Not your average thriller. Having been on a tear lately (two books in 2 or so days), this book was yet another great and fast read. The story revolves around two stories: Eden and Jessie. Jessie’s mother has just succumbed to cancer and Jessie has to figure out who she really is. The loose ends reveal themselves perfectly throughout the book and I was honestly riveted for most of the time - sneaking off to read snippets whenever I would get the chance. There were plenty of crazy twists and turns but also it struck a chord with me because there is an emphasis on the relationship between Jessie and her mother as she is losing her mother at such a young age. I would definitely recommend this!

I could NOT stop reading this book. It hooked me from the beginning and the only time I put it down was when I was too tired to keep reading. The ending was a complete surprise. The alternating points of view style really made the story complete. Absolutely recommend!

I eagerly looked forward to reading Mary Kubica's When The Lights Go Out because I loved her earlier books, and the author is a gifted writer, but...now that I've finished, I'm not sure what to make of this story. Two alternating tales are told in first person by two separate women, and their stories only begin to gel about halfway through the book when they... slowly... begin to converge. The plot lines are a jumble of misdirection that I found frustrating and confusing. I'm sorry I couldn't give this book the rave review I anticipated. However, I do look forward to reading Kubica's next novel. I received an advance copy of When The Lights Go Out from NetGalley.

When the Lights Go Out left me wondering what did I actually read. I had to reread some sections because I had trouble following the storyline towards the end of the book. This book is filled with twist and turns. The ending came together quickly and left me disappointed. Mary Kubica is a superb writer and storyteller. I will still read her next book.

Jessie Sloane is devastated when her mother dies of cancer. Her mother's death leads Jessie to question her own identity and whether she truly is who she was raised to be.

Kubica leads the reader to question everything put forth in the text and challenges you to determine what is fact vs. fiction. Overall, the plot is developed fairly well and Eden's struggle to have children feels like the reader's own. Aaron is a character I could truly like and feel sorry for over the course of the story. However, the insomnia part of the plot (Liam, the carriage house, etc) seemed a little forced to encourage a sense of suspense. The story may have been more compelling without it.

Like many of Kubica's other books, I would recommend it. Thank you NetGalley for the arc of When the Lights Go Out.

It is difficult to review this book without spoilers given the many twists and turns. The story alternates between young Jessica who is suffering from severe insomnia as her mother is dying and flashbacks to newlywed Eden who is desperate for a child, Eventually the reader comes to understand how their lives are intertwined. Kubica does an excellent job of building suspense and momentum in this novel, but in the end far too many misleading paths and the major twist felt more like deception which completely tarnished the story for me.

Another eerie read from author Mary Kubica. After Jessie Sloane’s mother passes away, grief won’t allow her to sleep. The she finds that her social security number has erroneously marked her as deceased as well. Interesting premise—both the mystery of Jessie’s hidden past and the haunting effects of her lack of sleep. Kubica fans will delight in the uncanny details as Jessie searches for who she might be as she tries to avoid the otherworldly sights and sounds that are stalking her.

Kubica’s writing is evocative of an unearthly mood, but I wasn’t able to form a bond with the main character Jessie. Other than descriptions of the care she provided her mother, Jessie wasn’t given much personality. She also seemed lacking in everyday life skills. Jessie’s mother brought her up with no friends, no outside influences (e.g., technology), but I find it difficult to believe that any millennial (without a smart phone) wouldn’t immediately hoof it to a library to Google herself as the first step in researching her mysterious background. (Yes, she gets around to a sneaky computer search later, but really, she has more than enough free time to hit up the local library’s computers asap.)

Jessie’s character may read flat to me, but the action never stops. Kubica builds her suspense easily with spooky voices and noises, a strange little landlady, and someone always watching. Kubica saves her most intense descriptors for Jessie’s hallucinations making even the reader feel like the images are real.

Perfect for fans of Heather Gudenkauf and Megan Abbott. I give When the Lights Go Out 4 stars, the writing is done well as always, but the plotting and pacing are not well served by a limp finish.

Thank you NetGalley, Mary Kubica and Harlequin for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Jessie Sloane is still dealing with the death of her mother who had been dealing with cancer since Jessie was just sixteen. Jessie made her mother and her care her first priority and missed out on all the things sixteen year olds do, like getting a license. Jessie has been struggling with sleep and now suddenly she can’t sleep at all. After her mother’s death, she decides it’s time for her to do things for herself like apply for college. But the college lets her know that her social insurance number is that of a deceased little girl and to make matters worse, Jessie can’t find the card anywhere in her or her mother’s possessions. Jessie tries to get another form of identification and finds she was declared dead at age three. Jessie begins investigating on her own, but her lack of sleep continues to wreck havoc on her life and make it hard to know who she can trust.

