I don’t know what to say about this book. The idea was great. It actually was a pretty good book until things went so catastrophically wrong.

As soon as Lester went in his uniform to speak to them, I was unhappy. And then it just kept getting worse. I DID like when she tried to kill herself (as awful as that sounds) but WTF Lester… he really ruined the book for me. I disliked everything he did. I would have preferred a story where they continue the fight legally and it somehow got resolved. I know how it was actually written has more drama and is probably more interesting, but just felt like too much. Kathy just had such poor miserable luck in life- first the luck with her husband, then the tax/house business, then the poor luck to get involved with Lester who was a nut…

MOVIE UPDATE July 29, 2022:
I actually really liked the movie. They did a wonderful job. The casting/filming locations/etc was much better for the movie than it was in my mind while reading the book. My only complaint is that they changed the ending slightly.

Behrani didn’t strangle and try to kill Kathy. I didn’t like how Kathy had to find them dead. And who is to say that the police don’t accuse her of murdering them? We didn’t see him write a note. Also, the fact that Behrani wrote a note for his daughter not to take less then xxx amount for the house sort of showed that he cared more about the house/money even at the end… which sort of had a big impact on me when I read the book. It feels like they changed his character at the end to make him seem more victim less jerk. Not that he was a total jerk. It was a bad situation for everyone all around.