Sulari Gentill takes a new refreshing approach to this story. The way she writes about the 'main characters' is very unique and satisfying to the reader. Can these two people actually meet in real life? They sound perfect for one another...on paper, but what about in the real world? I enjoyed this story very much. I would like to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book that I voluntarily reviewed.

A flawlessly executed story that packs a hell of a punch. I was worried that the premise would start to unravel when I realized how immediately intertwined the two plot lines were, but Sulari Gentill managed to write this book in a way that never once became confusing or hard to follow. It's such a unique premise, one I've definitely never come across written this way before.

It started off strong, but I unfortunately found myself starting to lose interest because I found the dialogue a bit immature and the characters hard to connect with. It was really disappointing because I was so eager to see how the story would play out and end. Luckily, the last third of the book was phenomenal so I'm glad I stuck with it. That ending...WOW. I'm still stunned after having a night to sleep on it.

For readers who are struggling to connect with the characters, I urge you to stick with it because even if they aren't very relatable at first, the story is worth it. By about the halfway point, you can see the writing between the lines and feel the impending implosion slowly building as you turn the pages. That sickening yet delicious suspense that something awful is about to happen and much like the writers in this story, there's nothing you can do expect watch it play out.

I ended up really enjoying this in the end and am so glad I was given a chance to read something that can truly claim to be new and different. Full review to come on my blog at publication.

oh my goodness gracious this book!!! i absolutely devoured, i loved how effortlessly the two worlds weaved in and out of each other, and that ending!!!! this is one of those books that makes you rethink everything you know, and sits in your chest long after you have finished the book. it is absolutely incredible and a must read!

This is a book not for the faint of heart. You need to pay attention, which is a flaw and a feature.
After She Wrote Him is paradox, a love story, a mystery, a thriller. It is never what it seems.
Who can you trust? Are you crazy? Is the character you created more real than your family, your friends?
At times the story gets dicey with so many characters, real and imagined, however, it's a book worth putting the effort into and will take your mind off any problem you might be having.

This is not a book you can mindlessly read, you have to pay attn. which is the best kind of book. I thought I knew what was going to happen but I wasn’t even close. I have been telling all my friends about this book and my Mom has requested it for her birthday. Great character development and the writing just flowed

Two writers in love with the writing. Two characters those writers imagine, create and give life to. Two realities that start off parallel to each other, cross over, intervene, coil and suffocate one another.
Crossing the Lines is a much unexpected story. Seemingly straightforward to begin with, it takes reader on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, assumptions, anxieties and revelations.
Who can you trust? Are you mad? Is your imagined character more alive than people around you? What is real? Is real really better than imagined?
The book took me, shook me and spat me out feeling torn, spent and hurt. Then, once I had time to simmer on the story, I realised that Crossing the Lines could not have had a happy ending, ever. We cannot possibly prescribe everyone’s actions, decisions and aims. We cannot write our own stories in a vacuum. People make our stories as much as we make theirs. If writers can control, to an extent, their stories, reality is uncontrollable.
So, both writers’ retreating into their own imaginary worlds is to be expected. It was a salvation for them, in a way.
People will never fail to disappoint. So, make up your own story. Make sense.

After She Wrote Him is a brilliantly crafted book with an ingenious concept. I've briefly dwelt over what would happen if the worlds of a writer and their characters would collide but Gentill manages to write a brilliant and fluid conversation between these two worlds. I love the plot of the story and the way both the worlds of Madeline and Edward infused together. The characters were dynamic and realistic and I really enjoyed each and every journey that they took. My only qualms would be with the ending. It wasn't what I expected and it was rather sudden and open-ended

Maybe it's just my general distrust of open endings but either way, it threw me off. Nevertheless, this is a book worth reading and I'm sure the characters are going to stay with me for a very long time.

Rating edit: 4.5 stars.

Just finished After She Wrote Him by Sulari Gentill. Such an intriguing read! Fascinating idea, unique narrative. Crime fiction that tells about an endearing (two-way) relationship between an author n the protagonist (they're going to stay in my mind).

Protagonists are imagining n writing each other. Who's the actual writer? Initially, it was a little difficult to adjust to this narrative but you get, slowly. The points of view shift quite swiftly and frequently and the author has done a brilliant job because it doesn't confuse you. Loved it!
Detailed review on my blog.

***Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Expected release date April 7, 2020.***

★★★

I truly enjoyed the premise of the story … a female author writing a crime novel with a male protagonist, who was a literary writer … an author who is writing a crime novel with a female protagonist, who is a crime novelist.

