While there were parts of this I enjoyed and thought were really interesting, overall this one just wasn't for me. I found I couldn't connect well to the characters and that the pacing just wasn't keeping me interested either. I can definitely see where this would work for people, it just didn't work for me.

Compelling and dark. This is a recommended purchase for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

What a wild ride! The slow-burn spook factor in this was unreal—in the best way possible. It felt almost gothic. Great read.

What We Both Know' by Fawn Parker is an okay book that didn't quite meet my expectations. It has its moments, but it also has some drawbacks.

The story explores the complexities of relationships and the secrets that can lie beneath the surface. It's a theme that many readers can relate to, which initially drew me in.

Fawn Parker's writing style is straightforward and easy to understand, which makes the book accessible. The characters' emotions and struggles are depicted with authenticity. However, the plot can feel a bit slow and meandering at times, which affected my overall engagement with the story. It seemed to lack a clear direction or purpose, which made it challenging to stay fully invested. The characters, while relatable, could have been more developed. I found it difficult to fully connect with their experiences and motivations, which left me wanting more depth in their portrayal. 'What We Both Know' is an okay read that delves into relationship complexities. While it has its moments and a relatable theme, it falls short in terms of pacing and character development. It's a book that may resonate with readers looking for a simple and relatable story, but it may not fully satisfy those seeking a more immersive and engaging narrative.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me advance access to this title. I really enjoyed reading this story and look forward to reading more from this author. As a reader, I am really motivated by character driven stories and I found myself quickly becoming immersed in these characters’ lives. Full review to come.

What We Both Know was a pretty interesting novel about a daughter finding out her father's true past.

I really liked the parts in her head, when memory gets muddled and unclear through time and perspectives. I also liked how a famous writer to everyone else was really just an old man with not much left redeeming. However, the writing style was really hard to get into - it took me a few months to get past the first chapter. I also wish the ending had a bit more finality, but it did end up being better than I thought.

If you like character-driven novels, you’ll like this one!

For me it was slightly slow, and the writing style took a while to get into (literary and stilted at times), and if you’re looking for something that gives you My Dark Vanessa Vibes, this is not it!

I did like the imagery, and getting into the psyche of Hillary, the main character, at times. I don’t think this will be my favourite from this author, but I am excited to see what Fawn Parker publishes next!

I could not get into this book, sorry. Trying to clean up my netgalley. I have previously shared my loved on my instagram page and didn't realize that I was forgetting to leave reviews on netgalley itself, My apologies.

This one definitely gave me creepy My Dark Vanessa vibes. Any book with one of the main characters an elderly man with dementia called Baby, is bound to be unusual! In this one, the protagonist Hillary Greene, an aspiring writer, agrees to ghostwrite her famous author father's final work, a memoir. The book is described as "a mesmerizing, disturbing and thoroughly compelling novel about one woman's role in preserving - or destroying - her famous father's legacy." Parker did a great job at the outset of painting a strange and eerie father/daughter relationship as well as some other underlying family trauma. I often cringed while at the same time being unable to turn the pages quickly enough.

The combination of Hillary's interactions with her father and other family members plus her hazy uncertain memories made this a disturbing but very compelling read. I also enjoy reading books set in Canada, although I'm not that familiar with the Toronto area myself.

This book was longlisted for Canada's Giller Prize so kudos to Fawn Parker.

I've rated this 3 but actually would call it a 3.5

Hillary Greene has always lived under the shadow of her father. The important and serious novelist Baby Greene. Herself a flailing author, for how do you pursue writing when your father looms so large in public consciousness?

When Baby's memory starts to fade faster and faster, Hillary has to move in to care for him, a power shift that he shockingly easily allows. A secret that they keep from everyone but his closest companions. When she finds his journals she has an idea. She can write his memoir. Under the guise of his own pen.. She can show the world a side to Baby that only his family experienced.

As she struggles through daily tasks to keep Baby occupied, to keep publishers at bay, she starts to write and unravel the series of events that lead to her sister, Pauline's death. To figure out if her father is to blame.

There is a lot implied and not really shown in this novel. I think comparing it to My Dark Vanessa is a disservice. We definitely are reading a bout power dynamics, and potential abuse, we never quite get the answers that Hillary or we need to get closure.

It's much more successful when you consider it in the vein of a novel like Devil House by John Darnielle. Where we are implying the malevolent nature of non-fiction. The lies that get pushed as fact, and the narrative voice as truth teller. The limitations of documentation. The loss of perspective. The holes in memory. The way we implicitly show our bias in our interpretation of history.

As someone who has a number of older members of my family dealing with memory loss, I found the most powerful moments to be the day to day with a loved one who is feeling life slip away from them.

I really struggled with the violence against animals that really came out of nowhere. I struggled to sympathize with Hillary after that moment.

I also don't know why Toronto stories always have a protagonist who likes to hold their piss in, but it seems like an in-joke I don't really get.

Thank you to NetGalley and McLelland and Stewart for an ARC of this title.

I loved my dark Vanessa but I could not enjoy a minute of this😂
It was very confusing and a weird plot.

