"Good Half Gone" by Tarryn Fisher is a gripping and intense novel that delves into the complexities of relationships, trauma, and redemption. The story follows a woman named Emma who is struggling to come to terms with her past and the choices she has made. Fisher's writing is raw and emotional, drawing readers into Emma's world and making them feel her pain and turmoil. The characters are well-developed and flawed, adding depth to the narrative. The plot is filled with twists and turns that keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end. Overall, "Good Half Gone" is a powerful and thought-provoking read that explores the darker aspects of human nature with honesty and depth.

I love Tarryn Fisher and will continue to read everything she writes. That being said, this was not my favorite book by her.

Piper and Iris are twins being raised by their grandmother. One day the girls are at the movies when Piper is taken. The police quickly label Piper as a runaway and refuse to begin looking for her until her purse is found in a trash can by a homeless woman. And of course by that time it is too late.

Adult Iris has been raising her young son, taking care of her ailing grandmother and searching for her twin sister for nine long years. Her search takes her to an isolated hospital for the criminally insane where she believes she will find Piper’s killer.

The story alternates between past and present timelines as Iris recounts the events of Piper’s disappearance and her time on the island at the mental hospital. For me, the story felt very disjointed and I kept wondering what I was missing because things just didn’t make tons of sense to me. There were also a lot of characters during the passages on the island and it tended to get confusing. This won’t stop me from reading more by Fisher, but again, it wasn’t my favorite.

I feel like this book started out with a lot of promise to be a good thriller, but it ended up being so slow for me. Most of it was basic build up and then nothing really started happening until the last 20%. The climax was okay and kind of all over the place. I was hoping the ending would be a cliffhanger, but ended up being fairly boring.

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing | Graydon House, and author Tarryn Fisher for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

While the synopsis and beginning of the book were promising, this story went way off the rails of plausibility for me to even consider giving it a higher rating. To me, the "twist" at the end screamed lazy writing, and delved into the land of make-believe far past fiction.

Having always loved Tarryn Fisher’s intricate web of creations I have to say this one fell short for me. Felt like a huge build up for not much return in the end. Twins Piper and Iris just didn’t grab my attention, sadly.

The twists and turns were interesting. Fast paced and thrilling. I did see the main twist coming but I was living for the descriptions of the hospital.

Ugh! I wanted to like this book so badly. I loved The Wives and hated The Wrong Family, so this was another shot to see where I stand with this author. I actually started off really invested and was intrigued and creeped out by the premise... maybe even the first 50% (thus the middle of the road rating). But then it went so off the walls bananas that I can't in good faith recommend this nonsense to anyone with that ridiculous ending. Not only was the ending bad, it was pretty predictable, but then you're like not that can't be it BECAUSE IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Graydon House for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very interesting. I wouldn’t say that it had twists and turns throughout but when it did they were really good and suspenseful twists and turns. When the narrator finds herself at Shoal Island, she has to figure out how she got herself into her situation but more importantly how to get herself out.

This is my third novel from Tarryn Fisher. It was not my favorite of her novels. The novel centers on Iris, the surviving twin, her sister Piper was kidnapped when they were teens. Iris is focused on finding information about what happened to her sister after she was taken. This leads Iris to the Shoal Island Center for the Criminally Insane. The book is told through alternating narratives between the past and the future in Iris's voice. While I liked the premise and the alternating timeline, I found the story slow at times and hard to really grab my interest. At times I would read a few pages and have to go back and wonder what I had just read. Not as gripping as some of her other novels. I did find the setting of Shoal Island interesting and engaging, as well as some of the flashback scenes. It was just sort of blah for me most of the time.

Thank you Harlequin for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Iris Walsh has a twin sister who is kidnapped right in front of her at the movies when they went together. No one will believe her! When Iris reports her sister missing to the police, they question the validity of the situation, suggesting that her sister may have simply run off.
The book is structured across two distinct time periods: the time when Piper goes missing and nine years into the future, where Iris is caring for her son while also holding down a job and going to school.

This is the kind of book you can breeze through in an afternoon, constantly questioning where the story is headed. I was particularly intrigued by the backstory and curious to see where the author would take us on this winding, adventurous journey.
Overall, I found this book quite enjoyable. In fact, I liked it even more than 'The Wrong Family.' I didn't expect to be as engaged as I was. While I was able to anticipate some of the twists, I remained unsure of how everything would come together. It was a thrilling ride on a speedy roller coaster.

I tried so hard to get into this one but I just couldn’t. I didn’t feel connected to the characters, or invested in what was happening. I felt the investigation side of the story was unbelievably incompetent. It all fell dull and flat for me. I ended up DNFing around 50% because I couldn’t be bothered to care about anything. It wasn’t great, it lacked in depth and complexity and didn’t add anything new or fresh or exciting to the genre. The transitions were jarring and difficult to follow. It was all rather disappointing.

Good Half Gone by Tarryn Fisher
My rating:
3/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Iris and Piper are twins. Iris was with her Piper when she was kidnapped. No one will listen to Iris and she will not stop fighting for justice for her sister until she finds out what happened to her.

Have you ever seen those videos where someone is reading and accidentally skips to the end of the page they were reading and all of the sudden a “bomb explodes” and you’re like omg how did that just happen so fast!?

That was what happened to me in this one…. The pace was very slow and then all of the sudden at the end it was so action packed and rushed and confusing I was like wait what did I just read?!

This one was not my favorite which was a bummer because I really enjoyed The Wives by this author. I was very excited to read it but the original plot seemed to veer in a different direction with a bunch of other plots that just really make you have to try to piece it all together.