I found it difficult to keep up with the story because the POV changed so rapidly (who was writing, who was the character), but the story itself was pretty good.

Incredibly original and engaging! Madeline is writing a crime novel about Edward, who is in danger. Edward is writing a crime novel about Madeline who is in danger. Huh? Who is the author and who is the character? Both Maddy and Ned have pieces which will make you think they are the real writer but keep reading. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Hard to describe but easy to enjoy, this is one which I'm glad was issued in the US.

Really enjoyed this book! I tend to like books that also have another book in them. I really enjoyed the characters and the setting I think the author did a really good job of flushing out the characters. Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy!

Disclaimer: I have been sent a copy of this book for review purposes. This has not influenced or affected my opinions in this review.

After She Wrote Him is a psychological crime thriller full of twists and turns you won’t see coming. It invites the reader to have an insight into a writer’s mind. The lives of both protagonists in the book are interestingly and intensely interwoven. The lines between the creator and the created begin to blur from the beginning and gradually blur into something unrecognisably confusing and disillusioning. This is a mind-blowing thriller and I can honestly say that After She Wrote Him is a thriller like nothing I’ve read before and I would highly recommend it.

*4 stars*

After She Wrote Him is a standalone novel quite different from her Rowland Sinclair series. It begins with murder but the similarity to a standard mystery ends right there.

Madeleine d’Leon is a lawyer turned mystery novelist with a popular series character, but now she is writing something different. Inspired by her character Edward McGinnity, she focuses more and more on her writing. McGinnity seems so completely real, though his love for Willow, the artist, seems misplaced. Meanwhile, Edward is a writer of literary fiction and has become intrigued, perhaps a bit obsessed with his new character, Madeleine d’Leon, a genre writer who is married to a man who seems to take her for granted.

Who is the writer and who is the written…we think we know, but in the clever bit of meta-fiction, what we know is completely subsumed by what we don’t know.



I loved After She Wrote Him. The conceit is clever and brilliantly executed. There are no clunky transitions from one writer to the other. It is seamless. Perhaps it should be less seamless since I imagine their inner thoughts would vary in terms of language. That is my only quibble with what I thought was a clever novel that redefines what a mystery means.

It is all fair, though it seems Edward and Madeleine are both a bit lacking identifying potential suspects and plots. It seems it is easier to write a mystery than to live one.

After She Wrote Him will be published April 4th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

After She Wrote Him from Poisoned Pen Press

Sulari Gentill author site

Sulari Gentill really knows how to mislead yet captivate her audience in this new mystery crime story. It already won a Ned Kelly Award for best crime fiction in 2018 with its previous title: Crossing the Lines. Gentill takes the aspects of any crime book and twists it with two writers and only truth remains. It leaves readers in doubt and clearly wanting more with every chapter!

For a crime fiction novel with the small aspects of romance, mystery, and thriller, Gentill paced it out really well. From the first chapter, we’re thrown into the night of the murder. As soon as that chapter has ended and we get a feel of our characters, then the investigation starts. It leaves readers figuring out the evidence given to them by themselves rather than the classic way of our characters finding out. That only added more mystery to it. I admired Gentill’s way of switching characters so it’s clear enough for the reader but not too much as to give reality away from the story. It also saved a lot of chapters and was easy and more enjoyable to read. 

Madeleine d’Leon, our writer and lawyer, becomes infatuated by her protagonist to a point where Gentill leaves the readers questioning the reality of the story. Maddy alone is a sweet woman who’s been through so much with her miscarriages thus Edward becomes her solitude. As the story progressed, I sympathized with her and wanted her to reach her goals. Gentill has a way of writing to persuade a reader to pick a side and follow their gut, and that’s a unique trait to have whilst writing crime fiction.

Edward McGinnity, a wealthy writer who's been in love with his best friend since forever, is pulled into a murder that occurs at his best friend’s gallery show. He does anything and everything to get both of their names clear. He’s not your typical crime protagonist. As Maddy describes him, he’s smart and alluring. He, too, gets swooped up by Maddy. Soon they’re divided by each other’s worlds, and as the reader, we have to figure out—or choose—which one we’re rooting for. 

This review is spoiler-free as I don’t want to get into the juicy bit. It’s highly recommended to read with a five-star rating. There’s a bit of everything, from romance to thriller, mystery, and crime!

I don't even know how to begin to summarize this book, so this review will be my thoughts, only. After She Wrote Him is a pretty complex story. It will require your full concentration, and even then, you may need to go back and reread some parts- or at least, I needed to! If you like books that require deep thought, constant pondering and provoke deep conversations with other readers - this is the book for you!

