When We Were Young by Dawn Goodwin
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 14th September 2022
Published: 14th September 2022
★★ 2 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Four best friends. One of them is dead. Are their secrets safe?
Uni friends Stacey, Paula, Bev and Valentina used to be inseparable until one weekend before graduation when nothing was ever the same again.
Thirty years later, reunited at Valentina's funeral, Stacey receives a letter written by her late friend asking for one last wish... that the three friends go back to where things fell apart and finally bury the hatchet.
As they revisit their old haunts of their uni days and follow a series of clues left by Valentina, their friend's death begins to look suspicious and it is up to them to find out what happened – but they all have secrets to hide.
They say good friends are hard to come by, but when there is so much at stake and someone is lurking in the shadows, how do you know who is a friend and who is a foe?
MY THOUGHTS:
I'm not really sure about this one. I've only read one other book by this author and I think I found that to be mediocre at best too. For me, the whole drawn out tale doesn't really scream thriller. It barely screams anything...except the characters' constant need to drink, get drunk, throw up and keep going...then keep the sad reality of their respective personal lives secret.
Stacey, Bev and Paula knew each other growing up and bonded even further at university where they then met Italian/Scottish Valentina Mackenzie when she answered the ad for a room to rent at their flat. They spent more time drinking at various student bars and clubs than studying, I'm not surprised Stacey never became the architect she'd always dreamed to be. Or that Bev ended up a stay at home mum in a fairly loveless marriage with two ungrateful teenagers. Or that Paula's own marriage was fraught with angst, jealousy and violence. None of them appeared to be happy at all.
Thirty years after they last swore they would never speak again they are together again. Valentina is dead and the estranged friends have reunited for her funeral. Oddly enough, at Valentina's own request. She had sent a letter asking them to come together one final time and get past the buried secret that drove them apart thirty years before.
When a second letter arrives insinuating that the fact she is now dead is not a coincidence. It was not an accident. She urges the friends to keep pushing for answers...and to uncover the truth of what happened to her.
So what happened thirty years ago that was so life changing that they parted ways, promising never to speak of it again...or to each other? And was Valentina murdered for it? And if so, does that then put the rest of them in danger?
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG is not really a thrilling sort of thriller. The pace is steady but the characters are fairly unlikeable with seemingly nothing going for them. Valentina is quite obviously a girl with secrets but why was she lying to her friends? Was it only so she would be accepted? Or was it something more sinister?
The narrative is predominantly in the third person from each of the three remaining friends' perspective in the present day and mostly Valentina's in the past. There is also the anonymous voice of a mystery person watching their every move. What is their involvement?
I really struggled with this one. I'm not sure if it is the timing (what with the Queen's death last week and the mourning over the continuing days), if it is my mood in general or this is simply one of those books that sound intriguing enough by the premise but is lacking in the execution. I couldn't really connect with the characters, I didn't really like them and the story was fairly uneventful and dry. I didn't really care about Stacey's dull and monotonous work or her colleague's fascination with his crotch. Both were as dull and monotonous as the story. I wanted to like it and I wanted to know what happened - what big secret they are all hiding that happened three decades ago and why Valentina was killed (if in fact she was) - but not enough to finish it.
I found it dragged on and I became impatient for something to happen but all that seemed to happen was endless amounts of drinking and puking and not much else.
Overall, a mixed bag really. The premise was intriguing but again, it was lacking in execution. Something of a disappointment sadly as I needed something to pick me up. This was not it.
I would like to thank #DawnGoodwin, #Netgalley, #HeadOfZeus and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #WhenWeWereYoung in exchange for an honest review.
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