I Let You Go

by Clare Mackintosh

Devastated by a hit-and-run accident that has ended the life of her young son, Jenna moves to the remote Welsh coast to search for healing while two dedicated policemen try to get to the bottom of the case.

• ISBN10: 1101987499
• ISBN13: 9781101987490
• Publish Date: 3 May 2016 (first published 6 November 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Berkley Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[bookswithjelena]

2.75⭐

[Sam@WLABB]

Wow! I really enjoyed this book. Mackintosh's style had me right from the beginning. I loved the way the story unfolded. In part 1, there are two POVs, but it's the very end that had me shaking my head in a "what-the-what" fashion. Well played, Clare Mackintosh. In part two, a third POV is introduced, and this character was written so well. He totally made my skin crawl. I cannot go into details, as I feel it will spoil the story, but this one had me all over the place emotion wise. I shed a few tears, I gasped in horror, I bit my nails in fear. It's was fantastic!

[Leah]

So this was actually SUPER disappointing. It's fair to say that with over 3700 reviews on Amazon, and glorious recommendations from other authors, bloggers, everybody basically, this book comes highly, highly recommended. Not that I would recommend it to anyone. It just didn't go anywhere. The entire first half of the novel was some meandering nonsense about some lass living in Wales, because she couldn't live in Bristol any more, after the hit and run that killed a child. It's literally dull as dishwater. I'm not even kidding. There was no tension. I like a good thriller, but this was not thrilling in the slightest, and the twist wasn't actually all that surprising. It actually made sense, although I did have to go back and read a couple of pages from the beginning to make sure I wasn't going crackers, but after that I was just so, so bored.

The only intriguing plot was the plot between Ray and Kate and that fizzled to nothing in the end, just your typical cock-sure female cop, determined to stay on a case and her boss who is obviously having marriage issues. And son issues, which weren't even resolved in the slightest.

I genuinely have no idea if I read a different book to all the glowing reviews I've seen, because this wasn't tense, thrilling, exciting, anything. It was boring. Deathly boring. And it was way, way over-hyped. This just wasn't my cup of tea in the slightest, and if you felt the same way and want an actual, decent thriller, try C.L Taylor, Angela Clarke, Katerina Diamond, Colette McBeth, Paula Daly, Peter Swanson, S.J. Watson, Caroline Kepnes, Fiona Barton, Sarah Hilary, Angela Marsons, to name just a few.

[kimbacaffeinate]

I am going to be deliberately vague. Too many reviews of I Let You Go contain spoilers. Every detail I share is mentioned in the synopsis and while I hint at twists and characters I have left you to discover those. I want you to experience all the gasps, cringes and surprises that I did.

I Let You Go begins when Jenna Gray let's go of her son’s hand for one second. He darts into the street and in that moment he is lost to her forever. After the funeral she moves to a remote coastal village to escape the painful memories. We slowly watch her over the course of a year as she mourns and begins to piece together an existence. The writing is beautiful and captures all of her emotions. I could feel the weight of it all and began to wonder the books purpose. The story felt slow here, not bad but it meandered a bit. Don't get to comfortable though because things are about to get interesting!

At the same time, we follow two Bristol police investigators as they search for the driver. Mackintosh shares not only the case but shares their daily struggle both a at home and on the job. It added depth giving the story a genuineness. We spent most of our time with Ray as he dealt with the case, his home life, career etc. Kate is new to the department, and I loved how she questioned everything. Even when others push to set this case aside they continue to pursue justice.

I Let You Go had me tearful, angry, and reaching for truffles during the first part of this story. My heart hurt for Jenna as the author allowed us to feel her grief, guilt and hopelessness. I understood her suffocating need to run, to forget, and that feeling of not being able to breathe. I loved the time spent with investigators Ray and Kate. I felt their frustrations and admired their tenacity as they searched for clues. Mackintosh made their struggles realistic.

Then it happened. Mackintosh took me into full thriller blow my mind mode. About midway through the listen, there were twists and turns I NEVER saw coming. I thought for sure I had somehow spaced out while listening. I went back a chapter, two chapters and OMG how I missed this? Fantastic I tell you!

Mackintosh does not stop there. She introduces another perspective one that will make you cringe. She shares a dark secret that many carry with them…maybe even you. All of the threads begin to entwine but there is something just out of your minds reach. You cannot quite grasp it until the author shines a light and you gasp aloud.

I Let You Go does very well as an audiobook. Both Nicola Barber and Steven Crossley brought the characters to life. Nicola in particular brought forth Jenna’s emotions allowing me to become connected..

Audiobook provided by publisher. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[pagesbycyndy]

my thoughts:

Awesome book from the beginning to the end! If you read the excerpt then you know that this is every parents worst nightmare, the death of a child, especially if you are a single mom and the child is really all you have.

I liked the way that the story is told from different perspectives of a few of the characters. This is sort of a suspense/mystery story. The story is told so well from the detectives point of view as they try to solve the case and from another character in the book who remains somewhat of a mystery person, I do not want to go into too much detail or I will ruin the unbelievable twist in this book.

I would say that this is one of my favorite, could not put down, books so far this year. The ending really does have quite a surprise twist.

 

 This review was originally posted on