Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Thomas & Mercer, 2019
Description
"A vicious assault. A devastating accusation. Who should she trust, her husband or her best friend? It was supposed to be the perfect reunion: six university friends together again after twenty years. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so shocking that nothing will ever be the same again. When Karen staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatised, she claims that she has been assaulted - by Ali's husband, Mike. Ali must make a split-second decision: who should she believe? Her horrified husband, or her best friend? With Mike offering a very different version of events, Ali knows one of them is lying - but which? And why? When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect"--Publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Darcia
What is with this trend of unlikable characters? One or two is expected, but I don't want to spend my leisure time with an entire cast of intolerable people. I didn't like or empathize with one character here.
I'm giving bonus points to the author for the way she handled the topic of rape. Her
Unfortunately, Ali, who is supposed to be a well known "feminist" advocate for rape victims, comes across as unreasonably weak and naive. None of the characters appear to have matured since college. They're all self-absorbed, deceitful, spoiled, childish brats.
The book is being marketed as a "psychological thriller." It's not. This is more contemporary fiction revolving around two intersecting mysteries. The pace is far too slow to label this a thriller, and the psychological aspect is just a bunch of so-called friends who really despise each other yet decide to get together and party for a weekend.
I finished the book because I wanted to see how things turned out, but I skimmed a lot of the drama.
*This book was one of my Amazon First Reads choices for July.*
I'm giving bonus points to the author for the way she handled the topic of rape. Her
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portrayal of the psychological aftermath and the topic as a whole was the only saving grace for me.Unfortunately, Ali, who is supposed to be a well known "feminist" advocate for rape victims, comes across as unreasonably weak and naive. None of the characters appear to have matured since college. They're all self-absorbed, deceitful, spoiled, childish brats.
The book is being marketed as a "psychological thriller." It's not. This is more contemporary fiction revolving around two intersecting mysteries. The pace is far too slow to label this a thriller, and the psychological aspect is just a bunch of so-called friends who really despise each other yet decide to get together and party for a weekend.
I finished the book because I wanted to see how things turned out, but I skimmed a lot of the drama.
*This book was one of my Amazon First Reads choices for July.*
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LibraryThing member miss.mesmerized
It was meant to be a relaxed weekend and reunion of old friends, but then it turns into an absolute nightmare. It’s been 25 years that Ali and her husband Mike first met their friends Karen, Jodi, Bill and Callum at university, a reason to celebrate in their new home. Yet, after a lot of alcohol,
Claire McGowan’s thriller is absolutely breath taking. It is mainly narrated from Ali’s point of you and you constantly ask yourself: what would I do if I were in her shoes? Whom would I believe, my husband or my former best friend? Would I stick to my ideals or try to save the life I had worked for for years? How far would I be willing to go for the person I love? The story moves at a very high pace, just whenever you think the characters have found a way of coping with the catastrophe, the next follows immediately only to make the whole situation even worse. There is no moment to relax and sit down to think through the mess they are in, they are forced to react to ever more complications from one minute to the other.
The plot is very cleverly constructed, revealing its full potential only slowly. What makes it especially delicate is the fact that it plays on those core emotions in life: trust and believe in the people who are closest to you. It hurts a lot more to feel betrayed by the ones you love than coping with just with stressful situations. Additionally, I found it quite clever to put Ali in the position where she is presented as an advocate for women who have been assaulted and speak out against their perpetrators and then finding her in the position where she is inclined to take the other side and rather believe her husband than the woman – and friend! – who without any doubt is a victim.
I utterly rushed through the novel since I could hardly put it down. The short chapters even accelerated the plot and made you read on just one more chapter and another one and so on until the end. A brilliant story that I enjoyed throughout.
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a loud cry from Karen suddenly ends the joyful get together: Karen claims to have been assaulted by Mike, her bleeding and overall status seem confirm her accusation. After Mike’s arrest, Ali’s world slowly crumbles and falls, the more she learns about her husband, the more she has to ask herself if she really knew whom she has been married to for all those years. Not only did he have an affair all those years, but also are there money transfers to an unknown account and more pieces of information that are far beyond just being inconvenient: they are purely frightening. But this is just the beginning.Claire McGowan’s thriller is absolutely breath taking. It is mainly narrated from Ali’s point of you and you constantly ask yourself: what would I do if I were in her shoes? Whom would I believe, my husband or my former best friend? Would I stick to my ideals or try to save the life I had worked for for years? How far would I be willing to go for the person I love? The story moves at a very high pace, just whenever you think the characters have found a way of coping with the catastrophe, the next follows immediately only to make the whole situation even worse. There is no moment to relax and sit down to think through the mess they are in, they are forced to react to ever more complications from one minute to the other.
