Apples Never Fall and Carto
My seventh book of the year was finally a good'un!
And it was also one I randomly picked up at a charity shop because I recognised the author's name and thought I'd enjoyed one of hers before... Which was true - though the second of hers I tried was one of my DNFs from last year, so a mixed bag of previous experience with this author.
Anyway - the book was Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, which is about a 69-year-old Australian woman, who goes missing. The book follows multiple viewpoints (each of her four adult children, her husband, the police detective investigating her disappearance, friends, neighbours, and various outsiders overhearing conversations) and two timelines - from the point when the family realise they haven't heard from her in a while onwards, and also from a point six months beforehand up to the day of her disappearance.
It's expertly woven together - and I particularly likes the eavesdroppers (taxi drivers, wait staff, beauty technicians, shop staff, etc), who provided interesting viewpoints from the outside, without knowing anything about the main characters. It was also really interesting to see how each of the people connected to the missing woman reacted to and interpreted the various events of the story - it was a great exploration of how different people can experience the same events very differently, based on their circumstances and personality.
I had no idea where the story was going but I was very happy to be along for the ride. It surprised me with multiple exciting twists and turns - and I was very impressed by how so many seemingly irrelevant details became very significant at the end.
All the characters were incredibly well-observed and the writing was excellent throughout.
I was very satisfied by the ending and I also loved how much aftermath was provided to tie everything up.
My only criticism would be that, while it was engaging and entertaining throughout, it never really touched my emotions. But overall, a great read.
Dave and I also finished playing Carto last night, which is a very cute computer game. It's about a little girl who gets lost in the wilderness and has to find her way back to her grandmother's airship. The main mechanic is moving and rotating map pieces to solve various puzzles. Some of these were fun, some were challenging but satisfying, and others were downright annoying because it felt like there was no way to figure out what to do. We looked up a fair few answers on the internet, but we did manage to solve some of the puzzles between us. And the story was adorable, if a little weird at times.