I did enjoy this book, but I found personally that it was hard to get into at first, but when you do you are immersed into the story and can’t wait to find out what happened to Jessie and why she has been declared dead. I enjoyed Jessie’s character and I felt like I could really relate to her and what she is going through. I did find some of the things that she did unbelievable, but then again she hasn’t slept in over a week and people start to do strange things without sleep. I really had no idea what we were going to find out in this book, I just couldn’t see a clean ending and I was shocked when I read the last few chapters!

I really enjoyed how Jessie went about investigating and trying to find not only herself, but also her father. I found the book just the perfect length to really get into it and find out all that you think you need to know. I really can’t say enough good things about the twist, I was blown away and I had not seen that coming. The ending was just perfect for this novel and after I read it, I actually had to put down the book and just think about all the little clues that seemed to lead to this conclusion.

Pick it up September 4th!

If you are looking for twisted endings that come out of left field then this is the book for you. Jessie Sloane, a young teenager has been caring for her dying mother. When her mother does pass she has to try and get a social security card only to find that she doesn't exist. The only Jessie had died at age 3. Without her basic information she has difficulty securing housing, employment etc. Alternating with Jessie's story told retrospectively is her mom's, with her trials of infertility and going the IVF route. I had a hard time engaging with the plot line, the characters and the writing itself. Certainly not Kubica's finest.

I love love love Mary Kubica's books. I devour them within a day, stunned for hours afterwards of the amazing plot twists, original characters, everything! Thank you for the opportunity to read a preview of her latest.

I hated this book. Since she has had such success with her other books, is this like a Patterson or other big time author where once they become popular the publisher trots out their earlier works to try and pass them as new? I really hope so because if not I'll be leery to pick up another one of her titles.

Its hard to love or even like a book when all you do while reading is internally scream, "Just go the F^#% to sleep! I felt like I was butting my head against the wall with a toddler who didn't want to take a nap..its not a good thing when you're secretly hoping something horrible happens to the Jessie just so that the book would end - and it made me sad..

Maybe I feel like this based on what's going on in my own life (taking my only off to college tomorrow 2,000 miles away) changed my perspective towards this book - I'm not quite sure. I did finish it on Left-Hander's Day yesterday and as a Leftie - was highly annoyed about the assumptions of dominant hand watch wearing.. I'm a leftie who wears their watch on their dominant hand. Silly quirk? Possibly..but all my leftie friends do it too..

This was the first book that I’ve read by Mary Kubica, and although I have others of her’s on my TBR list, I will be bumping them to the top. This book pulled me in from the beginning. I really felt connected to Jessie for some reason and felt every bit of pain she was shouldering. It was extremely odd for me to read this book, as someone who deals with insomnia. The visions she was describing were so bogus and made me so fearful, as I was reading at 2am!

When the Lights Go Out is told from two different perspectives and spans many years, which I thought was kind of fun and interesting. I pride myself with figuring out endings of books and am usually great at it, but this one was so twisted that I didn’t get it until the very end! It was a nice surprise to have that happen!

Thank you, Netgalley for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Harlequin and Netgalley for letting me read this novel prior to it’s release. I had read two of Kubica’s previous books, really enjoyed them and gave them both five stars. She knew how to write a thriller in those and she kept me on my toes.

In this tale, Jessie Sloan doesn’t take her mother’s death from cancer well. She’s at loose ends, doesn’t know what to do next and can’t sleep. She makes big decisions when she’s not ready for them and she doesn’t ask for advice.

I’m sorry to say I felt shortchanged with this title. About 7/8s through the book Kubica pulled out an old soap opera technique so she didn’t have to tie up any unfinished ends. I’m not going to spoil it for those who haven’t read this yet and tell you what that technique is. But I got very angry when it happened. I admire thriller writers when they twist and weave plots throughout the book and come up with a conclusion I hadn’t thought of. It takes a lot of hard work, but those are the kind of authors I keep coming back to.

I have read a few books by this author and have loved each one of them. This book kept me going until the end. The story ended in a totally different way then I was expecting. The ending was sort of a buzz kill, but in a good way. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I received an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
I was surprised to see such a creative writer, whose thrillers have always been so compelling and different, write a "you're not my real mom" book . Her books are so original this one just seems phoned in. Still not a bad read but not the usual caliber. She does paint the characters well

A bit of a confusing start, but this turns into a story about searching for one’s identity and rectifying past mistakes. The characters are mostly likable, but the main character got on my nerves so badly by the end, I really disliked her and the drama she caused immensely. Although a little disappointed once I realized what was happening at the end, the murkiness of so much of the story became clear. Not bad, but not a favorite.

Mary Kubica is such a master of the psychological suspense and this book delivers! As Jessie and Eden’s worlds collide, their desperation to achieve their single minded goals just leave you breathless.

