User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
"Don't You Cry" by Cass Green is a brilliantly twisty psychological thriller of the domestic noir genre and I for one, ADORED it!
I was getting quite irked at times when I wasn't able to pick the story up and continue with it as I was so engrossed with it. Since there are only a couple of main characters to the story you become very attached to them and want to follow it through to the end in one go. Due to having an easy to read and uncomplicated narrative, it would be a pleasure to fly through this book in a day....I only wish I could have!
I particularly liked how the first chapter in the story had such extreme consequences for that character in the rest of the book and it was an ingenious idea to incorporate such a plan. The plot was tight and well thought out and really kept me constantly suspicious of Angel and Lucas' intentions and I was also very intrigued as to what had actually happened to bring them to Nina's door that night in the first place. Baby Zach was a star too and I truly felt for his distress during his ordeal.
I liked Angel and I definitely had a soft spot for Lucas and because I like reading flashbacks in stories I enjoyed reading their story from when they were young.
It was an apt ending and the very last page had me smiling from ear to ear, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have no hesitation in recommending it to thriller readers young and old alike!
5 stars!
Rating: really liked it
It's so difficult to rate this books in 1 to 5 mark. This is better than 3, but not a 4 star. Do you understand me, GoodReads?
Cass Green returns with a new book after "In a Cottage, In a Wood". There is again good writing, and Green doesn't agitate readers with dragging details of abuse and violence, unlike some other writers and I deeply respect that.
However somewhere between 40%-70% I felt like the story was stretched. I was distracted, and couldn't help to think this novel could have been trimmed to be better.
Still a good domestic thriller if you are a reader of this genre.
Full review soon will be on blog.
Rating: really liked it
This book is a total guilty pleasure. The kind of book that you can't believe as much as you can't put down. The entire time I scrawled my screen more and more down I heard a scream in my head. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE...but then could it? What if it did?
I read it in one sitting while I should've been doing something completely different. Like I said, a guilty pleasure.
It's so crazy the word crazy doesn't even begin describing how crazy the plot feels. My jaw hurt from clenching with all sorts of emotions while reading this. Cass Green has an amazing imagination, and a very good skill to put it in words that make it plausible and even intriguing.
Thank you NetGalley for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: really liked it
'Don't You Cry' is an expertly crafted psychological thriller that also packs quite an emotional punch. Nina is just getting back into the dating game and has a blind date. At the restaurant, she ends up choking with waitress Angel coming to her rescue. Now comes the far-fetched and unbelievable part. Angel later turns up at Nina's door with gun in hand, before her brother Lucas also shows up with blood on his hands and a kidnapped baby in tow. As you can see this is not exactly a probable real-world situation, but what are books for if not to push the boundaries?
I find I am able to suspend my disbelief if the writing style suits me, it is an engrossing tale and the pace is impeccable, all of which in my opinion were present and correct here. Original, twisted and compulsively readable, this is a book that makes your heart race and your palms sweaty. Claustrophobic, suspenseful and chock full of thrills and spills. A cast of truly menacing characters will ensure you keep turning the pages long into the night. Excellent!
Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Rating: really liked it
This is the paperback version of the story. The Kindle version and the Audiobook is under a different title...
No Good Deed. The characters and the plot are well written and believable. The time change is a little hard to follow at first... but it’s a good story about a tough time for a couple a kids. It all comes together when a woman is held hostage by them along with a baby many years later. This is a story that you can see actually perhaps happening. Not too "out there" like some I've read. I’ll try another of this author’s books.
Rating: really liked it
5 Stars
Thank You to NetGalley, the publisher and Cass Green for letting me read a copy of this amazing book.
this is a psychological Thriller that had me gripped from the start. It took me a while to read, this is because I didn't want the story to end so I tried to make it last as long as I could.
The story is mainly focused on "Nina" and what she goes through on this one night. The story telling was amazing and I found myself a little confused at times when trying to figure out what was going on at times. It is one of those books that will either have the reader hooked or it wont. I was definitely hooked.
I am so glad that a stumbled across this amazing read. I would highly recommend this book.
