Sylvia Robinson is not in a good place in her life when the book begins. She has just lost her job after being unfairly accused of stealing, she is behind in her rent, and her ex has been harassing her with nonstop phone calls and unwanted visits. So, when Adam Barnett, a good-looking young writer, who lives in a beautiful suburban house outside of New York City offers her a job, she doesn't really have a choice but to accept.
Sylvia moves in and becomes the daytime caretaker of Victoria Barnett. Victoria is Adam's wife, and she has recently fallen down the stairs, leaving her with no control over one side of her body, bad facial scarring, and difficulty speaking. Before the accident, Victoria had been a nurse practitioner. She had been pregnant, and she lost the baby when she fell down the stairs.
Adam gives Sylvia Victoria's old laptop to use, which, conveniently, is where Victoria kept a diary of her life. Victoria tells Sylvia "avocado," which is what the diary is saved under because she wants Sylvia to read the diary. As Sylvia cares for Victoria, she continues to read her diary. It tells the story of a meet cute between Victoria and Adam in the emergency room in New York City. The two begin dating, and the relationship grows quickly. However, the closer they get, the more Adam shows his true colors, which includes jealous and controlling behavior. Victoria always forgives Adam, though, because he is also very good in a number of ways.
After Victoria and Adam are married, Adam buys the giant house way out in suburbia, far away from everything. He does not talk about it with Victoria beforehand. Things get worse and worse, with Adam taking away all of Victoria's credit cards and giving her a small, weekly allowance. She's not allowed to go to the gym or even any classes because he believes that she'll be meeting other men there.
By the time we get to the end of the novel, there are a couple of twists and turns in the plot. In the end everything is all explained.
I did not like this novel. It sounded like an exciting idea, but there were a lot of plot holes. I spent a lot of time frustrated while listening to this book. Sure, there were some interesting reveals, but when the plot feels so contrived, the reveals don't feel earned. Most obvious of all, I can't imagine anyone handing over their wife's laptop--with nothing deleted--to an employee that they'd just hired. Sylvia's job did not require a laptop; it's probably something she should have supplied for herself. Why couldn't Sylvia have found a hardcover diary or something? That would have been more believable.
This book also touched on my pet peeve because Sylvia's diary did not resemble how normal people write diaries. At least it only included information that Sylvia would know, but it was still written in great detail and with dialogue like a novel. And although it made the novel more suspenseful, it doesn't make sense that it would take Sylvia months to read that diary--especially when the information was obviously so important to her. Finally, I found it annoying that in a book that delves into controlling and abusive behavior, the author has the ex-boyfriend who has been harassing the protagonist turn into the savior. That's not usually how those things go.
In the end, I think these types of genre thrillers are not good book choices for me. If you look at the Amazon reviews, many people loved this book. Occasionally, I will enjoy them if they're very well written--like Gone Girl. But more often, I find them too unrealistic. This also happened when I read The Silent Patient, which I found on some kind of best of list and could not figure out why people liked it.
So, not for me, although plenty of people have enjoyed it if it's your thing.
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