The Puzzle of You

This is basically what the provided synopsis says its about, for the most part. Charlotte awakes from a crash losing the last 4 years of her memory. She forgot she had a daughter and struggles to accept the life she had been living the past four years. The first 2-4 chapters are Charlotte waking up in the hospital, thereafter the rest of the story is essentially Charlotte trying to decide if she wants to stay home with her daughter or go back to work while balancing an estranged relationship with her husband.

There is no mysterious element with her memory loss because flashbacks are added in throughout the story. Early on, starting with chapter 3, readers quickly know what her old life was like compared to her present life. After chapter 3, the chapters alternate between flashbacks and the present. Do not expect mystery with this.

The themes explored are family, marriage, and women in the workplace—explained below:

I love things that give women a voice and advocate for feminism, but this was not insightful towards either. The topic was touched on, albeit surface level, with Charlottes workplace and the treatment towards pregnant women, but it was not powerful enough; the story was too mundane.

Also, based on the synopsis provided I was expecting a story-line for mothers that was heartfelt and moving; something that was also emotionally family centered like the movie Click or The Family Man, but it was neither. I expected an emotional rekindling with her daughter or captivating connection, and it didn’t happen. The style was bland. We do see a marriage crumbling, and it is easy to relate to; however, it is isolated without intense depth.

The story progresses at a snail-moving pace. Even at 60% (marked on my Kindle) it was still dragging. At 60%, Charlotte is still holding onto remnants of her past (job) while trying to accept bits of her present (daughter). This is much of the story: Charlotte prioritizing and weighing her options. No twists, turns, emotional scenes, or drama. After 60%, it continued down this same path.

Most of the story was anticlimactic, as mentioned above. The climax, in my opinion, was chapter 47; before this chapter the characters experience no growth or change. Please note there are only 48 chapters.

All in all, this is a story lacking a stimulating plot-line about a mother deciding to go back to work in order to climb the corporate ladder or stay at home with her toddler daughter. While this is a great premise that is easy to relate to, feeling like you must choose between your career or your child, the story was not executed well. It was very monotonous and repeated the same ideas again and again.

I regret that I wasted my October free book on this novel. Utterly predictable and it just drags on and on and on. To my credit, I finished it, but really should have jettisoned it after the first few monotonous chapters. Frankly, I would not waste my time on this.

Why can’t writers build a vocabulary large enough that they can write without using four-letter words and crude language? So sad to give up reading what promised to be a good book just a chapter into it because of such a reason!

Yikes. Patiently read 50% and skipped to the end. I missed nothing that I didn’t predict would already happen. I’m sorry Leah bc I know your heart went into this and I hate to criticize your efforts. I wasted my free read on this and I would be ticked even if I spent 99 cents. Not very good writing and a very boring predictable story line.

Usually I steer clear of this subject and this impulse-pick First Reads choice turned out less entertaining than I’d hoped. Maybe this was because the plodding plot seemed beaten down (almost, almost but never quite to death) by the blow by blow, day after day after day, dull as dishwater, yet oddly disturbing details.

Between this and that, within present and past chapters, intriguing questions almost arose then fell by the wayside–about self, personality, family, friendship, marriage, childhood, gender, workplace, mind, memory, medicine and more. So I found self-education potential.

The writing portrayed situations and scenarios vividly, the characters grew less stereotypical, and I kept seeking inspiration and encouragement in their stories. But the process felt so tedious.

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