Rating: really liked it
A psychological thriller involving deep family secrets, of sorts. This story moves to grab your attention right from the start. It then moves even more quickly but over a very short time frame. So half way through the book you are only five hours removed from the first page.
The characters are of varying qualities and likability which adds to the mystery. The killers claim innocence and the witnesses are not reliable. What appears to be certain rarely is, and when the unreliable witnesses have a change of heart, everyone becomes suspect, and the suspects become victims. What a tangled web!
The story starts out as likely believable but at some point seems far fetched. It continues to waiver between these extremes for the duration. But of course, we have all read/known/seen on the news those unbelievable true life stories that are themselves far fetched events, so such a fictional account shouldn’t surprise.
What the point is, is that this is a twisty, fast paced psychological thriller that is certainly worth a read. Throughout the story you just can’t ever be sure that things are really as presented, and therefore you keep turning the page!
Although this is everything you like in a thriller, right to the very end, leaving you fully satisfied with the effort, there seems to be something missing that would make this top-notch.
Certainly worthy of 4 stars though! I will read more by this author
Rating: really liked it
When Nina nearly dies on an awful first date, it’s the waitress, Angel, who saves her. Nina can’t thank her enough. But she soon comes to regret her gratitude when Angel arrives at her door late at night, armed with a gun. Following her is a young man with a screaming newborn. What do they want with Nina? And are they all going to make it through the long night unscathed?
A great, twisty and turny rollercoaster of a book, which went off in a way I wasn’t expecting. Some intriguing characters, I loved hearing about Lucas’ past and a wonderful style of writing meant I r joyed every page of this one.
My first by Cass Green, certainly not my last.
Rating: really liked it
One fateful night with two damaged individuals that derails a woman’s life with some very surprising results.When Don’t You Cry opened and got off to a slow start which failed to inspire I thought the novel would be a repeat of my experience with In A Cottage In A Wood in which Cass Green had another cracking premise and failed to take it anywhere. Thankfully though Don’t You Cry did eventually find its focus and with a suspension of disbelief the story holds the readers attention despite some so-so characterisation and unlikely twists to become steadily more engrossing.
Forty-five-year-old mother of one and comprehensive school English teacher Nina Bailey is floundering with her husband of over fifteen years, Ian, having moved out from the family home and into a new relationship with his ten years younger new partner, Laura. When her twelve-year-old son, Sam, is whisked off for two weeks in Provence at Laura’s parents place Nina is faced with the prospect of a fortnight rattling around the house alone with only a blind date set up by a colleague on the horizon. But when her aforementioned blind date turns awkward only a choking debacle and the Heimlich manoeuvre of a quick thinking waitress by the name of Angel buys her an early escape to return to her fairly remote residence on the outskirts of Redholt and a night of drowning her sorrows alone with a bottle wine. If Nina’s night started badly it soon gets far worse when waitress, Angel Munro, turns up at her door brandishing a gun. As Angel waltzes in clearly on edge and makes herself at home she soon welcomes her wide eyed and wired younger brother, Lucas, clad in filthy and bloodied clothes with a six-week-old baby Zach under his coat. As Nina picks up snatches of her captors conversations and a partial radio news broadcast a suspicion that Lucas has murdered the baby’s mother and kidnapped a child starts to crystallise. Just who and what has Nina let into her home?
As she slowly gains a grasp of the circumstances her objective turns to protecting baby, Zach, and as she plays Angel and Lucas at their own game the balance of power gradually shifts slowly in her favour. However the longer Nina is in their company the more she is able to elicit from vulnerable Lucas and prickly Angel, whose clear priority is in protecting her sensitive little brother, and a picture forms of Lucas as less of an aggressor and more of a weak young man driven demented by the continuing memories of his past and the turmoil caused by a well respected public figure. As background information on each of the characters is slowly revealed it includes flashbacks to the early memories of Lucas and Angel’s attempts to protect her brother over the years and hence her spiky outward demeanour becomes more understandable as the identity of the villain at the centre of the story shifts. Lucas never quite fits the characteristics of a genuinely menacing baddie from the off as he goes from unhinged and rash to visibly distraught and demonstrating a semblance of kindness and warmth towards baby Zach. Angel however is far more unreadable and a typical loose cannon character which serves to introduce a nervous tension into the unfolding story but as the story takes several unforeseen turns it feels like neither one of the trio holds their own destiny firmly in their own hands. Told from the perspective of the three lead protagonists with a revolving focus keeping the story in motion that of heroine, Nina, is told in the first-person and Angel and Lucas both in the third-person. This subtle difference serves to draw the reader into Nina’s surreal predicament and as the tale moves into more substantial territory and hones in on the childhood memories of Angel and Lucas and the suicide of their mother, Marianne, her angst for the pair holding her hostage feels all too believable.
