Member Reviews
Book Review: His & Hers by Alice Feeney
(Audiobook published by Macmillan Audio, July 28, 2020)
4.25 Stars.
Excellent audiobook production and presentation.
What a listen!
So British.
It really is.
This is one of those novels where total immersion is perfected by listening, with written words rendered superfluous.
A police detective. A BBC employee. Or two. Or three. A socialite. Husbands, wives and exes. All intertwined, yet far apart. All flawed, without exception. Many things experienced together, yet nothing in common. A coming of age story, a tale of career fulfillment. An horrific crime. Or two. Or three.
And in the end, all of them villains - or victims...
------
Superbly written, the shuttling between first person narratives of protagonists builds up suspense, twists and expectations, (huh, really, that can't to be!) - all through a completely unexpected, - though I thought, seemingly anticlimactic, ending.
Alice Feeney is an author I've begun to follow. Great job Macmillan Audio!
Review based on an Audiobook ARC from Macmillan Audio and NetGalley.
This book is told in 3 POV (Jack, Anna & the killers). The book starts off with the killer’s POV and that voice was so creepy!! This book had so many twists and turns that I did not see coming. I really enjoyed the narration of this book and highly recommend the audio version. Thank you to @netgalley and @flatiron_books for ALC!
Like a house of cards, His & Hers has a perfect plot that would fall flat if a single detail failed. A puzzle where every piece fits in its place and paints a perfect picture. Anna, a reporter, is the Her in the title. She’s a functional alcoholic with a tragic past. The “His” relates to Jack, a police detective who moved to a sleepy town and is shocked to have a murder on his hands. As soon as he gets to the crime scene, he realizes that it may hit closer to home that he’d wish. I thought that I had it all figured out, there was no other explanation… well, I had it completely wrong and the final revelation changed the whole novel and left me breathless. The audiobook performances by Richard Armitage and Stephanie Racine are flawless. Feeney is making a name for herself with unpredictable novels and this one is arguably her best.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Macmillan Audio!
Freaking Alice Feeney is Queen! 🙌🏻
This is phenomenal on audio. It took me about 5 minutes to fall in love with the narration of this twisted tale. Highly recommend you go the audio route if possible.
Gosh I love this author. She never disappoints! I know some people were pissed off at her last books insane ending but I loved it. I NEVER predict the ending of her stories and that’s rare these days. She always keeps me on my toes.
Congrats on another fantastic twisted tale. Highly recommend.
This was an incredible thriller that kept me fascinated throughout the entire journey. The characters were engaging and believable. Can’t recommend it enough!
Quite a twisty thriller- definitely one you need to pay close attention. Not only are there three POVs (the female news reporter, the male detective, and the killer), but there are multiple flashbacks to various different episodes throughout their lives. On top of it all, there's an active murder investigation and a serial killer on the loose! Literally everyone is a suspect and there are many well-executed red herrings.
Great performances in the audiobook version, which I received as an ARC from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed His & Hers! It was gassy paved and kept me guessing until the end. I liked the characters and background story. I would definitely recommend!
From the depths of Nicole’s Book Cellar (Instagram.com/nicoles_bookcellar):
Book: His & Hers (Release Date: July 28, 2020)
Author: Alice Feeney
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Mystery
Rating: 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Positives: Well it being an Alice Feeney story is enough for me. But other positives are the alternating narratives and mystery of the identity of one of the narrators. Another thing that Feeney is good at is dropping little nuggets of clues that when you hear later you want to do the forehead hit.
Negatives: The first 20% was a little slow start for me but in Feeney fashion it climbed up that roller coaster and took me for spins and loops.
Recommend? Yes, definitely.
Plot: Anna, a newscaster, begins to cover a story in the area where she spent her childhood. As she covers the story, she realizes the dead woman is someone that she knew when she was younger. Jack Harper, a detective, is also called to the scene where he realizes he is tied to both women. Both Jack and Anna are hiding something very important to the case and as the story unfolds you have to decide do you believe HIS story or HERS?
Thoughts: I enjoyed following the story and trying to find out who was telling the truth. If you listen to the audio, one of the narrators scared the crap out of me when they came on. It was such a spooky voice. The story reminded me a little bit of One of Us is Lying meets The Last Time I Lied.
Final drinking thoughts: I really thought I had the story figured out, like once or twice. But I don’t even know why I pretended that I could ever get into Feeney’s head. She again took me on a trip, made me feel like I had it figured out, just to pull the rug from beneath me. This was another good one by Feeney. Truth be told, she can rewrite the Declaration of Independence and I would read every bit of it.
Thank you to @NetGalley @MacmillanAudio @AliceFeeney for the advanced copy of #HisHers
#AliceFeeney #NetGalley #Books #Wine #LitFiction #BookReviews #thrillers #ILikeBigBooksAndICannotLie #Bookstigator #GoodReads #WinerRead #Kindle #AmazonReads #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #Mystery #nicoles_bookcellar
Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for review based on my honest opinion.