The plot is very cleverly constructed, revealing its full potential only slowly. What makes it especially delicate is the fact that it plays on those core emotions in life: trust and believe in the people who are closest to you. It hurts a lot more to feel betrayed by the ones you love than coping with just with stressful situations. Additionally, I found it quite clever to put Ali in the position where she is presented as an advocate for women who have been assaulted and speak out against their perpetrators and then finding her in the position where she is inclined to take the other side and rather believe her husband than the woman – and friend! – who without any doubt is a victim.
I utterly rushed through the novel since I could hardly put it down. The short chapters even accelerated the plot and made you read on just one more chapter and another one and so on until the end. A brilliant story that I enjoyed throughout.
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LibraryThing member Lauranthalas
Trigger warning - rape
Twenty years after graduating from university, 6 friends get together for the weekend. The fun and games stop when a vicious attack occurs and one of the guys is accused of rape.
I pretty much hated every single character but yet I still wanted to know what happened.
Twenty years after graduating from university, 6 friends get together for the weekend. The fun and games stop when a vicious attack occurs and one of the guys is accused of rape.
I pretty much hated every single character but yet I still wanted to know what happened.
LibraryThing member Carol420
First of all the book is advertised as a “psychological thriller” ... however it is not a thriller. Those expecting it to be may be disappointed. The focus of the story is on three forty-three year old women, detailing how each of their lives are upended after a reunion weekend. I couldn't
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empathize with any of the characters. Their entire lives are built on lies and cheating. They are certainly old enough now to see where they were wrong back in the day...but they see nothing wrong with this. It's not often that I can't find something good to say about a book...even one that I didn't care much for... but not this time. I found the entire book boring and tedious. Show Less
LibraryThing member susan.h.schofield
3.5 stars - This was a solid suspenseful domestic thriller. It definitely kept me guessing until the end. The characters were interesting although I found Ali a little too naïve to be believable. And I would have liked to know more about the relationship between Cassie and Jake. I felt like the
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side story of Cassie and her boyfriend, Aaron was not really necessary to the plot. But overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a quick and fast paced read. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookczuk
Lots of Quid Pro Quo and screwed up friendships.
LibraryThing member maggie1961
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if you can’t tell which is which? What if you don’t know who you can trust?
It’s the 25th anniversary reunion for the group of 6 that created a bond while in university, a bond that is still strong today. But is it?
Mike and Ali seem to
With Mike and Ali hosting the weekend reunion, soon arrives Karen, Bill, and married and a couple soon to have a baby, Jodi and her husband.
But the exciting and anticipated reunion would not end well as one guest in a drunken stupor, bloody and hysterical, runs in with a claim of rape. By Ali’s husband. But that can’t be. It couldn’t possibly be true. But who is lying? Her husband or her best friend?
As the mystery unravels there are many more surprises and twists to come. Can you really trust your friends? Are your friends who they pretend to be?
I read some negative reviews for this book and I am quite surprised as I really liked this book. I hadn’t read any by this author before, but I liked it so much that I downloaded more by her. People have stated that the characters were not likeable and they couldn’t connect with them. Sometimes for me that makes a difference but in this book, I did dislike pretty much every one of the six with one exception. Although I would not want any of them as friends, it didn’t take anything away from my enjoyment of the book and without the characters as they are, it would be a totally different story.
While most of the story centres around the reunion and it’s outcome, the story of their college years is mixed in along with some teenage angst. Ali, being a crisis and rape victim activist has some very set beliefs in rape that are challenged when her husband is the one accused of rape.
I went through a bit of a reading slump for a couple of months prior to reading this, but this novel whipped me back into my love of reading. It is entertaining, gripping and full of twists and turns you don’t suspect.
4 1/2 stars for me! And my next read will be “The Other Wife”
Thanks to net galley and the publisher for allowing me the privilege of reading “What You Did” by giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
It’s the 25th anniversary reunion for the group of 6 that created a bond while in university, a bond that is still strong today. But is it?
