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My Favorite Terrible Thing by Madeleine Henry


a beach with waves crashing onto the shore, a smaller inside square showing the same picture at night
My Favorite Terrible Thing by Madeleine Henry

In Madeleine Henry's third novel, we get to see a private investigator try to find "The Case", the one that will set her on the map and make her the person to go to for all of your investigative needs. This book deals with some pretty heavy topics, including physical abuse, death, animal cruelty and death, mental illness, toxic friendship, gun violence, and murder.


Nina is a chameleon of sorts, able to blend in with her surroundings, at least enough to not be noticed. That's what makes her such a good private investigator. She will never, really fit in with her wealthy clientele but as long as she stays just outside the group, no one realizes she's not meant to be there. The majority of her clients are looking for evidence of their cheating spouses, but occasionally she gets an interesting case, like when she found a stolen Van Gogh. But this new case might be her big break, the case that really gets her noticed. Best-selling author Claire Ross has been missing for months, disappearing on the morning of her wedding with no evidence of foul play. Fortunately, Nina is an author and knows Claire's masterpiece better than anyone, and she's convinced it will lead her right to Claire.


This book was unhinged. The beginning of the book was pretty interesting and I enjoyed following Nina's process as she looked for Claire. About halfway through there was a twist that I liked. It set the second half of the book on a different trajectory but given what we already knew, it made sense. But the end of this book was ridiculous. We got another twist that I didn't think really fit and really ruined the story for me. This book would not make the list of best or most enjoyable books that I've read this year, I thought it was okay at best, but that it would have scored much higher without that second twist. Overall, I didn't find the characters relatable or even likeable, there was no character development, and the writing was just okay.


My Favorite Terrible Thing by Madeleine Henry gets 2.5 stars out of 5. I did not find it particularly enjoyable and probably won't read anything else by her.

If you want to see more from Madeleine Henry, check out her website at https://www.itsmadeleinehenry.com/


Pairs well with halva spread on a bagel and a restraining order.

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