This book makes readers question who is real and who is imaginary. It explores the creativity of writing, and examines obsession with one's work. I really appreciate the unique approach to this book. It takes a creative genius to create a story like this. For normal people like me, it gave me a headache - in the best way! It's going to take me weeks, if not months to digest what I just read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Sulari Gentill for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

When I saw this book I thought it sounded like a really good, interesting, unusual read.
Unfortunately I found it too difficult to keep up with, the character changes, I kept getting confused and had to go back and re read.
It's perhaps more difficult to concentrate at this point in time, I may give it another go later on when the world settles down.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

well this was not for me and i had to let go of it... maybe another time but at the moment this is too confusing to enjoy it.
thanks #netgalley and #Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC

After She Wrote Him is a strange novel - post-modern metafiction. We have a crime writer, Madeleine, writing about a literary fiction writer, Edward, who is in turn writing about a crime writer, Madeleine. Madeleine is having trouble breaking out of her genre and her publisher is not happy with her departure from her successful crime series. Edward finds himself under suspicion of pushing an art critic down the stairs to his death at an art exhibition.

The two writers engage one another increasingly deeply in their lives, each plotting the other into and out of impossible situations. The circularity is very well done, with the reader never quite clear what is reality and what is plot; whether Madeleine or Edward is the real writer or the character. In truth, they are both the writer and the character at the same time, but with the plot effortlessly slipping from one reality to another.

All this is punctuated heavily with writer in-jokes. The agents, the publishers and their insistence on writing being easily categorisable, the writers' festival with unequal queue lengths at the signing table, the crazy deadlines... Plus, if anyone has ever known a writer they will recognise the wild lurches in plot as the writer changes ideas; minor characters morph into major ones; names change; Madeleine becomes Sri Lankan half way through the piece. It is an absolute riot.

On the debit side, though, the plot (which is not really the main focus of the novel) is quite hard to follow. In fact, that's an understatement. It is nigh on impossible to follow. But the individual fragments are so enjoyable that it hardly matters whether they really fit together. And there's almost no realism except for the tortured minds of the writers.

The ending, when it comes, is really clever and witty - and feels quite satisfying even if it does leave the reader wondering just what happened.

A very unusual read. A author writes a book and a author writing a book about them. I was left confused about who was the real author and what was fact and what was fiction. Some of the storyline was well written and I was getting hooked them there was a character change and the confusion would start again. A disappointing ending to a strange story.

Dear Fellow Reader,

I was delighted and excited to no end that my request for After She Wrote Him was accepted. I immediately delved into the story, immersed myself in it. I was instantly fascinated by this story.

First we meet with Madeleine d’Leon. She is a lawyer turned writer. She is successful. She writes historical crime fiction books. She is married but has no children. One day she comes up with the idea of Edward McGinnity who is a writer as well. Edward is in love with Willow but she is married to another man. A man Edward despises but Willow and Edward stay friends. Edward also writes a book about a writer whose name is Madeleine d’Leon. As Madeleine writes Edward’s story she becomes obsessed with Edward, she even sees him everywhere, she feels him everywhere. Edward can’t think about anything else or anyone else but Madeleine. He lives her, he breathes her, she is in his every thought. When Madeleine writes a murder into her book her relationship with Edward intensifies and she becomes more and more disengaged from her real life to the point where her husband can’t take it anymore.
But which one of them is real and which one is only just a figment of imagination?

I just don’t know where to start….okay I’m gonna start with the ending. This was the first time ever in my reading “career” when I didn’t want to bang my head against the wall. The ending is just pure insanity. The perfect ending without an ending. I was like “oh my god oh my god” for 10 minutes after reading the last sentence. I couldn't a more perfect or a more fitting ending to Madeleine and Edward’s story.

To say that I loved this would be the understatement of the century. I lived with them, I was there when Madeleine had dinner with her husband, or when Edward wrote his book at home. It’s so very rare when a book has this serious impact on me.
The way Gentill tells their story is not conventional at all. There are no distinct chapters that either belong to Maddie or to Ned, oh no. It is told from their points of view but their sides of story is merged together. Everything that happens to them, happens to both of them at the same time. They are inseparable.

The characters themselves? Madeleine is passionate, she gives her whole self to her book, to write Edward’s story. Their Interactions are meaningful, deep and so lovely. Is it weird to say they I too fell in love with Ned? He is charming, passionate, caring. They have both went through some serious crises in their lives and it was so heartbreaking and cathartic to watch them as they “told” each other about these.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my copy. All opinions are my own.