A Simple Favor

Rich and fabulous Emily asks a fellow mom, Stephanie, for a simple favor: to pick up her son after school and watch him one day. So starts a friendship. Then Emily disappears and Stephanie inserts herself into the mystery, blah, blah, blah. I can't even write a proper synopsis for this convoluted “psychological thriller.”

I watched the movie first and I thought, “Wow, this movie is cheesy but the story could be good. I bet the book is so much better.” Yeah, I was wrong. The movie is so much better. Here's the thing, the story could still be decent. But why is it so cheesy and light? There's really no twists, no surprises. And all the characters are terrible people. Which is, again, fine if written well. I can't really think of anything to say other than there's so much Jerry Springer content that it felt like a VC Andrews but without the good writing. And the ending is so blah.

Update: My husband just stopped by my computer as I was writing this and said I was so mean and that someone put a lot of time into this. Listen, I know they did. I get that it's a debut novel. But I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to write honest reviews. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm sure she's a lovely person and great teacher. But this book is just truly bad. Yikes.

One of the most unbelievable parts of the story is the fact that anyone would read the boring blog posts written by Stephanie, let alone enough people for them to actually comment on the posts. The story should have been interesting and thrilling considering everything involved (love, murder, crime, adultery, incest) but instead, the characters were flat and lacked any kind of personality that would make you like, care or feel sorry for any of them.

The main character - Stephanie, could have been left out of the story completely and an almost identical plot could've happened. To be honest, it might have been better without her character. Actually - scratch that, it would've been the plot of Gone Girl with worse writing.

The Movie Was Better!

I watched the movie a few years ago because I am a big fan of Anna Kendrik. When I saw the book on Scribd I thought I would give the book a chance and I am not sure if this was worth the time or the energy. I went back and forth with how to rate this book considering this is my jam usually. I love me a good thriller. Where things fall short is that I couldn't relate to any of the characters and I didn't really like them. I feel the casting is what made the movie enjoyable. Stephanie was a mess who blogged her life and needed validation from everyone and this need to fit in which made her the perfect mark. Now Emily she just pulled no punches you knew she was a badass from the first page. Now Sean I just found him a dull and very pliable person.
Now, the story, yes it was a tad cheesy. You saw a lot of it coming. But you didn't see it happening the way it did. Or for the reasons it did. That, and only that, made the book good. Really good actually. The twists were well placed it left you turning pages. If the cast of characters were better or more personality-infused, I would have loved this. Overall, I liked it. I might have to see what else this author has to offer just to give it a second chance. Part of my discomfort might be the fact that I watched the movie first and I usually never do that.