Aimee Molloy's Goodnight Beautiful is a psychological thriller that hooks readers from the first page and doesn’t let go. The story follows Sam Statler, a therapist who moves to a small town in upstate New York with his wife Annie. When Sam goes missing, the seemingly tranquil town becomes the backdrop for a series of shocking revelations. Molloy expertly crafts a plot filled with unexpected twists, making it a compelling read that keeps readers guessing until the very end.

Molloy's writing shines in her detailed characterizations and vivid descriptions. Annie’s journey is particularly gripping, as she navigates the dark undercurrents of her marriage and the secrets hidden within her community. The alternating perspectives add depth to the narrative, allowing readers to experience the unfolding mystery from various angles. With its fast-paced plot and well-executed surprises, Goodnight Beautiful is a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers, promising an engaging and suspenseful experience.

At the time I requested this book I was very interested in it. Obviously, it has been a few years since I requested this and I am no longer interested in it now. It doesn't match my current reading tastes and I apologize that I didn't read it and thank you for the kindness you showed offering it to me.

The audiobook:
I appreciated the different narrators in the audiobook, as I always find it easier to follow along in the story and it brings the story to life more so than a single narrator if there are multiple perspectives in the book.

The story:
Let me start by saying that I'm probably providing an unpopular opinion for this book. There are so many people that thoroughly enjoyed this one, which is great...it just wasn't the case for me. I did enjoy some of the twists that were presented in the book but I had some big issues with it. I didn't appreciate the complete rip off of Misery by Stephen King. If you're familiar with that story, it ruins one of the major plot twists for this book. On top of the Misery rip off, they referenced Misery numerous times in the book, which is where the characters get ideas from to progress this story.

While reading this, part of me was thinking seriously, let's just be original...and the other part of me was thinking, it's interesting to have a plot where characters are inspired by other characters and give credit where credit is due. However, for me thrillers are all about guessing the ending and trying to figure out if you can guess plot twists along the way...and as I mentioned previously, if you're familiar with Misery, count any surprises out. I also didn't appreciate the role playing between the couple, when she assumed the role of a mental health patient. I thought that was a bit distasteful. Another issue that I had with this book is the use of mental health as a plot device, specifically referring to the antagonist of the story. I know that other thrillers do this as well, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, I thought the story was just okay, but I wouldn't recommend it. I think that there are much better thrillers out there and I don't really think I'd read any other work by this author. I just don't think it's a good fit for me. I feel like the characters were quite flat and the story was a bit unbelievable. I want a thriller to wow me and have a shocking ending..and this book didn't quite fit the bill for me.

Sam Statler and his new wife, Annie, have recently left the city for Sam's quiet little hometown in upstate New York. His mother recently went into a nursing home there and Sam is eager to be near to her. He moved his therapy practice, as well. There has been an adjustment period for both Annie and Sam, small-town life can be a bit isolating for Annie, the city girl. What Sam doesn't realize is that the vent in the ceiling makes every conversation he has with clients available to anybody in the house who cares to listen. Then one day Sam doesn't come home and Annie is absolutely crazy with worry. The police, many of whom knew Sam in school, are less worried. They think that Sam has run off with another woman because he always was chasing after the ladies. Are they right or is Annie right in thinking that something sinister has happened to her husband?

Goodnight Beautiful is a tricky kind of mystery. Sam and Annie seem to have the perfect newlywed relationship. Except for one little fact, one of them was hiding some secrets from the other. There are alternate narrators, but I am going to warn you. One of the narrators is completely unreliable. I will let you read the book to figure out which one unless you want to CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS. I was completely shocked when two things were revealed. The first shocker caused my jaw to drop. I even had to rewind to make sure I heard it correctly. And then the second shocker is revealed and it also caused me to pause. And in case you have forgotten, I LOVE those kinds of books.

Bottom Line - Goodnight Beautiful is a "must-read" for those of you who love a twisty kind of novel. The author was so sneaky at those twists, you didn't even realize that it was happening!

Details:

Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
On Instagram
Pages:304
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: 10/13/2020
Buy it Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for a review.

I mostly listened to this book but I read some of it also. I enjoyed listening to this, the narration was well done. The story had a couple of huge twists that I did not see coming and really shocked me. My library has this and I have already recommended this book to many library patrons.

