A story of how one man's mistake can eventually ruin many lives.

A well-known author of children's books breaks into a rage and beats his wife unconscious. He is arrested and now awaits trial. The world is shocked, for the two appeared a happy couple. The explanation of why it happened, told from the viewpoint of Oliver Ryan, his wife, former friends, and his half-brother, form the basis of the story.

Oliver Ryan has a secret and that is the catalyst that sparks his hidden rage. He's also the possessor of secrets that even he isn't aware, and they are revealed through the narration.

A good deal of the story is told in flashback, explaining the convoluted facts of Oliver's origins, and why he has done the things he did, culminating in his assault on Alice.

In an effort to receive an education and better her life, an African student seduces the priest who teaches her. The child born is white and she abandons it to the father who leaves the priesthood and returns to Ireland taking the child with him. He resentfully provides for the boy and educates him. When he later marries, he keeps the child secret from his wife and son, and the resulting anger, shame, and resentment shape the boy's life.

This is a powerful story, silently asking the question: If Oliver hadn't been rejected as a child, would he still have ended up as he did? Should he have had enough moral fortitude to lift himself from his hatred and feelings of inferiority and make a better man of himself in spite of his beginnings? The secret Oliver keeps hidden is a shocking one, and the reader won't expect it. His other secrets are no less surprising nor devastating, if for no other reason than that he was unaware of their existence.

POSSIBLE SPOILER? It's not an objection exactly, but a point where the author may have used artistic license...In genetics, I've read that a child can never be darker than the darkest parent. According to that, the chances of Oliver having a child looking "obviously African" would be slim to none. Of course, there's always the chance that genetics, like everything else, doesn't always follow "the rules."

UNRAVELING OLIVER is a dark study of a sociopath who is made, not born, of a child hated for no other reason than that he exists. Told through his own words as well as those around him, it's a convoluted tale of someone rejected, who rejects in turn. The story is a sad commentary on parental love. Its ending is surprising but ironically just, revealing Oliver may have a momentary spark of humanity after all, and the last paragraph will long stay in the reader's memory.

This novel was supplied by netgalley and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.

UNRAVELING OLIVER by Liz Nugent is one of the best books I read this year. It kept me turning pages late into the night; glad it was a quick read or I would have lost entirely too much sleep.

We are introduced to Oliver on the first page of the book when he's just put his wife Alice in hospital through a horrific beating. Oliver lets us know he expected more of a reaction from her the first time he hit her. Our first glimpse into the depraved personality of Oliver. The book continues in chapter form through Oliver's life; people he has met, people he has loved, hurt and destroyed.

The stories of the people in Oliver's life are wonderfully done, you get to know the narrator as well as how they see Oliver. The way all the characters intertwine towards the end of the book is one of the best plot twists I have had the pleasure of reading.

Though this book IS a psychological thriller, it is also a character study and a good one at that. I will be recommending this book to all my bookworm friends and family.











A unique and enthralling, engaging read that delves into the psyche of one man/monster and the spiders web of people that he has touched/trapped over the years. I felt mixed emotions about him as a character overall, changing with the flow of the book. I have known men like Oliver, you might have too. You have to watch for those ones you know.

A fantastic and interesting, refreshing book. (less)

Oliver is horrible! He's so abusive that he has put a woman in a coma. That's right off the bat. However, soon your reading about how did he become so angry and so evil? Alice could die from this, why was she even with a man this abusive? So working backwards you get all the back story, but even after all that, it still was horrible. For me, this book unraveled itself and I didn't care for it.

My copy came from Net Galley. My review is my own, left of my own free will.

One of the better books I've read in quite a while. You're completely hooked from the first line...

"I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her"

What an opening line! The rest of the book does not disappoint. There really are no lulls in this story. The first chapter is told in Oliver's voice and of course from the opening line we know what he has done.

So how many times have we wondered how someone could harm another person that they claimed to love? Have you ever heard something shocking about someone you know? Have you felt disbelief? Or are you completely unsurprised by their actions?

The rest of the book alternates between people that have known Oliver...either as child, teenager or an adult. All of their memories and encounters with Oliver paint a very complex portrait.

From the very start with Oliver's nonchalant and matter-of-fact justifications we are left feeling very cold towards him. His lack of compassion and empathy is downright startling. It allows the reader to instantly hate Oliver and you have no problems at all distancing yourself from him.

As the book progresses and you see Oliver in different stages of his life...well, you can't help but to be drawn in a bit closer to him....

