User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
*4.5 stars*Much to my delight, and similar to my experience with Aimee Malloy’s debut, The Perfect Mother, I had little choice here but to rapid-fire the page-turning. While Malloy’s two novels have entirely different vibes—
The Perfect Mother toed the line of suspenseful women’s fiction, while
Goodnight Beautiful is a tried and true psychological thriller—they share the same addictive writing quality and cleverly plotted storylines. I couldn't get enough of either.
Readers meet Dr. Sam Statler, a psychologist, and reformed womanizer, turned new husband, at a time when he’s staring down his demons and putting forth an effort to be a better man. Celebrating his nuptials weekly and partaking in a bit of role-playing with his new bride, Annie.
The couple decides to relocate to Sam’s quaint hometown in upstate New York to try their hand at a simpler life and take care of his dementia-ridden mother. He finds a posh new office space to host his client sessions and works on getting power of attorney over his mother’s affairs. Everything is seemingly chill, until the night Sam leaves his office and never makes it home to Annie.
Malloy is masterful at keeping things under wraps for a good chunk of this novel. Giving just enough for readers to fill in the blanks and make assumptions of their own—only to be proven wrong. Way wrong. And while I’ve seen this twist utilized before by numerous authors, in a variety of ways, this time felt
fresh. Different even. Leaving me completely and utterly caught off guard—twice. A feeling I haven’t experienced in this genre for quite some time.
What I found even more genius was Malloy’s cheeky nod to the unreliable female narrator. One, because I think most of us can agree with her sentiments that what was once captivating is now tired, and two, because it’s
always the wife when the husband goes missing, right?
*wink*My one knock on Malloy’s sophomore novel, the ending. A little too quick and neat in some respects. Yet, still a satisfying and dare I say sweet conclusion.
My suggestion, go into this one blind and relish in the addictive journey.
*Thank you to Harper for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts shared here.
Rating: really liked it
Twisted and Twisty
3.75 stars
“When a man goes missing, it’s always the wife.”
Goodnight Beautiful is a psychological thriller with a batshit crazy plot. It’s a dark tale of desire, obsession, and deceit.Go in blind. There’s really no point in reading a synopsis of this book. It is filled with unpredictable twists and turns. I can’t say much without giving things away, but some of the plot twists caught me so off guard that I had to reread entire sections of the book. I was wrong about many things, and that was one of the reasons I enjoyed reading this book so much.
Molloy uses stereotypes about the unreliable female narrator to trick the reader multiple times, and this aspect of Goodnight Beautiful was pure genius! I ate this book up in a day. There’s something hypnotic about the events that take place. It is fast-paced and quite entertaining. One character is especially intriguing, and they take crazy to a whole new level!
Be warned: you must suspend disbelief to fully enjoy this book.The ending knocked this down a bit for me. The plot gets messy and some elements unravel The ending also felt a little rushed and anticlimactic;
I was expecting something a little more sinister given all that occurred. Rather everything gets wrapped in a neat happy bow, which felt a little strange and didn’t match the rest of the book.
I am usually not a fan of a plot built around twists, but Molloy pulls off twist after twist after twist, which, in this case, elevated the plot. I highly recommend for those who like a good dose of crazy! I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and HarperCollins Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
I had to sleep on this story, after I finished it, to put together how I really felt about it. I loved Part 1, where we have Dr. Sam Statler attending to his patients in his new classy basement office of a Victorian house in his hometown. He doesn't realize his therapy sessions are being heard through the vent in the bedroom above his office. So when a young French, "eager to get to know him better" patient shows up, what is this doctor/patient relationship going to do to his marriage, especially when the office visits aren't as private as Sam thinks that they are?
Then we have Part 2 and 3 and so much of what we thought we knew has been thrown out the window. Sam is missing after a violent rainstorm and rumors fly about his finances and possible improper relationships. His wife is frantic as what she knows and what she hears is not the same. Not much can be said from here because going into this story blindly is the best way to enjoy it. I loved Part 1 and thought the story would continue in the same manner so was unsettled at the turn the story took. It really did take a good night's sleep for me to appreciate how this story threw me around like I was a piece of paper in a raging storm.
Published October 13th 2020
Rating: really liked it
This my friends...is a thriller! I must say it has been a long time since I have been this blindsided by a thriller...and multiple times at that! What a wild ride this was!
Sam and his new wife Annie are looking to escape the big city and back to Sam's hometown. The thing is Sam is hotter than my coffee and Annie knows it. She knows he turns heads without even trying and she knows he was quite the popular dude in town before he left. So going back to his small hometown may be a bit challenging...