I received the audiobook as an ALC from Netgalley. Thank you.
I really can't say much about the book because I will give away too much but I enjoyed most of it. At first I was a little confused regarding one of the characters because the narration seemed off but later on as the story unfolded I understood what was going on and the narration was spot on after this. One thing with audiobooks-if you get distracted sometimes you miss something that may be obvious to others.

As I got into the story I couldn't stop listening to it. Lots of twists and turns. I enjoyed it very much. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Really good domestic thriller. Had some twists I wasn’t expecting. Looking for something fast paced? Check out this book. I listened to the audio of the book courtesy of Harper Collins on netgalley. Thank you so much for the advanced copy.

Brilliant book that you think you see coming but you absolutely don't. Spins many tropes used in this genre on their head and throws them out the window. Molloy also uses the timeline and point of view structure to completely mess with your head. Brilliant!

The narration in this audiobook is everything! Marvelous job by the narrators, truly. This one had me guessing from start to finish, switching teams as to whom I was rooting for. I breezed through this one - I had to know how this one resolved itself!

This is one of the best books I've read this year! For the longest time I thought I had the characters figured out and I knew what was going on, what was going to happen next, but I was wrong every time. It was fast paced and the culprit will not be revealed until later on in the book. There are multiple narrators and this added to the mystery of the book. This a roller coaster ride of a book and if you are a fan of psychological thrillers/mystery then you will not be disappointed. Thank you to NetGalley for an early audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an enjoyable thriller with a happy ending. Most people who read thrillers may be disappointed in the ending, but will definitely be happy with the twist in the middle.

This was a good mystery and I appreciated the author’s original twists. It was well paced and definitely kept me intrigued. I got this as an audio book which I enjoyed, except that I found one of the main narrator’s voice to be grating, which did diminish my enjoyment at the start. But the plot was so wonderful that I stuck with it. I would highly recommend as a book and maybe it was just me with the narration.

This was an okay thriller, complete with all the requisite twists we need in thrillers these day. All told, the ending fizzled out and was incredibly anticlimactic. I give this 2.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 3.

I also must say that I was actually fully into it until I hit Part 2 and then the story line felt like it switched completely and sort of nonsensically?? I think the book could have been interesting had it kept on its forward moving path of Part 1. I suppose I'm bored of the thriller genre these days, and most of the books in the genre end up being sort of disappointing in some way.

I'm clearly in the minority on this opinion, so if you are deeply married to any and all thrillers, this will be no different and I'm sure you'll love it. I'd definitely recommend to those folks, but if you are looking for anything different in this read, maybe give it a pass.

A note about the audiobook version - there is a fairly robust variety of narrators to give voice to the many different points of views (Val Toomey; George Newbern; Marin Ireland; Joel Froomkin) and this was very successful at helping the listener keep track of who was talking. This was impressively produced, because even though there were so many narrators, it didn't fall into that terrible "full cast" or "fully performed" audiobook narration - no over-performing or cheesy sound effects, just basic narration. I'd recommend the audio version for anyone interested in the book but unable to give the written copy their full attention.

Thank you to Harper, Harper Audio, and NetGalley for the early copies in exchange for an honest review.

I try not to be too negative about a book. I try to see the good in a novel even if it wasn't for me. But this just left me bored and disappointed.

The only thing getting me through this was the audio. There were three different narrators voicing the three different perspectives. I didn't have any issues with the audio.

If it's not the similarities to a Stephen King novel, which the book is well aware of, it's the flat characters. It's the 320 pages of a novel that basically leads to the most unsatisfying ending. The whole book had "twists" and "turns" so why didn't the ending leave me speechless?
This could honestly be a one-star read, but there was some semblance of a psychological thriller in there—somewhere deep, deep inside.

I'm so confused as to how this was written by the same author as The Perfect Mother. I'm very clearly in the minority with this one. I don't recommend this one, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you what you should and shouldn't read. There are obviously people out there that absolutely love it.

I'm new to audio book, but this is one that might have hook me up to them. The narrator did a great job making the reader feel the intensity and the general ambiance of the novel. The story in itself was also good and entertaining. It was dark enough, exactly like I love my thriller to be. I will recommend this one!