Even when the hostile situation is resolved all three of the key players struggle to move on with Nina living a listless half-life and missing Sam who is still away in Provence, a distressed Lucas who is remanded and placed on suicide watch and bailed Angel’s frustration at her inability to instil some fight into her brother and ensure he is not eaten up alive by the miserable existence of prison on a fragile mind. As Don’t You Cry sees Nina eventually move on from her selfless caring for Zach on that night she is filled with an urge to discover the truth for the motivators behind Lucas’s actions and she becomes less concerned with ensuring their are punished for her nightmare evening and more towards ensuring Lucas and Angel get justice for their mother. When her early investigative work offers hope she wades into the mire and aside from making some abominably stupid decisions along the way she makes for a sympathetic protagonist with genuine compassion. Whilst it is genuinely easy to empathise and feel for Lucas it is perhaps the slowly thawing and prickly Angel whose characterisation shines and makes her so very realistic.
After a slow start and a far-fetched hostage situation the story only really captured my attention in the aftermath of that night as the fallout proved far more engrossing and worthwhile reading than the actual episode. A sub-plot of Nina’s worry for Sam and and ensuring he learns nothing of her horror experience verges on becoming tiresome but with husband, Ian, concerned and turning up to check on his estranged wife the relationship and understanding between the separated couple moves to more harmonious territory. Short chapters with a focus on underlying emotions as opposed to much fully charged action makes for an easy read that canters along at a brisk pace carrying readers through to the outcome and what happens next in the lives of a trio of unlikely alliances. As two damaged people trying to do the right thing enter Nina’s world she finds the boundaries of black and white become far more indistinct the firm conviction of the police that Lucas is guilty of a ruthless murderer forces Nina to act.
Nevertheless with the happy ending a given and in distant sight I found the story did drag with Nina overly earnest and her game plan achieved rather simplistically. However, Don’t You Cry is far more entertaining than Cass Green’s previous novel, In A Cottage In A Wood, with the shifting balance of power when Nina is held hostage to her own intrepid attempts to ascertain the real truth behind that night introducing a frisson of genuine tension into proceedings. All in all an interesting exploration of the effects of domestic abuse and the fallout from one fateful night that changes so many lives profoundly. A life-affirming story indeed but the oversimplification makes it all feel a little frothy and not completely satisfying from a crime fiction perspective.
Rating: really liked it
I found this SO disappointing! I was a massive fan of in a cottage in a wood but this was just no where near as good. I had such high expectations but ultimately let me down and it is such a shame because I wanted to love it.
It starts of strong! I like the hostage situation, it's quite suspenseful, trying to figure out what's going on who you can trust and who you really can't. But after the first quarter, it got dull and boring.
It started to really drag. I wasn't compelled, I didn't care about the characters. Angel wasn't likeable at all, nor was Nina for that matter. It focused a lot on the back story of the characters, which ultimately made it not a page turner at all for me.
It's taken me a week to get through, which is so unusual for me because I normally speed through thrillers but this one I had to force myself to get through.
I was disappointed more than anything, after reading this. I will still pick up any future releases Green releases but unfortunately this one was not for me
Rating: really liked it
Really good ending. Love Nina's strong character. Easy read.
Rating: really liked it
Hard to categorise, situational fiction
Nina, the heroine of the story, is in a mess. Recently divorced and with a son, Sam, who is fast growing up, she no longer seems to have a purpose in life. Her ex, Ian, has exchanged her for a younger model and appears to be getting on with his life whereas Nina seems to have been left behind.