I love Mary Kubica, but this novel disappointed me. I love the premise, the beginning somewhat magical veering into darkening obsession. I felt the entire middle section, the Jessie perspective, was like being on a merry go round with no end in sight! The ending was fine, somewhat abrupt, but satisfying. Overall, a 3/5.

SPOILERS

I was so excited to read this, but I was really disappointed. I loved The Good Girl and Pretty Baby, but When The Lights Go Out was disappointing.

Spoilers ahead:

We open with a someone, clearly distraught and desperate and then we meet the mc, Jessie

After a long and painful bout with breast cancer, Jessie's mother, Eden, is dying. Jessie won't leave her side in the hospital because she wants to be there when her mother dies. She goes to the cafeteria, drinks coffee, meets a handsome and mysterious man, Liam, and when she goes back to her mom, the doctor persuades her to take a mild benzodiazepine to try and get some sleep.

When Jessie wakes up, her mother it s dead. She's understandably devastated by this, and as she goes through the next week, unable to sleep, her mother's cremated remains with her, she moves into a new place, a creepy carriage house, and tries to figure out who she is--because she finds out from the college she applied to that she, or at least, according to her social security number--is dead.

Chapters alternate between Jessie's increasingly sleep deprived and frantic life and her mother's past, where we learn that her mom, Eden, was once happily married until a move to a new home and attempts, each more futile than the last, to have a baby with her husband, Aaron.

Jessie becomes convinced that someone in the main home by the carriage house she lives in a trying to send her a message/get her/might be her father. And she starts to wonder if her mother is really her mother or if she was abducted as a child.

Eden, in the past, becomes more and more upset when she can't have a baby and contemplates taking a child several times

By the end, Jessie is sure she's dying, up on a roof, the distraught and desperate scene from the opening. As we learn that Eden, on the edge of insanity in the past from wanting a baby so much that it's cost her entire life, her job, her husband, etc. goes to a bar, gets drunk, and has sex with the barrender, ending up pregnant She's stunned when she realizes she's pregnant and when Aaron shows up, missing her, she decides to leave

And Jessie wajes up, convinced she's dead because she sees her mother but...

She's not dead. The whole I'm dying because I can't sleep and I might have been stolen as a child and who is tormenting me plotlines--all. a. dream.

Yes, from the start, she was dreaming. She gets to see her mother one last time, meets Aaron, who, naturally is still in love with Eden, and he gives her the journal her mother kept (and that we, apparently, have been "reading" all along). So. Jessie isn't in peril, Aaron wants to get to know her, and she is her mother's daughter. She also meets the handsome man again although a la sliding doors, he has a different name.

It's not a thrillet. It's not even a mystery. Eden got pregnant and ran to..something. For some reason. And had Jessie, who had a long and terrible dream.

That's it. 99% of Jessie's story is a dream. The rest is the journal of a happy woman who became unhinged when she couldn't get pregnant. Um...okay.

Leaving out the whole dreaming as story, which is a mess and cheap plot device, the notion that not having a baby can make someone unhinged is the most frightening and, imo, problematic rest of the novel.

Tldr: Only if you like women who go borderline insane when they can't have a baby and the oh! it was a dream ending! as a "plot."

I still would read another book by Ms Kubica but this one did not work for me. At all.

Brilliant book that gets you from page one. You can’t stop reading as you want to know what happens next. An ending that makes you have a shiver in your spine.

Having read two of Mary Kubica's previous books and thinking that they were fantastic, I was excited to have an opportunity to read her latest, "When the Lights Go Out."
I finished it a few days ago but needed time to digest the book and it's ending. I am torn. I feel that Kubica gives us the makings of something great but misses the mark at the end. It reminds me of people that rave about an amazing meal they had a particular restaurant you want to go to. Your excited and anticipate a mouth watering meal from the first course until dessert. It starts off superb and smooth, followed by a satisfying main course but when the dessert comes, the waiter tells you that the dessert you wanted is not available but offers a substitution that is nice but reduces the perfect meal from outstanding to good.
The mystery of Jessie Sloane is the crux of the storyline. Jessie Sloane is a young woman who has spent several years caring for her cancer-stricken mother, Eden.
It's only been the two of them and after her mother dies, Jessie has to start a new path alone. Jessie must not only find her path now, she also has to find out her identity as well, since she finds out that her social security number belongs to a dead three year old named Jess.
While Jesse's story dominates the book, Eden's story is paralleled. Kubica's writing is smooth and effortless. She reels you into Jesse and Eden's lives, as you are anxiously turning the pages to see what happens next. I truly felt like that passenger on the rollercoaster as it made that gradual creeping along climb inching closer and closer to the top, scared for the drop you know is coming. Only this time the drop isn't that terrifying stomach in your throat feel. It's the feeling of "oh that's all this ride is, are you sure there isn't anymore?"
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. #Netgalley #WhentheLightsGoOut