Hillary Greene’s life has been put on hold so that she can take care of her father. Her father, an acclaimed novelist, has been prevented from writing his memoirs because of his sharp physical decline and advancing memory loss. In what initially seems to be an altruistic act, Hillary moves back to her childhood home so that she can ghostwrite his memoir. But Hillary has plans for the memoir – plans that will unmake her father’s legacy. While her father is none the wiser, Hillary will write the truth that she and her father both know.

What We Both Know is a character study of a woman with a deeply wounded psyche. The story deals with some heavy topics by leaving a lot unsaid, putting the onus on readers to infer what’s happening and what’s happened. Hillary’s motivations complex and multifaceted, and I appreciated that Parker resisted the simplicity of a “revenge” narrative. Suffice it to say that trigger warnings are a must for this story and thankfully the finished copy does include them.

Parker makes great use of a stream of consciousness style to communicate Hillary’s disjointed thoughts and perspective. The style won’t be for everyone (it’s not my favourite) but it served the narrative well. Hillary’s worldview is bleak, her self-esteem is in the gutter, and she’s grieving deeply. But beneath her flat affect, Hillary is a deeply angry person. It isn’t hard to guess why she might be this way, and although Parker doesn’t reveal specifics until well into the story, it’s immediately clear that her father is at the heart of it.

Parker takes the time to conjure a deeply unsettlingly sense of looming anticipation, a feeling that something is about to be revealed. This propels the narrative forward in the absence of a plot, and it’s what kept me turning the pages. When the truth is finally revealed in its entirety – or the entirety of what Hillary can and chooses to know – the effect is devastating. I knew what had happened quite early on in the story but still felt the emotional impact at the reveal.

Those looking for a story where bad people are punished may find themselves unsatisfied with What We Both Know. Personally, I could’ve done with a few consequences for evil-doers, but this isn’t a fantasy. It’s an honest, unflinching portrayal of how childhood abuse can shape someone’s life.

This was a new to me author and I was torn, I liked the story and characters but found the suspense level to lack, it was quite easy to figure out the plot very early on. Overall a great read, more surprise elements would have made this a 4 star for me. I give 3 stars!

This book didn’t really work for me. I didn’t connect with the characters and it left me feeling a bit confused

Every now and then I read a book and then I think 'What the heck did I just read?'. What We Both Know is one of those books. My brain felt like what's depicted on the cover - mind blown!

Hillary Greene is supposed to be ghostwriting her father's memoir. He's a well-respected (in literary circles anyway) author who goes by the name Baby and, unknown to others, he's beginning to suffer from memory loss. This book is mostly Hillary's reminiscences about her childhood, her sister Pauline and Hillary's own writing career. It seemed to me that very little writing of any kind went on.

There's quite a story in this book and there's also a lot that's unsaid but hinted at; it's up to the reader to read between the lines. It's written in a stream of consciousness style and probably won't appeal to everyone. There are places where the type is very odd, the first letter in a sentence will be lower case followed by one or two upper case letters and sometimes the upper case doesn't appear until the second or third word in the sentence. I'm not sure if we're supposed to go away with the feeling that Hillary isn't a very expert keyboarder or what the reason is. Since this is an ARC perhaps it's corrected in the published version? UPDATE: I noticed that you can "Look Inside" the book on amazon and now realize that the words consisting of lower and upper case letters in the ARC are all in small caps in the published version. Mystery solved!

I'm surprised at the number of reviews that comment on the fact that Hillary's father is referred to as Baby throughout the book when it's explained as plain as day early on in the book how the name came about. If you think of it as a nickname, much like "Junior", rather than a term of endearment it isn't quite so creepy.

The publisher's blurb touts that this will appeal to fans of 'My Dark Vanessa' but I really can't see much similarity. Even so, there are triggers to do with real and implied child abuse as well as animal harm and even a dream sequence featuring bestiality.

My thanks to McClelland & Stewart via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

I really liked this one. The twist was good and the reading was smooth. I really enjoyed the writing and I will be looking at other books from this author.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a fun read, I got sucked into the story pretty quickly which is always a plus. I am not the biggest fan of a slow burn type book.

I requested this because of the comparison to My Dark Vanessa which seems to be the going theme. However this fell flat for me. I was not intrigued by the plot and I didn’t care for these characters as I did in the compared novel. Sometimes when there’s a plug on another novel…it builds things up in a reviewers mind and there’s no coming back from the letdown and that is what happened for me with this one. I couldn’t get invested and this is a shorter novel but still felt long, which is never a good sign. I really wanted to love this and I’m still grateful for the copy received but I have to provide my honest opinion and that is that this didn’t hold a candle to My Dark Vanessa.

A famous dad and a daughter who knows his secrets. She's trying to hide her father's tumble in to memory loss because she wants to write one more story. She wants to reveal who he really is. Because she's suffering a horrible loss, one that she blames him for and wants everyone to know. She wants to burn it all.

However, it's hard to get that from any of the story. It's written almost stream-of-consciousness fashion, which I don't enjoy. The MC is drowning, bouncing from one moment to the next trying to detangle her childhood and trying to understand it all. I could see what the story was trying to tell me but I just couldn't get pulled in or care enough

and the moment with the dog was absolutely awful.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This book reminded me a lot of My Dark Vanessa; so dark, so difficult to read, heavy content, but important to read nonetheless. This was a story with a lot of layers and one I found myself having to pause and digest rather than flying through. My heart broke constantly for all of the characters, but overall I really enjoyed this read.