Are You Looking For A Twist?: I Let You Go

​I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
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There’s very little that I can say about the plot of this book that won’t reveal the huge twist. So this is all I will say: at the beginning of the novel, a driver of a car strikes and kills five year-old Jacob in front of his mom, and then the driver of the car drives away without stopping to help. The remainder of this novel focuses on the devastation which lingers following Jacob’s death and the investigative efforts to find the driver of the car. 

If you take a look at the blurbs/reviews on this book, you’ll probably see the word “twist” mentioned over and over again. Yes, there is a surprising, superb twist in this book—one that threw me off for a few moments and required that I re-think some things that I thought I knew.

There. That’s all that I can say about the plot.

I had a difficult time reading the first couple chapters of this book because it opens with Jacob’s death, from the mother’s perspective. It’s gotten more difficult to read about things like this happening now that I’m a mom, and I think that this opening, plus the fact that very little seemed to happen plot-wise immediately following it, made the beginning a little slow for me.

But I kept reading (after first setting the book down for a month or so and then picking it back up), and I realized that this opening was perfect for the book—particularly after the twist happened. Once the pace picked up, it was full-steam ahead and I knew that something BIG was going to happen. I was suddenly glad that the slower beginning let me catch my breath a bit before I set off on a sprint.

So if your reading of the chapters immediately following Jacob’s death is similarly slow, persevere. You’ll be greatly rewarded.
I Let You Go is an engrossing read that is mystifying and very satisfying, and my expectations for the twist that I had read was coming were not disappointed.

Perfect If You: Are looking for a thriller/mystery with a superb twist
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Not Recommended If You: Please don’t forget that this book opens with a child’s death, so even though the revealed answers to the mystery are satisfying, we’re still left with the fact that a child has been killed.  It’s a fascinating, absorbing read but not really light reading.

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