Don't You Cry: A Thrilling Suspense Novel from the author of Local Woman Missing

I didn’t love nor did I hate this book. I finished reading it because I wanted to finish it and I wanted to see how it ended. The characters, while described well, felt flat and one dimensional. I couldn’t imagine any of them aside from Esther (and her sister). I initially was frustrated with the different viewpoints, but as they came together it made more sense. While I enjoy reading most of Mary Kubica’s books, I wouldn’t recommend this one.

I got this book by a referral by The Skimm. I got it because of comment describing it similar to Gone Girl story. I m don't belong to a book club but I can see how this would be a great book for discussion. There are spoilers in my review.You start out by meeting two young women living together for economic savings on rent by sharing an apartment. They have become friends and do many things together. One night, one girl goes out alone clubbing and comes home late. She is awoken by roommate's alarm ringing and drags herself to roommate's room to find window wide open and no roommate. She is worried but does nothing about this, except to close window and go to work where she consults with friend Ben whom she has a crush on. After coming home and not finding roommate, she calls 311 and explains situation and is told to wait 48 hours until coming in because most people who just leave (adults) usually return by that time period. She does home to no roommate but spends the time looking for clues in apartment. She does find a few but no closure to situation until roommates purse was returned to her by a neighbor.Meanwhile on another storyline within this novel, we meet Alex, a young smart guy, who gave up a full paid college program to stay home to take care of his father who is an alcoholic no longer able to function except to drink and pass out. He works at local diner as busboy and washer to pay the bills. He also does errands for a woman who is a recluse, who never leaves her house because of a fear. Across the street from the house he lives in is an abandoned yellow house, common to area (story is based in Chicago area). He meets through work a woman he calls Pearl and they become friends of a sort. He finds out she has been living in the abandoned house across the street from him. On night she takes him to local cemetery where she digs up a grave. This gets him researching the grave name but he gets information on the yellow house instead from an old librarian. He rushes to woman for whom he has been doing errands and someone follows him in.The ending is semi-sweet as you get a death unexpected but also answers all questions we have. Great read make sure you pay attention to clues.

After reading the reviews on this book, I was hesitate to purchase it. I have read almost every Mary Kubica book and have loved her writing. I especially love the first person perspective she takes in her writing. This book is definitely worth a read. While the characters are sometimes a little odd in how they go about things, I saw it as a realistic personality trait that they each possessed. Alex and Quinn, the 2 characters In the book have similarities and as both their stories go on, it is interesting to see how they come together. While most of Kubica's books keep me guessing, I started to work through the puzzle before the ending but with that said I throughly still enjoyed it and had many late nights as I couldn't put it down. All her characters always have their perspective on how they feel and I appreciate that she captures it so well as we all have a story and go through different traumas in our lives. I think some of the lesser reviews, might feel they can't relate sometimes which is okay but might leave them feeling less than satisfied. I say to give this a try as I really enjoyed it!

Quinn and Esther were fast friends. Answering an add in the paper advertising the need for a roommate, these two have been close since day one. That was almost a year ago. After a night out drinking, Quinn wakes up to realize Esther is gone, the window in her room left open to the chilly Chicago air. Not far away, in a small town on the coast of Lake Michigan, 18 year old Alex goes about his day as usual. Make breakfast for his hungover, drunk of a father and head off to work as a busboy at a local diner. Every day the same as the one before, serving the same crowds of people, and delivering lunch to the town recluse, Ingrid across the street. Today is different, today a young woman shows up in the diner, sitting for hours over lunch, seemingly with nowhere to go. Seperated by towns, and miles, Esther and Alex are masterfully woven together in a tale of heartache and loss, violence and danger.Another slam dunk for Mary Kubica guys! Don't You Cry was written in much the same style of The Good Girl, alternating in first person perspective between Quinn and Alex which I really enjoyed and kept the read fresh. Several times throughout the novel I felt as if I had figured it out, only to have Quinn stumble across some new clue or the mystery girl reveal some new information to Alex. It wasn't until the last few chapters that everything clicked into place. Mary cleverly weaves her tale, dropping breadcrumbs for the reader throughout the novel until the grand finale at the end where all is revealed. And man what a revelation it was! In addition to a masterful plot and a unique set of characters, Mary Kubica's writing style is superb. The attention to detail and scenery really set a beautiful and descriptive backdrop to her story line. Can't recommend this book enough!