Are people born bad? Or do events and experiences make them so?

At the end of this story you're not sure if you hate Oliver completely or if a small part of you feels sorry for him. At some point I knew I can't change my mind on my feelings....but I am stuck sat here and wondered if just one instance had been different....one turn different, what type of man would Oliver have turned out to be? Or is that really just more of Oliver's nonchalant and matter-of-fact justifications trying to sway you? Even though he at no point makes any excuses for his behaviour...after all....it is what it is....

This is a disturbing read. But in such a good way. It was original. And best of all....it leaves the reader with shadows of the book haunting them long after the last page ends. Nugent has left me wanting more. I hope she graces us with another book soon. I didn't really care for the ending...but that doesn't bother me as much as it does some readers....after all....life doesn't always turn out as you would like it either...

________

After thinking about this book a couple of days I have one more thing to add....

I wonder if we're meant to hate Oliver from the start....If his voice led off the story to make us bias towards him. Nugent has done a brilliant thing here....I mean, though out the rest of the story I found myself looking for the bad in Oliver. I was looking for him to burn a kitten in the woods whilst he was in school. I was looking for some type...any type of cruelty....to justify how I pictured him in my mind. To show me a hint of the man he was as he told his tale.

It wasn't there....

I am reminded of studies I have heard about....how we label individuals. Even professionals. One example in a study had doctors pose as a mentally ill person. They were admitted to a hospital after they displayed mental health tendencies. After they were admitted, they dropped the act and were their normal selves. Even though they were sane and logical, the workers and the doctors refused to see them as anything other than mentally ill. They ignored the evidence that said this person is not mentally ill....and instead sought to justify the label of mental illness....

My random musings of all this is to just point out.....

Did I hate Oliver and think he is vile based on the label I placed on him from the start? Did I completely overlook the child that he was simply because of the man he became? If we had read the story in chronological order, would we feel different about the entire novel?

See!!!!!!!!!! That's what type of book this is! It doesn't leave you in peace...days later you will still be thinking about it and asking yourself questions.....

Just saying.....

Review copy provided by Netgalley for an honest review

A dark, twisted, somewhat evil book about a very nasty man. If you like that sort of thing, this is a pretty good book. It's not really my style, but it was well-written. I would have liked it more if I could have found some shard of sympathy for Oliver, but he was too utterly soulless and twisted for that.

Oliver is just an ass, no two ways about it. It’s hard to read a book with so unsympathetic a central character but I kept hoing he might see the error of his ways. No joy there though.

The opening line of this book hooked me. Oliver is a good guy, so it comes as a huge surprise when he beats his wife into a coma seemingly out of the blue.

Told through many POVs, this book is a study in how Oliver came to be the way he is and I found myself alternating between hating him and feeling destroyed FOR him. He had such a terrible time.

It's amazing what can happen to people isn't it? I thoroughly enjoyed the ride to "unravel" Oliver.

Well crafted, I enjoyed all the different points of view

I started to hear some buzz about this book around the beginning of September, but I was disappointed. The story is told in flashbacks by Oliver and those he has had contact with over his life. That was not the disappointing part – the structure worked super well. The characters themselves, however, were archetypes with little depth or complexity. Oliver has some kind of personality pathology, probably narcissism with a dash of antisocial thrown in, and that’s about all you need to know about him. His wife is the bad stereotype of a librarian (she’s actually an artist, but not that kind of artist – you know, the vegetarian kind with dyed hair. The dowdy kind who wears cardigans and is a poor driver.) The older French woman? A winemaker, wise in the ways of food and sex. An aunt is a spinster sister, unattractive and not good with children. And so on.

Read if: Construction satisfies you more than character.

It's midnight. I have to go to bed. But I'm not sure I can. I started this book casually this evening. It has not let me out if its grasp since. 61% through in mere hours. Completely messed up villain/opening incident.
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Fini!! Richly textured. Never read a protagonist who is also the villain like this. Highly recommend. Someone else read it quick so we can talk about the ending!

I loved this book! Like opening a gift, layer by layer. Creepy but so good!

I loved the Oliver's voice. This book reminded me of a very dark The Rosie Project.

This book has you following Oliver, he is dark, cruel and savage but presents like an altar boy. Good storyline, great suspense.

You know when someone completely unexpectedly commits a horrible crime and the new reporters spend days interviewing people on television? They interview neighbors, friends, old teachers. Everyone expressing shock, maybe some hinting that they might have seen this coming. Well, that is Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugget.

