:

I’m going to give it a solid three stars. While it starts off slow, once the mystery ramps up, it kept me turning pages eagerly. The mystery is wound nicely throughout the book—obvious enough where it makes sense by the end, but with enough twists to keep me guessing. Several scenes really tugged at my heartstrings, and I was so confused because I was also angry and sympathetic and OMG, WHY? In a good way, of course. It’s definitely a slow burn mystery/thriller, but worth the read. My biggest problem was with the characters. I found myself questioning their behavior far too often, which pulled me out of the actual story and annoyed me more than anything. A lot of it was also just me not liking or being able to connect with the characters, which is a pretty personal thing and one that not all readers will have a problem with.

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Disclaimer: I received a free ARC copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.