4.5 starsMary Kubica's third novel, Don't You Cry, reinforces her credentials as one of the most talented authors of psychological suspense, with an innate gift for intricate plotting and compelling characters. Her prose is gloriously readable and proof of that is just how transfixed by this novel I was despite its leisurely unravelling. I wanted more of Kubica's characters and despite being just one-hundred-pages from the ending I still having no concrete idea of where her story planned on going and just how she intended to reward her readers, I was hooked. Yet no matter that I couldn't see where these two unrelated narrators would take this novel, Kubica's characters live and breathe with credible actions and motives making them hugely well-realised. She doesn't opt for flawless, just a contradictory amalgamation of qualities that make it difficult to take your eyes away from because they are frankly, so human!What begins as two alternating narrators recounting their stories over sequential days threatens from the off to synchronise, but remains tantalisingly beyond the readers grasp for most of this novel despite the similarities that echo between the two voices. In residential downtown Chicago, Quinn Collins is dragged from her Sunday morning sleep by the buzzing of the alarm clock of her twenty-two-year old roommate, Esther Vaughn. However, Esther, who should be heading for Sunday morning Catholic Church choir is nowhere to be seen with her bedroom window wide open and the fire escape that leads onto the street below easily accessible. So unlike reliable, responsible "Saint Esther", a loyal friend and citizen with the patience and the kindness to help neighbours, or so Quinn thought. A graduate student finishing her studies in occupational therapy, as far as Quinn could tell, Esther was transparent, as in "what you see is what you get", but this sudden disappearance in the midst of a frozen November gives her a darned good reason to do what any honourable roommate would do... snoop! Just as Quinn is digesting the haunting letters entitled, "My Dearest" and signed E.V. she is knocked sideways by the discovery that Esther had legally petitioned to change her name, advertised for a new roommate, requested a new door lock and made the maximum cash withdrawal on three consecutive days from the ATM. As the hours tick by and with no recourse for contacting any of Esther's family who she knows nothing about she enlists colleague Ben, one of the few who also knew Esther well.Simultaneously we meet kind-hearted eighteen-years-old high school graduate, Alex Gallo, a sincere young man who has turned down a free ride scholarship at the University of Michigan in order to bus tables for minimum wage in his home town on the shores of Lake Michigan and keep a roof over his alcoholic father's head. It doesn't feel good for him to know that his future starts and ends in the backwater hometown and with his mother leaving home when he was just five-years-old, Alex has had a very rough ride. His friendship with agoraphobic older woman, Ingrid, who he runs errands and shops for is typical, and it was his narration and input into the story which I found most poignant. The arrival of the enigmatic young woman who sits in the window of the diner he works in gazing out of the window brightens his day. Evidently new in town, her presence piques his interest and he quickly finds himself increasingly fascinated by her, so much so that he follows her and extends a tentative hand of friendship.Where these two stories click together is what every reader really wants to know, but that would be telling and the pleasure here is seeing how Kubica stokes up the tension and the inevitable spoils, which I guarantee won't be many readers first guess. Don't You Cry is another involving and powerful thriller with far-reaching repercussions from Kubica that manages to cast light on everything from loneliness, aspirations and the roles and responsibilities that family life entails. Entrancing prose with intelligent emotion at its heart. Mary Kubica is a delight to read, even for readers with am ambivalence to psychological thrillers, all three of her novels to date come highly recommended. For readers new to her work if you read one book, make it her stunning debut, The Good Girl.Although I know that many readers rated this less favourably than her brilliant debut The Good Girl, I was impressed by the way she tempered the pace and ratcheted up the tension to deliver an increasingly sinister and unsettling psychological thriller. A slow build up with just enough unsettling occurrences to keep readers on their toes with some delightfully unexpected twists as the reward.Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)

I pre-bought this book a while ago as I am a major fan of her previous two books – The Good Girl & Pretty Baby. DON’T YOU CRY, Mary Kubica’s third novel – continues in the tradition of delivering a unique, yet intimate psychological thriller. Kubica sure knows how to write characters that just live and breathe off the page. Following the disappearance of her seemingly perfect room mate Esther Vaughan, Quinn Collins uncovers some very troubling information about her missing friend. Alarmed when she discovers Esther’s cell phone is still in the apartment and a couple of phone calls she answers are definitely worrisome. Finally deciding to report the disappearance to the police, the operator’s lack of concern reassures her.... Yet as the days pass without Esther returning home, Quinn becomes alarmed that her friend has met with foul play. In a cosy lakeside town about an hour from Chicago, eighteen year old Alex Gallo is intrigued by a mysterious stranger whom he nicknames Pearl. What, if anything, could be the correlation between these two seemingly unrelated events? Alex’s curiosity about Pearl is evident right from his first glimpse of her. Drawn to her beauty, he immediately begins trying to guess why she keeps returning to the coffee shop where he works as a dishwasher. As their paths continue to cross, Alex tries to help her as much as he can but he grows concerned by her inexplicable behaviour.I enjoyed that you essentially get two books in one, with alternating chapters, until almost to the very end when the mystery collides and then it’s like WOW. Don’t You Cry is a suspense-laden novel that unfolds at a leisurely pace. Mary Kubica weaves the two storylines into a great read. While some of the plot is easy to figure out, there are plenty of unexpected twists and turns that will leave readers guessing until the novel’s very dramatic conclusion. A solid 3.5/4 stars

Another truly gripping story by Mary Kubica. This is the third time I've read her novels and each time I'm aware how talented a writer she really is. Her plotting is so suspenseful that you dare not put down your Kindle until the last word. She kept me up again late last night and into the morning with a story that I was unable to figure out until she finally let me see the grand reveal in the last chapter or two.There is no way to further review her novel. Anything I could write would be a potential spoiler. If you love smart suspense and psychological thrillers, you will love this book.

I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them more than this one. While the writing is fine, I just found that the story didn't captivate me from the beginning. It was slow to build...though the ending was unexpected for sure. Her other books hooked me from the beginning.Esther's story is told through Quinn, Esther's room mate and also through Alex, who meets this mysterious woman when she appears in the cafe where he works. He becomes friends with her and wonders why she begins staying in the old abandoned house across from his. As both Quinn and Alex put the pieces of Esther's life together, nothing is as it seems. Their lives are forever changed when they discover the truth.It's definitely a dark and mysterious read.

Don`t you Cry by Mary Kubica.I borrowed this book from my local library and enjoyed it so much that I bought it for my brother as a Chanukah present.You are not dissapointed, and the characters seem so real and keep you interested. Excellent read that I would recommend to anyone you loves to read suspense- thriller novels. This book can easliy be made into a movie.Candice