Thanks to Netgalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Tarryn Fisher for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Good Half Gone. It drew me in immediately and kept my interest throughout. I read it in one day.

I love Tarryn's writing. She has been a favourite of mine since I read her book The Wives a few years back. While this wasn't as phenomenal as The Wives, it was still a fantastic read.
It starts with a bang and then slows down a bit, but it was intriguing and interesting all the way, it had real emotional depth. I loved Iris, and I admired her determination to find out what happened to Piper, despite all the setbacks and obstacles in her way.
The last part of the story was non-stop action and was full of twists and turns that I didn't see coming.

I highly recommend and can't wait to see what Tarryn comes up with next.

4 Stars from me. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Good Half Gone is the latest standalone thriller by Tarryn Fisher. Tarryn Fisher’s writing style never fails to deliver and if you’re a fan of this author, or thrillers in general be sure to check this one out. The intriguing premise will capture your attention and you will stay for the twists, turns and shocker of an ending. I’ll confess Tarryn Fisher is my favorite author of all time and Mud Vein is my soul book. While I enjoy her earlier works more than the recent thrillers, she never fails to entertain and deliver up an intense, heartfelt and twisty mystery filled with drama, trauma and emotion. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

“Good Half Gone” is an interesting thriller that’s not quite what you’d expect from this author. I felt it tended a little more towards the melodramatic than Fisher usually leans. However, it retained the emotional punch and the twisty plot surprises I expect from Fisher.

Iris Walsh has just won the job of her dreams: an internship at the Hospital for the Criminally Insane on Shoal Island. However, the reason it’s the job of her dreams is highly unusual. When Iris was 15, her twin sister Piper was abducted. Iris believes that her murderer is a patient on Shoal Island.

Iris’ main goal is to obtain a DNA sample, which she believes will prove he killed Piper. That in turn may force him to tell her where Piper is buried or hidden.

However, not surprisingly, Iris finds this far harder than she anticipated. The hospital and the island are not what she expected, and the atmosphere is even more off putting than she thought it might be.

Fisher is an experienced writer, so it’s no surprise that the emotional background to this is deeply and engagingly drawn. Few readers will be able to resist empathising with Iris. Her approach may seem a bit extreme, but you’ll be hoping she succeeds and gets the answers she needs.

Iris is the pivot of the novel – it moves around her memories and experiences – but important characters like Piper, their grandmother, their mother, and the investigating detectives are also strong and vivid.

The hospital and Shoal Island are both atmospherically evoked. It’s easy to picture the isolated island and hospital and imagine what it would feel like to be there. However, I found that the hospital procedures, routine, and staff, were less vividly evoked. It turned out that there was a reason for that, but it left me with a sense of discomfort which may or may not have been intentional.

Although I had certainly anticipated hints of the final twists, the last chapters had plenty of twists and turns. This is also where it got a little melodramatic and stretched my credulity a bit too far. It moves fast enough that most readers won’t be too bothered by this unless they stop to reflect after finishing the novel. However, I felt that these chapters perhaps let the book down overall.

So, this is a fast moving thriller with a plot that will produce at least one surprise for readers – and probably more. The characters are strong, a significant element in the emotional impact of the novel. Most thriller fans will enjoy it, finding it a relatively fast read but an absorbing one.

I WILL RETURN TO ADD LINKS ONCE i'VE PUBLISHED THIS

Book: Good Half Gone
Author: Tarryn Fisher
Gifted: HarperCollins Australia

ok. Super hard to review this one, because how I feel has been determined by the ending and if I start talking about the ending...well then there's a lot of the thrills in this thriller gone!

This book had some strong points. It was a super quick and twisty read. It was also set up really well and the pace was great. I just wasn't a fan of the ending. It was a little too...far fetched. And I think that brought it down for me. I'll leave it at that.

That being said, I'm still keen to give some of Tarryn's other books a try as Good Half Gone was an otherwise strong thriller. If anyone has any suggestions with which one I should try first, let me know!

Thank you HarperCollins Australia for the gifted copy of Good Half Gone in exchange for an honest review.

Good Half Gone follows an incredible story of twins Iris and Piper Walsh. Iris watched her twin sister get kidnapped but no one except her Nan believes her. The cops think she is lying and expects Piper to be a run-away. With no evidence and the police not wanting to be involved, the case goes cold. Now an adult Iris is investigating what happened to Piper and ends up working at the Shoal Island hospital as an intern. She believes her sisters killer is one of the criminally insane patients in this isolated facility. Will Iris finally get the closure and answers she needs? Nothing is as it seems.