This was a great summer audiobook, a great book to listen to while laying on the patio enjoying the sun. I enjoyed the narrators of the book, it was well read and easy to listen to. Lots of twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat and every time I thought I knew when we killer was I was surprised to find facts leading in different directions. I’ve not really listened to too many audiobooks but after this book I feel but it might be something that I want to do more often.
Ooh, boy! This thriller had me guessing until the VERY end! The audiobook used voices to an awesome effect in keeping the mystery, a mystery!
The book tells three sides to a story of murders in alternating chapters. Are the victims connected (how?) and how are the two narrators (“him” and “her”) connected? The novel builds in tension and character development as more is revealed, everyone’s (very suspect) actions are rooted in their experiences and assumptions.
And man, the final reveal made me squeal with happiness!
After I requested this audiobook, I wasn't sure I would like the format it was written in. With each character having its own section which alternated. It was quite intriguing.
Anna has moved to London after her divorce trying to find herself and a career. She has been a TV presenter but is moved back to being a reporter after someone returns from maternity leave. She is sent to the small village where she grew up to report on a murder.
Her ex-husband has chosen to leave London after the divorce and is now the DCI in Blackdown investigating the murder.
There are lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending.
It's the day I've been waiting for - NetGalley is doing audiobooks now! Thanks for NetGalley and Flatiron Books for a copy. Opinions are my own.
This was my second Feeney novel and it's classic British thriller. Thrillers from specific regions tend to rely on the reader understanding motive innately and it was the case here. (UK is familial, US is monetary, Japanese/Korean is vengeance, Nordic is some tie to recent or past history...) The narrative structure is classic with the two main characters going back and forth to tell their unreliable perspectives. The biggest twist here (aside from the actual twist) is that a third unnamed voice enters and isn't revealed until the end. This was done well in audiobook format with a voicechanger that is explained perfectly by a plotpoint.
Audio specifically:
-Casting was spot-on. Richard Armitage could sound brooding and distressed while reading a sushi menu.
-There was an echo that started in the early part of section 20 on the female narrator that continued until the higher 20s. It disappeared on its own. At first, I thought it was a choice to show the breakdown of her character's explanations, but it was just a weird tech issue. Duh
-The editing of the dialogue in sections 23-24 is choppy. There were skips that were definitely unintentional and deleted single words in the middle sentences. This may have been due to me opening Marco Polo app with having the NetGalley open, but did not resolve after closing and restarting the apps, or restarting the phone.
His & Hers by Alice Feeney is my first foray into Netgalley audiobooks! Yay for Netgalley adding audio! Thrillers can be fun to listen to, especially when you have great narrators. I think Richard Armitage and Stephanie Racine were superb. They did a great job at conveying moods and tones, enunciation was crisp even at 2x speed. I liked the voice modified narration for the killer, as it didn’t give away any clues about who it was. That was a really neat touch that I haven’t seen (or rather, heard) done in a thriller audiobook yet.
I’ve read and enjoyed Alice Feeney’s Sometimes I Lie, and the same can be said for this novel. I always find her hard to rate, too. She has a different writing style than the popcorn typical thriller, which is a good thing. Things are a bit darker with her. As usual, there were so many twists and turns, it gave me a bit of whiplash. I really didn’t guess the killer, even though this novel offers you quite a few possibilities. These are definitely novels that will do well on television or film, they practically play out as a movie in your head. I would think I had it all figured out and it switched many, many times. I think if Feeney had gone any other route, it would have been too predictable. I won’t give any plot because there’s potential spoilers with anything I would describe. Just know that Feeney writes intoxicatingly and you’ll easily be sucked into this novel if you’re looking for a thriller. After a lot of debate, I give this a 4/5 stars. Though the twists could be a bit much at times, I found myself wanting to return to this audiobook and found myself searching out tasks around my house just so I could listen to it while doing so. Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron for the opportunity to listen and review His & Hers, which comes out on July 28th.
I have to say this one was tough, maybe because it was my first audio book through netgalley and maybe because I didn't read the directions clearly enough. I think I missed the ends of some of the chapters. That being said, the 'his' voice and the 'her' voice were pleasant enough but the killer's voice was a bit much, understandable, but a bit much. I also couldn't help thinking of the 1973 movie 'the girl most likely to...' starring Stockard Channing. I had to look up the year and title but I remembered the plot well enough, it's similar enough to this book.
His & Hers is my first audio book . Thanks Net Galley for adding audio books.
In His & Hers , I loved the narration: it was done by Him and Her and the unknown assailant/murderer.
The story at times when its Anna , I found to be long and slow to start.
Now the ending brings it all nicely together.
I was not expecting that ending. Not even close.
The audio version for this listener brought the story to life more than the book would have.
Great narration.
Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, Mystery and Thrillers for the listening opportunity . Great job.
I don’t like getting played like that. While reading from the POV of the most unreliable characters ever I was thinking the whole time that “no that’s not cool. No stop playing me like that!”
The book was written from three POVs, Jake who was a DCI, his ex wife who was a journalist, and the killer. I both loved and hated listening to the killer’s chapters. I loved them because they were so interesting and hated them because they were messing with my head so bad. I was driving myself crazy trying to figure everything out by myself. How naive of me!