Mike and Ali seem to
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have it all. They’ve been together since university and have the perfect marriage. Two kids. A beautiful house. And money. Ali feels like she has it all and is content being an activist for rape victims. She has the life she has always wanted and naively believes that nothing could shatter that. With Mike and Ali hosting the weekend reunion, soon arrives Karen, Bill, and married and a couple soon to have a baby, Jodi and her husband.
But the exciting and anticipated reunion would not end well as one guest in a drunken stupor, bloody and hysterical, runs in with a claim of rape. By Ali’s husband. But that can’t be. It couldn’t possibly be true. But who is lying? Her husband or her best friend?
As the mystery unravels there are many more surprises and twists to come. Can you really trust your friends? Are your friends who they pretend to be?
I read some negative reviews for this book and I am quite surprised as I really liked this book. I hadn’t read any by this author before, but I liked it so much that I downloaded more by her. People have stated that the characters were not likeable and they couldn’t connect with them. Sometimes for me that makes a difference but in this book, I did dislike pretty much every one of the six with one exception. Although I would not want any of them as friends, it didn’t take anything away from my enjoyment of the book and without the characters as they are, it would be a totally different story.
While most of the story centres around the reunion and it’s outcome, the story of their college years is mixed in along with some teenage angst. Ali, being a crisis and rape victim activist has some very set beliefs in rape that are challenged when her husband is the one accused of rape.
I went through a bit of a reading slump for a couple of months prior to reading this, but this novel whipped me back into my love of reading. It is entertaining, gripping and full of twists and turns you don’t suspect.
4 1/2 stars for me! And my next read will be “The Other Wife”
Thanks to net galley and the publisher for allowing me the privilege of reading “What You Did” by giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
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LibraryThing member NinieB
It's both a contemporary thriller (emphasis on contemporary) and a novel about any number of things: how we construct the world we want, oblivious to those things that don't match our specs; about the meaning of consent; and about all the things we do that change both our and others' lives.
The
There are twists and turns, yes, but really that's just window dressing for a deep, intense, novel. By far more interesting to me was the effect of the intense college friendships on subsequent lives.
The
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setup is six college friends gathering to celebrate knowing each other for 25 years. Their intense friendship has been bolstered over the year by two marriages within the group. After an evening of drinking and smoking weed, however, everything goes wildly awry, and the police are called.There are twists and turns, yes, but really that's just window dressing for a deep, intense, novel. By far more interesting to me was the effect of the intense college friendships on subsequent lives.
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LibraryThing member johnfishlock
Nice job, amazed at how smart and self-aware Ali was at the beginning, then falls into a typical stereotype of what dumb-dumbs think and act like. Great twist. It really is hard to know who did it. But it all makes sense in the end. Great book of typical really shitty people doing horrible shitty
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things to each other. Kind of like real life..:-) Show Less
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
A very different story following the lives of six Oxford University students from 1996 and twenty-five years later at a reunion party. Two interlinked events from 1996 and at the party shatter all their lives and force them to re-evaluate their relationships. Very well drawn characters and their
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individual relationships set mainly in contemporary times. Show Less
LibraryThing member cjordan916
It was supposed to be the perfect reunion: six university friends together again after twenty years. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so
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shocking that nothing will ever be the same again. Show Less
LibraryThing member gpangel
What you Did by Claire McGowan is a 2019 Thomas & Mercer publication.
Ali is hosting a reunion party for a group of old Oxford College friends. They haven’t all been together in the same place at the same time in twenty-five years. Ali is both nervous and excited. Things so horribly awry after a
Unable to wrap her head around the possibility that her husband could be a murderous rapist, Ali discovers layers of lies and secrets about her husband and her best friend. Which one is telling the truth? Karen or Mike?
This book was an Amazon Prime first selection … from nearly two years ago. Oy! Better late than never, right?
I would like to say this one was worth the wait- but there were a few issues. I thought the premise was very intriguing- and I was highly invested, at first. Unfortunately, there were too many side stories, too much implausibility, and Ali’s gullibility irritated me.
The characters are very shallow people, and there is no promise of character growth once all their secrets are laid bare. There were some thought provoking topics, but they got lost in a muddle of unnecessary drama and uneven pacing.
Overall, this one was a miss for me- but you can’t win ‘em all.