This will be a familiar tale to many, but any similarity ends quickly because of a near-fatal choking incident in a cafe. Nina’s life is saved by the waitress but at what cost?
The lives of Nina, Angel, the waitress, and her brother Lucas become quickly entwined in this fast-moving story of abuse, murder and kidnapping. However, things are not always what they seem, and the sympathies of the reader are twisted this way and that as more facts come to light.
The characters are well defined and liked or disliked according to the information available. For the reader to feel something for the individuals in the storyline is the mark of a good writer. There is nothing worse than reading a book where one could not care less about the personalities.
Although it’s difficult to categorise this novel as a mystery or thriller, its unique appeal is the way in which the reader’s opinion ebbs and flows as the plot progresses. Even though there are several instances where Nina’s actions seem irrational and out of character I thoroughly recommend this excellent read. It takes a while to get into it, but the effort is worthwhile.
mr zorg
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Rating: really liked it
گریه نکن، اثر کاس گرین، نویسنده انگلیسی، تریلری با زمینه خانوادگی است که اولین بار در سال٢٠١٨ منتشر شد. داستان درباره زنی به نام نیناست که به تازگی همسرش او را ترک کرده و توسط کسی که فکرش را نمیکرد در خانه خودش به گروگان گرفته میشود. گروگان گیرها یک نوزاد هم به همراه دارند که به زودی مشخص میشود از صحنه قتل ربوده شده....
داستان تقریبا خوب و باکششی است. حاشیه روی زیاد نیست، خوشخوان است، شخصیت پردازی ها خوب انجام شده، ترجمه خوبی دارد، غلط تایپی ندیدم، از کاغذ بالکی استفاده شده در نتیجه وزن کتاب بسیار سبک است، سانسور هم دارد اما مربوط به موارد خاک بر سری میباشد😶 و تاثیری در درک کلی داستان ندارد(به جز اون موردی که چندبار یادآوری میکنه درباره ش به همسر جدید شوهرش چیزی نخواهد گفت؛ مخاطب شاید فکر کنه چیزی نشده بود که🤔 همین جا خدمتتون اطلاع میدم خیلی هم چیزی شده بود😁) سایر موارد هم جوری سانسور شده که رد سانسور باقی مانده و مخاطب خودش حدس میزند چی شده😁
در مجموع داستان خوبی است و نکته جالبی که مطرح میکند تاثیر تلقین ها و باورهای شریک زندگی در روحیه و دیدگاههای فرد است. ممکن است شما فرد بسیار موفقی باشید اما یک شریک منفی باف به مرور شما را در هم میشکند.
Rating: really liked it
This is my favourite read of the year so far! I loved the style and characterisation and couldn’t wait to pick the book back up again when I wasn’t busy. A fantastic read. A great page turner! I’ll definitely be reading more of Cass’ work.
Rating: really liked it
This is a great read that had me gripped from start to finish.
Separated from his husband Ian, Nina is out on a date in a restaurant. She chokes on some food and a waitress called Angel saves her life. A few hours later, in the middle of the night, Angel turns up at Nina's house. A while later Angel's brother, Lucas, who has a tiny baby, also turns up. Lucas has blood on his hands and is very agitated. Nina is now held hostage but she is concerned about the baby. Angel and Lucas demand money off Nina. At 3am they agree that she can go to the local garage to get money and baby milk. Nina walks to the garage but she doesn't call the police as Angel had said that they’d harm the baby if she did that. I found that quite unbelievable. Together with the fact that there were three people in the queue before her at the petrol station and several joined behind her as well as a queue of cars forming at the pumps. Really? At 3.30am in the UK? In Las Vegas maybe.
The middle of the book focuses on the reader learning more about the background of Angel and Lucas and the abuse they and their mother had endured in childhood at the hands of their step-father. Nina is really not sure if they are telling the truth as she heard some shocking news while at the garage.
This was a well thought out plot with good characterisation although I didn’t particular like any of the characters. It had some good twists and I was very keen to get to the end to find out what happened to everyone. It was a good satisfying read.
With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
