Book Review #61: The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

Hey Guys x

If you're a regular reader of my blog you might remember that I mentioned watching a TV show with this name last year. In one of my 'Favourites' posts, I mentioned that I would buy the book when I finished the series, and that's exactly what I did!

Because the show and the book are so interconnected, I'm gonna use the description that I wrote for the show to describe the book, because I can't think of a better way to describe it.

Harry Quebert is a writer who is being charged with the murder of a 15 year old girl called Nola Kellergan; a girl that he had a slightly more-than-platonic relationship with 33 years ago. Now in the present day, Harry's friend, fellow writer, and protege Marcus Goldman has come to try and clear his friend's name (and write a book about what really happened to Nola). But Marcus discovers a lot more about this quiet, mysterious town than he expected. Can he clear Harry's name, and find out the truth about this mystery? Or are some secrets hidden for a reason?

I don't think I could put into words how much I loved this book.

First of all, the story. Because as much as it's presented as a straightforward mystery, this story is anything but straightforward. You're thrown off your guard right away by being in the head of Marcus Goldman. Even though all the evidence points to Harry, you believe in his innocence because you're sharing head-space with Marcus, who believes without a doubt that Harry is innocent.

So from the off, you suspect everyone. And this works in the book's favour, because there is probably a moment where every single character who was alive 33 years ago is a suspect, and you really do believe that all of them probably had a reason... or at least, you do by the end of the book.

Carrying on from this, one thing that this book does amazingly well is keeping track of more than one really complicated story. We have the present day story, in Marcus' head, the past story, which focuses on many different characters to paint a picture of what happened 33 years ago, but then we also have the fact that these people all have differing views of what really happened, and despite the story being about Nola, we have no idea how much we actually know about her because she's dead when the novel begins.

And that leaves room for twists. Fantastic, amazing, completely unpredictable twists. I saw the TV show version of this story, I knew everything that was going to happen, and I still found myself shocked at some of the twists, and crying at others. Gasping and shaking my head and feeling like I was living in this small town with all of these characters. It didn't matter that I knew what was going to happen, because due to the way that the book was written, I felt like I didn't.

What was good?
Other than everything?? I haven't really singled out particular characters, because I'm not giving anything away. But my gosh is this book full of completely 3 dimensional, complicated, messy, imperfect characters. From the ones that we're supposed to love, to the ones that we hate from the moment we meet them. There are characters that I still don't know how I feel about because they are that complicated and raw and real. Joel Dicker (and Sam Taylor, who translated the book from French) did an amazing job of creating real characters, and making you feel like you're in this world with them all.

What was bad?
I don't think there was anything bad about this book. But I do think that watching the series before reading it was definitely beneficial. I'm sure that if I'd gone in completely blind, I might have been a bit confused. But the book fills in enough information that it makes watching the show afterwards feel even more rich and entertaining. 

Overall
Every time I finish a good book, I come away feeling like I've just read the best book I'll ever read, and then I read another and that feeling slowly goes away. But there is a part of me that feels like this will be the best book I ever read. It's one of the only books I've read that made me cry, it's one of the only books I've read that really makes me want to write, and now that I've read it, I feel empty. Like I already miss the story and the characters. 

What are you waiting for? Read this book!

5/5 Stars!

Lou