So when Sam sets up his psychology office in the gorgeous Lawrence House...well you can't blame a person for wanting to keep an eye on him. When the French girl in the mini cooper shows up...well..I must admit I was worried about Sam's state of mind.
This book went from crazy to crazier! I loved it! The twists and turns were so brilliant that I never even imagined they were a possibility! If you are looking to get out of a thriller slump...this is the book for you!
I can't thank HarperCollins enough for this gorgeous finished copy they sent me in exchange for an honest review! I LOVED IT!
Rating: really liked it
Oh boy! This is freaking good! Unique storytelling , unreliable narrators who are barely differentiated from each other with twisty ultra clever chess moves. (We have a very intelligent author on board who never gets bored to play mind games with us. Don’t get fooled like me! )
A beautiful newly-wed couple in their forties with eccentric role play tricks moves to husband’s hometown upstate New York to start from fresh and also keep an eye on husband’s mother who suffers from dementia at early age.
Of course: husband has a name: Sam Statler. He is psychiatrist who is occupied at his downstairs office without having any idea somebody eavesdropping his private patient seances.
Once upon a time he was a player, flirting with most of the town’s girls and he broke their hearts just like his father left his mother for a model at his half age.
But Sam is a new man, even though he keeps a very big secret from his wife. And one day a mysterious, young French girl appears as his new patient who is driving a Mini Cooper. The patient insists to have a private seance at night and he accepts it. Then nobody hears from him.
His poor wife Annie Potter (atta girl! You keep your last name even though you’re married to that hottie shrink) keeps waiting for him enter from the front door as if nothing is wrong. But he doesn’t come back! Maybe Sam is not the same guy she fell for! Maybe he already ran away after getting the inheritance money his father promised to transfer to mother’s account.
Or is there something fishier than she cannot ever imagine?
Without giving any spoiler I want to tell you something. During my reading Michael Emerson’s face kept appearing on my mind as landlord character ( Lost’s Ben meets Person of Interest’s Harold) I can honestly say if this book will be adapted into script, the best actor to play Albert must be him!
No more words! Absolutely giving my well-earned, blazing, psychoanalysis stars!
I love this book so much. It’s already at my top ten best thrillers of 2020 list. I highly recommend it. The pacing is heart throbbing, story telling is captivating, revelations and twists are well-played . The characters are memorably entertaining!
Rating: really liked it
Wow. Aimee Molloy deserves the heavy-weight belt for mis-direction! A TKO!
Not one, but two huge and clever twists that knocked me sideways. Plus a bunch of smaller ones thrown in for fun.
There's plenty of snarky, sarcastic humor (my favourite kind!), all while being a retelling of a classic horror novel.
It's so smart, satirical and well-written that Goodnight Beautiful really surprised and impressed me and is the most fun I've had with a thriller in quite some time.
Rating: really liked it
***HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY***
This is chilling psychological fiction as it contains a sociopath who does some clever, kinky manipulating and plotting. You won’t find out who that is for quite a while into this book, but have fun guessing who it is.
The story revolves around Dr. Sam Statler, a psychologist. He’s newly married and has decided to move back to his smaller hometown in upstate New York to care for his ailing mother and live a quieter life.
He’s found the perfect place to fashion his new private practice in a beautiful old building and the owner is willing to let Sam redecorate however he likes. He’s getting the space for what he thinks is a really good deal.
Sam is riding high because he’s found a letter stating that his father is leaving his mother and ultimately him a good deal of money after many years of neglect. Sam wastes no time in spending money on furniture, a new car etc. All he needs is to get his mother to sign the papers for him to have power of attorney. That shouldn’t be hard right?
Sam feels he’s in the perfect place in his life. He has a new practice and a new wife, Annie, whom he adores. But we all know that things are never as perfect as they appear and Sam is about to learn a very big lesson!!!
He is very good at seeing inside his patients minds and motives but fails to turn the same attention on himself and those close to him, BIG MISTAKE!!
I hope this is enough to get you interested in reading this thriller with the ultimate unreliable narrator. Ms. Molloy uses this element to manipulate the reader more than once. There are quite a few twists that you will not see coming, I can pretty much promise you that.
I think fans of Ms.Malloy will be delighted and eager to devour her new offering and I’m sure she will gain new fans.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
The novel is set to publish on October 13, 2020
Rating: really liked it
“I slide onto my stomach and press my ear to the vent.
Just for a few seconds. Just this once.”
Sam Statler spends long hours in his downstairs office, with his mostly female clientele. He has no idea that his sessions can clearly be heard from a vent in the ceiling from the room upstairs.
He and his wife, Annie Potts have just moved from Manhattan to his sleepy hometown in upstate, N.Y, after just a few weeks of marriage. They celebrate their Anniversary weekly, and Annie knows how to keep things spicy, but will that be enough to keep her heartthrob husband in check?