Dr. Sam Statler, a newlywed psychologist, is missing. He and his wife, Annie, recently moved from NYC to his small upstate New York hometown. The move serves two purposes-a fresh start for the couple and to be close to Sam's ailing mother. Sam's private practice is located in a charming old building with the perfect landlord. He spends his days listening to the problems of his mostly female clientele and his free time celebrating the small milestones in his marriage. This quiet life suits Sam, which is why Annie can't believe he would have willingly disappeared. However, the search for her husband reveals that Sam may not be everything she believed him to be

To be honest, it's best to go into this book knowing as little as possible about it. Know that it is a strange and twisty story; a first rate psychological thriller. Sam has a reputation in his hometown. His sessions are being listened in on. And who is that French woman? Is Sam really missing or did he disappear? Readers will have questions and the author is stingy with the answers until the stunning truth is revealed. I listened to the audiobook version and at first I struggled with the narrator, but by the end I could not believe how perfect the narration was.

I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline of this book. I did not enjoy the audiobook version because of the narration. I listened to the first version, but was allowed to download the latest version. I felt the initial narration ruined the story.

If I had just read the book, my experience would have been much better. I listen and read the book at the same time - watching the text as the book progressed. It was a suspencefull book, and I enjoyed the inspiration from one of my favorite books - MISERY.

Highly recommended, especially if the narration is updated.

Aimee Molloy has gone above and beyond in this outstanding psychological thriller. The multiple narrators add a whole different layer of suspense to this audio version. The twists abound and just when I thought one thing, the book went in a completely different direction. I’m always pleased when a book surprises me with an unexpected twist and this book actually had several. This is an absolute page turner that will keep readers guessing right up to the last page.

Goodnight Beautiful
A Novel
by Aimee Molloy
Narrated by Val Toomey; George Newbern; Marin Ireland; Joel Froomkin
Harper Audio
You Are Auto-Approved
HarperAudio
General Fiction

Thanks to Harper and Net Galley for the ARC of this book. I found it very suspenseful and I enjoyed reading it. I will recommend it to our patrons. 5 star.

If you are looking for a twisty suspense novel that will actually surprise you, look no further than Aimee Molloy's Goodnight Beautiful. Molloy, known for her previous book The Perfect Mother, manages to do what few authors can actually pull off in today's suspense genre - pull the wool over readers' eyes and let their assumptions take them where they may. Goodnight Beautiful's plot devices are clever and fresh, and when accompanied with Molloy's style of only giving readers enough information to let them THINK they know what's going on, it equates to a compelling tale spun in a deceiving little package. Goodnight Beautiful is a book best read blind, so if you are new to the novel, go ahead and read it first, and then come back to the reviews to see if everyone else was just as surprised as you.

Goodnight Beautiful's focus is a newlywed psychologist, Sam, who moves back to his small hometown with his beautiful, alluring wife, Annie, and sets up practice in a downstairs office only to have his private, confidential conversations with clients listened to through a ceiling vent. The new psychologist is the talk of the town among women, and his client list grows and grows, with all of his therapy sessions noted, remembered, and spied upon. But what happens when one client - the French Girl - gets too close for comfort? There's a storm roaring into town, Sam has gone missing, and Annie is on a desperate search to find her elusive husband.

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD*

I was given the opportunity to listen to an audiobook production of this short and spiffy suspense novel, and I questioned some of the choices made in narrator and style from the very beginning; however, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Everything made perfect sense after this novel came together in the end. Going into Goodnight Beautiful with no knowledge of the twists and turns, I was immediately turned off by one of the narrators, which lessened my satisfaction of the early parts of the book. The audiobook found redemption, however, when the secrets fell into place. In fact, I found the narration style to be incredibly clever and fluid, and was pleased that I was able to be "tricked." Browsing reviews, I found that some readers of the actual book were confused by the novel's three narrators, unable to clearly tell who was speaking when (this is actually probably the point), but the audiobook helps dispel some of that confusion as you hear different people speaking for the chapters. This could be a selling point for some readers, as while I was still able to be fooled, I wasn't confused as to who was speaking when. I did find some of the actual storyline difficult to follow over audio though, and wonder if I had physically read the book, would I still find the same confusion to be true?

Goodnight Beautiful is a fresh read that will have those in the literary community raving for months. The suspense style of this novel reminds me of Tarryn Fisher's The Wives, in which the author sets the reader up for one story and then pulls the rug out from underneath them about halfway through the book. This makes for a satisfying story, as admittedly, it is so hard to be truly surprised these days.

Goodnight Beautiful is recommended to anyone who has been waiting for something cunning and innovative to come out of the over-saturated suspense market. Additionally, while many such books are written for women after the Gone Girl phenomenon, Goodnight Beautiful is a twisty read that can be enjoyed by both women and men.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio/HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.