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A review by pagesplotsandpints
The Wrong Daughter by Dandy Smith
3.25
<b>Read Completed 6/8/24 |</b> 3.25 stars
I have very complicated feelings about this book! I found it on a Goodreads list of "most read thrillers this week" and found an audiobook copy on Hoopla, so I immediately jumped in. I love the concept of the "missing person returned" and the author wrote a very compelling story that had a lot of twists and turns throughout the book!
I really liked Caitlin's POV. She's the main character of the book and it's her sister who has been missing for over a decade. When a woman returns claiming to be her long-lost sister, suspicions arise when things don't quite line up. I loved the wild back-and-forth as Caitlin questions whether this woman is really her sister or not, and how other people either don't want to believe she's an imposter or genuinely think Caitlin is losing her mind for thinking so.
There is a second, seemingly unconnected POV in this book, and usually that's pretty interesting in thrillers. I love seeing how things connect and hopefully, having my mind blown by the connection, but this POV was incredibly uncomfortable and I truly wish it hadn't been a part of the book. The second POV is a girl named Elinor who lives with her brother and her controlling uncle after her parents died in a boating accident and drowned. Elinor has a very uncomfortable relationship with her brother where incest is heavily implied but it's not clear whether she is longing for him inappropriately, if he is longing for her inappropriately, if it's both, or (my hope) that it was neither. I was really, really, really hoping we weren't going the incest route and spent the whole book hoping that would be a big misunderstanding with an explanation for it.
Things escalate throughout the book, naturally, and I found the writing to be quite compelling! There were reveals and red herrings, clues and tricks, and I couldn't get enough! I was dying to see how the stories connected, if someone was impersonating someone else, if the characters from Elinor's POV were characters in Caitlin's POV, and how these stories possibly connected and why it was important.
Finally at about 85%, things started coming together and it got really good and then took a turn. I liked how things were going until the last 10% where it felt like things went above and beyond. There was a whole new person introduced that wasn't necessary, fears were confirmed (and not in a good way), and things got a little too wild when this could have been a REALLY good psychological thriller without going over the top.
I would be VERY interested to read more from this author, but I would personally hope that things got less over-the-top. I can see why this has such a high rating and people loved the twist, but I was pretty disappointed in it. I can see lots of potential and I did really like the writing, which is hard to find in a thriller for me sometimes, so maybe a different story would hook me better!
I have very complicated feelings about this book! I found it on a Goodreads list of "most read thrillers this week" and found an audiobook copy on Hoopla, so I immediately jumped in. I love the concept of the "missing person returned" and the author wrote a very compelling story that had a lot of twists and turns throughout the book!
I really liked Caitlin's POV. She's the main character of the book and it's her sister who has been missing for over a decade. When a woman returns claiming to be her long-lost sister, suspicions arise when things don't quite line up. I loved the wild back-and-forth as Caitlin questions whether this woman is really her sister or not, and how other people either don't want to believe she's an imposter or genuinely think Caitlin is losing her mind for thinking so.
There is a second, seemingly unconnected POV in this book, and usually that's pretty interesting in thrillers. I love seeing how things connect and hopefully, having my mind blown by the connection, but this POV was incredibly uncomfortable and I truly wish it hadn't been a part of the book. The second POV is a girl named Elinor who lives with her brother and her controlling uncle after her parents died in a boating accident and drowned. Elinor has a very uncomfortable relationship with her brother where incest is heavily implied but it's not clear whether she is longing for him inappropriately, if he is longing for her inappropriately, if it's both, or (my hope) that it was neither. I was really, really, really hoping we weren't going the incest route and spent the whole book hoping that would be a big misunderstanding with an explanation for it.
Things escalate throughout the book, naturally, and I found the writing to be quite compelling! There were reveals and red herrings, clues and tricks, and I couldn't get enough! I was dying to see how the stories connected, if someone was impersonating someone else, if the characters from Elinor's POV were characters in Caitlin's POV, and how these stories possibly connected and why it was important.
Finally at about 85%, things started coming together and it got really good and then took a turn. I liked how things were going until the last 10% where it felt like things went above and beyond. There was a whole new person introduced that wasn't necessary, fears were confirmed (and not in a good way), and things got a little too wild when this could have been a REALLY good psychological thriller without going over the top.
I would be VERY interested to read more from this author, but I would personally hope that things got less over-the-top. I can see why this has such a high rating and people loved the twist, but I was pretty disappointed in it. I can see lots of potential and I did really like the writing, which is hard to find in a thriller for me sometimes, so maybe a different story would hook me better!