The story opens with the line, “I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.” With that sentence you are off and running into the story of Oliver Ryan and his wife Alice. It turns out that he didn’t just hit Alice, he actually beat her severely enough to put her in a coma.

The book, then switches to various points of views, friends and acquaintances of Oliver and Alice. They tell their version of Oliver. Oliver also shares his point of view. It’s the perfect technique for this kind of story.

This is more of a character study of Oliver, than a thriller. However, if you love delving into evil characters, like I do, this is perfect! I couldn’t put it down.

I received an ARC of the book.

With thanks to the author, Liz Nugent, and the publisher, Threshold, for the Advanced Reader Copy.
Well written psychological thriller. Highly recommended for readers of the genre.

Unraveling Oliver is a quick and compelling read about the livfe of an author, who's fame comes from a series of fantasy titles for children. He is accused of assaulting his wife - quite out of the blue. Through narration by a neighbor (his wife's former beau), his mistress, former classmates, and friends, we learn of oliver's rise to fame and his courtship of his wife, of his unique childhood, his college years, and how he came to publish his first book. It's hard to describe much without adding spoilers. Suffice it to say that readers of Gone Girl, the Girl on the Train, and similar titles will probably enjoy Unraveling Oliver.

Wow!!! What a fabulous book. Very suspenseful. I couldn't stop reading. Highly recommend!!!

As the book began, with Barney doing the narrating, I could easily hear him and visualize him as he spoke in his Irish accent. Barney was the book's most good-hearted character - - - in direct opposition to Oliver. As horrible as Oliver treated people, though, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him at first because of his sad and undeserved mistreatment in his childhood.

We know at the beginning of the book what he has done and that he will be paying for his crime - there's no doubt about that. The rest of the book, however, lets us get a look at WHY he "snapped" and slowly unravels his other crimes.

There are a number of characters and the chapters switch back and forth among them. Unlike the current trend of so many authors to just switch to another character and leave the reader to figure it out, in this book, each chapter was titled with the character speaking. I appreciated that!!

There's a lot to think about in this book and though some of the revelations weren't surprising in the least, they were interesting and helped explain (though they did not redeem him) his actions.

A very interesting book that I enjoyed reading.

Gallery/Scout Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Unraveling Oliver. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Oliver Ryan shared both his personal life and his professional one with his wife Alice. As a successful writer with his illustrator wife by his side, Oliver gave no cause for others to doubt the legitimacy of their life together. One shocking evening, Oliver beats his wife into a coma, leaving their friends and acquaintances reeling.

The story unfolds through a multiple perspective format, with points of view penned by those who supposedly knew the couple best. Oliver tells his own tale, from his rough childhood to his cold and calculating adult ways. The format gave the book more of a feeling of a series of interviews, which did not communicate the story to the reader well. Had the plot been able to unfold more naturally, I would have found Unraveling Oliver to be more compelling.

Handsome, successful Oliver Ryan has it all. He has a strong marriage to the beautiful Alice, the illustrator of his very profitable children's books. They have a lovely house, good friends, financial and artistic accomplishments, and yet all is not how it seems. 

The book opens with Oliver's shocking statement about his wife: "I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her." 

Why would such a man hit his wife? And why would he continue to beat her until she falls into a coma? What could possibly make someone act in such a heinous way? 

That is what Liz Nugent's debut novel Unraveling Oliver has us asking. Each chapter gives another point of view, the voice of someone who had known Alice or Oliver for many years and who could offer up one more piece of the puzzle. Barney, the man who dated Alice before Oliver tells of how he lost the love of his life to the wealthier, slick Oliver. Oliver's friend from college, Michael (he's also the brother of Oliver's then-girlfriend, Laura) tells of their summer in France helping to rebuild a vineyard. The owner of the vineyard, Veronique, tells her heart-breaking story of how her family lost the vineyard and built it again, only to face even more devastating loss because of that summer. Friends, neighbors, and family all chime in to tell their part of the story, and it's not until you get all these disparate stories that you can understand the truth of what it was that caused Oliver to unravel. 

With hints of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ruth Ware's well, anything, Nugent crafts an intricate look at the layers of a sociopath and the lengths to which he will go to keep his secrets secret. Unraveling Oliver is the slow unwinding of a man, of a life, of all the intricate lies that make a monster appear human. Twisty, compelling, and dark, and one not to miss. 



Galleys for Unraveling Oliver were provided by Gallery/Scout Press through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.