The writing was so freakin clever that made me suspect my own mother! There were these little tiny details that literally made everyone a suspect. I listened to the audiobook for this one and what a lovely experience it was! The narrators did such a perfect job. This was a dark creepy thriller with an ending that was truly crazy!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for providing this audiobook.
WOW! This book absolutely kept me guessing until the end. Alice Feeney does not disappoint. It was an absolute delight on audio with narration by Richard Armitage & Stephanie Racine.
"We all hide behind the version of ourselves we let the rest of the world see..."
“Sometimes I think I am the unreliable narrator of my own life.
Sometimes I think we all are.”
Twisty, unpredictable, and chilling.
Trigger warnings for sexual assault & animal cruelty
3.5 stars. The ending left me a little confused but I’ve found that Alice Feeneys books tend to do that to me. This book is written in alternating perspectives and some alternating timelines as well. I will need to think more on how the logistics of the twist worked exactly 🤔
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am so excited to be a part of the new audiobook portion of NetGalley.
WOW! This audiobook rocked my socks off! First off the cast of narrators did a fantastic job reading this book, they fit the characters perfectly, a sultry news journalist and a gruff detective. Each of the main characters were read by their own narrators, Richard Armitage for Jack and Stephanie Racine for Anna. A third MC, the murderer, was read with a computer disguised voice changer. I found the computer disguised voice a unique way to hide who the actual murderer was. For the first few chapters I was confused and thought it was an error with the audiobook, especially at 1x speed. It was a fantastic way to keep the listener guessing! And constantly guessing was right, I could not pick one person to be the culprit! My mind was constantly being led to a variety of characters who could be guilty, right to the end of the book. Well done!
The storyline has been used before but this time around it is gripping! Our MC's return to their hometown outside of London for a news story. Anna is reporting and Jack is trying to solve the case. Very quickly they realize it's personal and both MC's are soon dragged into the murders when the people being murdered are acquaintances. Either could be the guilty person.... The story is unique in that we are listening to 3 pov's, one of which is the murderer. We are led down a twisty road to find the guilty party. This is a road everyone should travel!
Recommended for fans of Mystery, Thrillers and Unreliable Narrators! I definitely would recommend the audiobook version of this one to get the full effect!
He was a great son-in-law but was she a great mother-in-law?
Anna is an afternoon television anchor – a position she has held for the past two years while her predecessor was on maternity leave. Much to Anna’s chagrin, Kate, the original anchor returns to work and Anna is relegated to her previous lackluster position of news reporter. When Anna goes to cover a story at a murder scene, we are gradually introduced to the characters who will treat us to one heck of ride – her ex-husband Jack, a police detective, His new young protégé, Her ex-lover photographer, and a mystery character, the murderer, who narrates with a spooky mechanical voice, not clearly male or female.
Jack and young protégé are on the site investigating the murder of a young woman who Jack recognizes immediately as the woman he “shtupped” the night before. She was once a close friend of Anna. Anna and Rachel (the victim) were part of a clique of popular girls, including Jack’s sister Zoey, who perpetrated and covered up a horrible crime committed about 25 years earlier, when they were 16 years old. As Jack wraps up his preliminary investigation at the crime scene, he returns to his car to find that some of the missing evidence has been planted in the glove compartment and trunk of his car – including the victim’s cell phone. He is clearly being framed, we think, but soon it looks like he is being framed for a series of murders targeting the clique of girls (now women). What possible motive could he have?
Feeney is an amazing author. She is a master at smoke and mirrors, twists and turns, “yuck” and “ick”. There is plenty of tension, spooky claustrophobic scenes in deserted wooded areas, five murders, and several attempted murders. Not only is she a wizard at action and mystery, she also turns a brilliant literary phrase. Below is one small example of Feeney’s beautifully crafted prose (I apologize for any errors in transcribing from the audio):
“…there is a bungalow that has morphed into a house and a garden that has become a driveway a little farther down the road but otherwise everything looks just like it used to…my feet come to a standstill at the last house on the lane and it takes me a while to look up, as though I'm scared of making eye contact, but I do turn to stare at the old Victorian cottage. It looks exactly the same as it always did except for the peeling paint on the window frames and aging front door. The place looking old is new to me. The garden is what shocks me the most, an overgrown jungle of uncut grass and heather. The two lines of lavender bush on either side of the path have also been neglected. Crooked woody stems reach out like twisted arthritic fingers as though to prevent anyone from going in or getting out. I stared down at the garden gate and see that it is broken and hanging off its hinges …”
If I had described the same event and place, it probably would have read something like:
“I stood facing the house where I grew up. It was sadly deteriorated.”
So, while others may write exciting twisty thrillers, Feeney ranks amongst the best in the genre and while doing so, serves up the bonus of a literary feast.
I owe a HUGE thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Flatiron Books for this advance ARC audio recording. The narrators, Richard Armitage & Stephanie Racine, were brilliant. This is my own and completely unbiased review of Alice Feeney’s His & Hers. I absolutely LOVED it, Alice Feeney is my hero, and this is one of the best books I’ve read this year!