It all SEEMS “too good to be true” until the French girl in the green Mini Cooper shows up..
This book INSTANTLY captured my interest as Annie is a smart, confident woman, unlike the “unreliable narrators” she is SO tired of reading about.
She is settling into her new life, and new role as wife, in PART ONE.
And, then came PART 2.
Talk about blindsided!
INITIALLY, I was so confused that I had to reread several chapters.
Once I saw where Aimee Malloy was going with this, I smiled.
VERY CLEVER
The clues were there, and I MISSED them.
Well Played.
I even started rereading PART ONE again as soon as I finished to double check.
This could make my “favorites” list in a VERY competitive year!
Rating: really liked it
5 outstanding stars for this twisty tale!
I dare you to try to figure this one out. My mind was BLOWN multiple times! I seriously cannot get over the brilliantly clever writing that kept me in jaw dropping shock mode. This was so thoroughly enjoyable that I feel bad for whatever thriller I pick up next - it doesn’t stand a chance of comparing to this. I’m going to leave it at that.
This was phenomenal! One of my top reads this year for sure! Get your hands on a copy now!
Thank you to Edelweiss for my review copy.
Rating: really liked it
This novel tells us the story of Sam Statler and Annie Potter, who leaves New York City to start a new life in Upstate New York. It is clear from the prose that the author has no empirical idea of what she tried to write in this book. This disadvantage enervates the readers reading experience right from the start till the end. There are a couple of twists that hit the reader bolt out of the blue. Surprisingly, the novel started well in the initial part with these interesting twists despite the hiccups but sadly became farcical in the latter half due to the author's pathetic way of writing. The impact of the twists is ephemeral due to the lack of depth in writing. Much medical information is written with manifest indelicacy that will gaslight the reader into senselessness. The author included much extraneous information for giving a darker shade to it, which appallingly backfired.
The author had entirely gone wrong with the concepts of transference and countertransference. She is telling us the correct dictionary meaning of it clearly in one part of this novel. But sadly, she utterly failed to apply it through her characters. The plot was interesting, but the author lacked the finesse to deal with it making this book a flagrant reading experience. Just look at the following sentences from her novel, which are totally absurd.
"I overheard a woman in the diaper aisle in CVS talking about him (therapist) over the phone. He is so cute I am considering developing a personality disorder just to get an appointment."
"'What is like being married to a therapist?', Sydney asked, addressing Annie.
'He must read you like a book.'
'Yes, he does,' Annie says. One of the books where the woman is crazy, and you can't trust anything she says.'"
These sentences were in the initial part of this book. As we go deeper into the novel, we can see much darker versions of it.
"She and her therapist husband enjoyed a perverted sexual ritual in which she pretends to be a patient named Charlie."
Cosplays, fantasies, and sexual role-playing are not uncommon in marital life nowadays, especially after the advent of the internet, as it helps remove monotony in sexual life. I admire the author's attempt to convey that meaning to the readers. But she did in the worst way possible. A therapist having sexual perversion with his wife, considering her as a patient. This is the most absurd way that an author can write about a successful doctor or a therapist. I don't know what the author was thinking about while writing the above lines, especially after mentioning regarding transference and countertransference. There were way much better ways to show that your characters were creepy.
I have just pointed out a couple of disconcerting parts from this book. There are much more in it, which I am not pointing out here as it might become spoilers. I felt that two authors wrote this novel due to entirely different two halves. The first half was ok, and many of you might like it, but the latter half was terrible. It was as if the author was profoundly disturbed while writing the latter half and wanted to finish the book quickly. You can see an overabundance of cliches as well in it. I had huge expectations for this book as many of my friends simply loved it. I am sad to say that it didn't work out for me.
Rating: really liked it
It’s hard to write much about about Goodnight, Beautiful by Aimee Molloy without giving anything away.
Newly married Annie and her psychoanalyst husband Sam move to a small town to be close to Sam’s mother who is in a nursing home. Sam has created an expensively furnished consulting room downstairs. Little does he know that every word of his consultations can be heard upstairs through a secret vent.
A little while later Sam disappears.
This is a clever thriller, an object lesson in ‘sleight of pen’. You are reading, enjoying, being swept along by the story. Suddenly the ground falls away, preconceptions are shattered.
Ok, we’ve read these sort of books before, so - concentrate, readjust, don’t let yourself get caught out again - you’re ready for it this time .......... and then ..... damn, didn’t see that coming! :)
This novel won’t terrify you, make your heartbeat rise to a worrying level or cause you to lose a nights sleep, but I really did look forward to picking it up.