2 stars
Ali is hosting a reunion party for a group of old Oxford College friends. They haven’t all been together in the same place at the same time in twenty-five years. Ali is both nervous and excited. Things so horribly awry after a
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night of heavy drinking. Karen, Ali’s best friend, is assaulted and blames Ali’s husband, Mike.Unable to wrap her head around the possibility that her husband could be a murderous rapist, Ali discovers layers of lies and secrets about her husband and her best friend. Which one is telling the truth? Karen or Mike?
This book was an Amazon Prime first selection … from nearly two years ago. Oy! Better late than never, right?
I would like to say this one was worth the wait- but there were a few issues. I thought the premise was very intriguing- and I was highly invested, at first. Unfortunately, there were too many side stories, too much implausibility, and Ali’s gullibility irritated me.
The characters are very shallow people, and there is no promise of character growth once all their secrets are laid bare. There were some thought provoking topics, but they got lost in a muddle of unnecessary drama and uneven pacing.
Overall, this one was a miss for me- but you can’t win ‘em all.
2 stars
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LibraryThing member PaulaGalvan
This phycological thriller is loaded with rancid relationships between people who are supposed to be friends, once again reinforcing the fact you never really know anyone, no matter how close you are. It also deals with the subject of rape and a woman's right to say no. All sides are presented
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without fluff. The characters are appallingly despicable in a lot of ways, yet still human. I can't decide who's worse, Ali, Kar, or Jodi. And then there are the guys, Mike and Callum, who are both drunks and worse—Bill is the exception, the one shining star. The story starts with a gathering of old college friends, then proceeds down the rabbit hole into an abyss of relationships gone horribly wrong. There are many plot twists, some obvious and other complete surprises, but the book is not dull and held my attention until the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member moukayedr
The book was okay, it kept me turning the pages to try to find out what happened, but I dislike this type of narrative, that has everyone flawed. I think I read a couple of British thrillers where the characters were mostly flaky, even the successful ones.
The motivation of some is very thin, and
But it was a couple of hours of entertainment.
The motivation of some is very thin, and
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in the end it is so less cleverly done than Murder on the Orient Express or whatever that book was where everyone is guilty. I do not mean this literally, because this book clearly has one guilty party, but by the end of reading the story you will find that everyone is flawed and following their selfish motivation. But it was a couple of hours of entertainment.
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LibraryThing member rmarcin
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of What You Did by Claire McGowan. This thriller kept me guessing, although I did have my suspicions. I just couldn't reconcile the scene with my suspicions, but then it all came together in the end. The last line was particularly chilling!
Six friends attended Oxford
The friends gather at Ali and Mike's home and proceed to get drunk and some even get high. Ali is awakened at 3 am, and is stunned when her best friend, Karen, comes in the house screaming that she was raped. Ali's life is turned upside down when secrets about all of the friendships come to light.
I was interested in finding out who raped Karen, and was shocked to read of all the indiscretions and hurt the friends caused each other over the years. I thought the author did a nice job keeping the reader guessing and tied it up nicely at the end, with a surprising chill to the bones about what some people will do to cover for others to get what they want.
#WhatYouDid #ClaireMcGowan #NetGalley
Six friends attended Oxford
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together, and 25 years later, they have a mini-reunion. Alison and Mike, Jodi and Callum, Karen, and Bill. Two couples are married, Karen, Alison's best friend, is unmarried and flirty. Alison works on the board of a refuge for women attacked by men. Alison and Mike are married, but Ali has always wondered what would have happened if she had gotten together with Bill and not stood up for Mike all those years earlier. Jodi and Callum are expecting their first child at age 43. The friends gather at Ali and Mike's home and proceed to get drunk and some even get high. Ali is awakened at 3 am, and is stunned when her best friend, Karen, comes in the house screaming that she was raped. Ali's life is turned upside down when secrets about all of the friendships come to light.
I was interested in finding out who raped Karen, and was shocked to read of all the indiscretions and hurt the friends caused each other over the years. I thought the author did a nice job keeping the reader guessing and tied it up nicely at the end, with a surprising chill to the bones about what some people will do to cover for others to get what they want.
#WhatYouDid #ClaireMcGowan #NetGalley
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2019-08-01
Physical description
284 p.
ISBN
1542007267 / 9781542007269