I liked the idea of this book and I enjoyed the setting of a mental hospital, but this was just a little too far fetched for me!

Thank you HTP publishing and Netgalley for the ARC! This is available to read now.

Thank you, Harlequin Trade Publishing for this advance copy in exchange for my review.

Tarryn is the queen of twisty characters, and she never disappoints.
I absolutely tore through this book and did not want to put it down.

Good Half Gone was the absolute best twin thriller I have ever read.

I have been a fan of Tarryn's writing since I read The Wives. Her writing style is so unique & pulls you in immediately. Good Half Gone is twisty and full of suspense. I loved the dual past/present timelines. 4.5 stars.

Twins Iris and Piper are at the movies meeting a group of boys. When Iris returns from the bathroom, Piper is missing she reports to police, but they don’t believe her and label her a runaway. Years later Iris is still determined to find Piper and/or what happened that day. She believes her answers are at Shoal Island Hospital and so she applies for an internship. I enjoyed reading the first half with the dual timelines, not so much the latter half. Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publication and NetGalley.

Tarryn Fisher can write screwed up characters. Every character in this book is flawed, most a little malicious. It makes for a very intense atmosphere, and a whole lot of unease.
The story never veers away from finding Piper. Piper was kidnapped, and her sister, Iris, won’t let her go. This leads to Iris working at a hospital for the criminally insane, which just happens to be on an island. The book changes from investigation mode to locked room thriller, pretty quickly. But going into that half of the book, knowing what we know, helps. Well it should… but things go terribly wrong.
A couple crazy twists take to til the last few chapters that definitely blow your mind. I absolutely loved the big blowout of a reveal, even if it is incredibly unbelievable. Normally that bothers me, but this story is so crazy it works. Also, Tarryn Fisher does crazy really well.

Nine years ago, Iris saw her twin sister get kidnapped, the only problem … the police don’t believe her. Iris has spent those years trying to find Piper. Is there a chance she’s still out there somewhere, or is she dead? Iris is just about to start an internship at a mental hospital for the criminally insane on a remote island in Washington. Iris has ulterior motives, she believes that she will get the answers she seeks on Shoal island. Unfortunately, everything is not what it seems on the island and soon Iris doesn’t know who to trust and is questioning much more than what happened to Piper. While Shoal Island did have the creep factor, the island mental hospital plot is nothing new, and somewhat tired. This book ended up being just an OK read for me. Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Thank you HTP Books, Graydon House, & Netgalley for an eARC of Good Half Gone by Tarryn Fisher!

Tarryn's books are always so twisty - And I truly never know what to expect when I pick up one of her novels. This book alternates chapters between past and present from the point-of-view of Iris Walsh - As a teen she saw her twin get kidnapped in broad daylight, but nobody believes her - Piper is presumed to be a runaway by the police. Iris has never stopped trying to find her, even though the case went cold years ago.

In present time, Iris becomes an intern at an isolated psych hospital on an island - And she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for.

The setting is CREEPY - atmsopheric - and I felt a sense of unease with each chapter. The audio on this book is an A+, too. As always, can't wait to see what Fisher comes up with next - The ending was great, but felt slightly abrupt (Could've used some more in my opinion, I was super invested in Iris!)

First line: “911, what is your emergency?”

Summary: Iris has spent the last eight years searching for answers about her twin sister’s disappearance. With the police not believing that Piper was taken but rather a teen runaway, it becomes an obsession for Iris. Using her degree in criminal psychology, Iris takes an internship at the one place where she might find the answers. Shoal Island houses a psychiatric hospital and housed there is the person who may know more than he has revealed. As she begins searching she finds that maybe there is more to the hospital and its staff.

My Thoughts: This book was a wild ride from the very beginning and I was all in for every bit of it. Iris has seen her sister taken by several men, right before her eyes but the police do not believe her. She then devotes the next several years determined to learn what happened to her sister and prove that she was telling the truth.

Having just visited Seattle, I liked that the setting of the book was in one of my favorite cities. I could easily picture Iris traveling via ferry boat, the library where her Gran works and the waterfront where she eats fish and chips. And the setting of a psychiatric hospital on one of the islands surrounding the city is the perfect location for what transpires there. While the hospital seems to be a state of the art facility there are hints that something is not quite right there.

The story flashes back and forth between the past and current times. Iris slowly learns more about her sister’s fate through her research and police information. There was a point during the story when a big reveal happens that I had to literally stop the audio playback and think for a minute. It shocked me so much. But then the ending was absolutely scary. Everything comes to a head with a bang! The last chapter is a heart racing ride as Iris finally learns all she has been longing to find. This will be a book that will hold you from the beginning to the end. Definitely one of my favorite Tarryn Fisher thrillers.

From the dark and twisty mind of @tarrynfisher we follow the seedy underbelly of society regarding human trafficking.
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When they were fifteen, Iris Walsh saw her twin sister get kidnapped and nobody cared. Iris and her grandmother try everything they can to get the police’s attention, even investigating themselves, but by the time figure out she’s been trafficked, it’s too late. Now years later Iris has made it her life’s mission to track down the man responsible for taking her sister. It leads her to Shoal Island Hospital for the criminally insane where even more secrets lie…
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I can always count on Fisher for a good #thriller and honestly the ending was not at all what I thought it would be so she definitely did a great job of providing that twist that no one but Fisher could have thought of. This showed how easily young teens can get taken before someone even notices or tries to find them. Go into this one blind and enjoy it!

CW: vomit, fire, human trafficking, ped*philia, kidnapping, sexual assault, drug use, addiction, parental neglect & abuse, verbal and physical assault, forced institutionalism, panic attack, grief, hospitalization, stroke, death