An absolute gripping psychological thriller and one that ticked all my boxes. I loved the dual timelines of this one and trying to put all the pieces together. I was very much mind-blown at the ending with that major twist to the story. A signature Tarryn move. This was such a quick read for me and I found myself wanting to know how this story was going to end.

Did I go out and buy a physical copy for my shelves? Yes, yes I did.

I find this nice and fitting that this was my 100th Netgalley review.

Thank you Harlequin Australia & Netgalley for a gifted copy of this e-book for my honest book review.

I loved the premise of this story and chunks of it were really good. The story is told from the present day and the past when Piper was kidnapped. I found the story to be very disjointed and in some places I really had no idea what was going on. Some of the side plots really added nothing to the story and for me didn't need to be there.
When Iris gets to the hospital the story starts to become a little unbelievable, especially the ending.
The twists in the end were so far fetched but I actually enjoyed them. The whole second half of the story around the hospital would have made a great book on its own.

This book started out strong with Iris Walsh on the phone to 911 after witnessing her twin sister’s kidnapping. We then go into a slow burn of her trying to investigate her sister’s disappearance, determined to uncover the truth with very little action until the last 20% of the book.

Then the ending 🤦🏻‍♀️ I wanted the ending to be worth the slow burn and I wanted to be shocked by the twist but unfortunately, it fell flat and was predictable after having a good idea of where the author was going to lead us.

After reading this one, The Wives and Never Never and rating them all 3 stars, I think maybe Tarryn Fisher’s books just aren’t my cup of tea.

A huge thank you to @netgalley and @harlequinaus for this #gifted eARC in exchange for my honest review. Good Half Gone is out tomorrow, 14th March 2024.

Iris watched her twin sister Piper get kidnapped now years later she is still looking for answers. The character development in this book is outstanding and makes the story really grow as you read. I loved the dark side and I mostly enjoyed reading about the patients at Shoal hospital, I luckily don't frighten easily or I think I would have nightmares! Iris is so obsessed by her sisters kidnapping that it was hard to get a read on her own personality. The twist particularly the one at the end was so shocking and explosive that I was literally screaming with excitement because it was so deliciously good!

Iris Walsh witnessed her twin sisters kidnapping but the police did not believe her. To them Piper was just a runaway. Years late Iris is still reeling with thrived and the unknown. She had a plan to find out what really happened to her sister, but just how far does she have to go to uncover the truth?
When I started this book I had no idea where it was going to lead. It was a slow start, definitely took me awhile to get into the story and once it took off I was hooked! A few twists that I did not expect made for a very enjoyable read!
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for the ARC!!

Iris Walsh saw her twin sister, Piper, get kidnapped - so why does no one believe her?
As a teen, Iris escaped the fate of her twin, Piper, who vanished into thin air, with little evidence of her abductor. Now, as an adult, she wants justice and continues to hunt for answers by interning at a hospital for the criminally insane. This is where she suspects the secrets lie. But as time goes on, she gets the sense there is something very wrong..
This one was dark, twisted with high tension throughout. It had my flying through the pages just waiting to see how all of the threads unfolded.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for this gifted review copy.

Piper Walsh is kidnapped right in front of her twin Iris's eyes but no one believes her, without any evidence to prove this police reactions are slow and the case is left cold, but not for Iris, her loving sister. she wants answers and if she has to start investigating this herself to get them she will and she does. Iris believes her sister's killer is being held at the Shoal Island hospital, an isolated medical facility for the criminally insane. Iris manages to get herself inside this incredibly unnerving and remote place and becomes an intern and sees this as her access into a place where she may be able to finally get close enough to find these answers she needs.

I usually love Tarryn's books but this one started slowly and continued that way, also the chapters are very long. The plot kept me engaged at times and the way the author digs down into the grief process is to be commended, but the rest of the story did not really hold my attention and I could have easily put the book down. The ending also left me a bit disappointed so for me this was not a great read, I was expecting to put another book to devour in a few hours but unfortunately this was not the case. I will still be looking out for this authors work as this is the first time I have not thoroughly enjoyed one of her books.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.