The writing is light but sharp, the action skips along at a lively pace and there’s loads of surprises. Dialogue flows nicely and characters are drawn knowingly with some irony and wit.
Must admit I did finally guess a couple of the twists later on in the book, but overall this was a quick and very entertaining read.
Rating: really liked it
Thank you, Aimee Molloy. Thank you for restoring my faith in the psychological thriller genre. This book right here was done right!
Sam and Annie are blissful newlyweds making the move from NYC to upstate New York where Sam is going to open up his own private practice as a psychiatrist.
What Sam doesn't realize is that his sessions can be heard through a vent in the ceiling. How tempting it is to sit and listen to the inner thoughts of strangers. Every time the office door bangs closed you quickly make your way to the vent to eavesdrop on his mostly women clientele.
Then one night Sam vanishes and Annie is left to wonder how much she really knows about her husband.
I will say no more. This one had the twists and turns that I have come to love in this genre. The kind of twist that leaves your mouth agape saying WTF??? So. Much. Fun. I loved Annie - cool, confident, wry humor, intelligent, and she tells it like it is. And a satisfying ending to boot. I really don't have anything to complain about with this one which even surprises me. 5 stars!
Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: really liked it
Hot Jaw-Dropping Diggity Dang!!! I had to pick my jaw up off the floor a few times here with this twisty, twisty brilliant story!!! There are twists, and then there are those creative layered twists that rarely come in suspense thrillers that catch the avid readers off guard as this one did. Aimee Molloy nailed it here with these astounding twists. That first twist had me questioning everything I just read, and I had to go back and reread it to see how I missed seeing that twist coming. Let me say Aimee Molloy is one clever writer. After the first twist, I thought I am keeping a closer lookout for the next twist, and again I was caught off guard.
Those twists made this one an exciting, entertaining read, but it's not entirely what has me raving about this one. It's Molloy's ability to deft those gender norms and expectations I have been talking about a lot lately. She is an author who is moving forward from that tunnel vision in fiction and bringing us a fresh and exciting thrill of a read! For me, she has set the standard for authors and books moving forward in the future. We can read better!!!
I highly recommend going into this one, not knowing too much about the story.
I received a copy from the publisher through edelweiss
Rating: really liked it
Oh How I love a Good Thriller, especially ones where Nothing is as it Seems! Bravo Aimee Molloy, Bravo!
So what’s the scoop with this highly entertaining book? “Goodnight Beautiful” includes a thrilling plot, newlyweds, therapy sessions and a highly intriguing main character whose sanity one can’t help but question. The ride is way bumpier than you might expect and it’ll make you question everything and I mean everything.
This mystery/suspense deals with a variety of themes including: Marriage; Secrets; Lies; Therapy; Obsession; Deceit; Abduction; Mental Illness and Sociopathy. Then there is a nod to Stephen King’s “Misery.”
Can I just say Heck Ya!?!I know you guys want more details but you’re not going to get them from me.
My advice: Go into this novel completely blind. The payoff is worth it.
The only thing I’ll say is that when you’re reading the book and that “Aha” moment comes, it’s a freaking doozy.
What more can I tell you? “Goodnight Beautiful” displays the art of misdirection beautifully. Aimee Molloy got me and she got me good. This novel is a psychological thriller that is highly captivating, compelling, wild and unpredictable and it is sure to top the list of best thrillers of the year.
This was another thrilling buddy listen with Ms. Kaceey! The audiobook gave us LOTs to discuss.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Collins for the arc and Libro.fm and Harper Audio for the alc.
Published on Goodreads on 10.11.20.
Rating: really liked it
If you were in a room and discovered a vent where you could hear a therapist’s sessions, with all the juicy secrets of his patients revealed, could you resist listening? What kind of secrets would be revealed that could turn lives upside down?Newlyweds Annie and Sam leave NYC and relocate to Sam’s sleepy little hometown to be near his mother, who is suffering from dementia. Annie struggles with adjusting to their new life but Sam’s therapy practice is thriving and they do what they can to keep the sizzle in their relationship. Sure Sam used to be a womanizer, and then there’s that little matter of the $2 million dollar windfall he was expecting that hasn’t materialized.
Then Sam goes missing…is he womanizing again? Did he flee to escape his crushing debt? Or is something more nefarious going on?
With our three narrators, this is the ultimate in the unreliable narrator plot device. You will not know who or what to believe. There are multiple twists that I dare anyone to guess. At one point I had to rewind the audio, certain I had missed key information. My armchair detective skills failed me and I totally missed the clues, making it even more fun.
The less said about this one, the better. I have a few quibbles with the ending, but overall, this was a very fun and addictive read!
I highly recommend listening to this one as the cast of narrators were fantastic.
