The Woman He Loved Before

by Dorothy Koomson

[Leah]

I love Dorothy Koomson. The first novel I read of hers was Marshmallows For Breakfast a couple of years back. I thought it was an excellent read but it was incomparable to her novel released in 2010 The Ice Cream Girls, that was… there are few words to describe just how amazing The Ice Cream Girls really was. I then went back and read the book that made Dorothy famous, My Best Friend’s Girl and for the third book running, I loved it. Dorothy Koomson is just so talented at getting to the heart of a novel and she always, always writes plots that no one else could ever really come up with. She rivals Jodi Picoult with her plots. So I was incredibly thrilled to receive a copy of her newest book The Woman He Loved Before. It’s taken me a few months to read it, but it kept catching my eye so I finally read it.

When I read the synopsis of The Woman He Loved Before, I suspected Jack of very bad things. The way it’s worded, the way it rolls off the tongue, it seems as if Jack is some kind of evil person. Or perhaps that’s just me. Who knows? It all seemed very creepy, so I was pleasantly surprised that the plot of the novel wasn’t necessarily what I thought it was going to be. (Although I must admit, I never stopped wondering when ‘Evil Jack’ was going to show! For some strange reason, I was truly sitting and waiting for him to be evil.) The plot of The Woman He Loved Before is hard to define; it’s hard to discuss without spoiling it because despite my thoughts on the synopsis, I didn’t have a pre-conceived notion of what the book was going to be about, what was going to happen. I thought that was an excellent way to read the book, though, as because Dorothy’s books are so mysterious and can turn on a dime, it’s best to start reading her novels without knowing any major plot points; it just works better.

What I knew from the outset about the book was such: Libby is married to Jack; Jack was married to Eve; Eve died. That was the sum of all my knowledge, except for my inexplicable worry about Jack being evil but that was conjecture. I thought the book managed to keep its pace really well. Libby’s current situation is a surprise, and how Libby happens upon learning more about Eve is even more of a surprise. I mean, the prologue really set the book up properly, and be warned, you won’t be able to read the prologue without wanting to read the rest of the book. I’ve never read a more chilling, more enticing prologue. The book is then written from three points of view: Libby, Jack, Eve. Jack’s portions of the novel were short and sweet, but they offered a good insight into Libby and into Eve. Libby’s portion of the novel was the longest, obviously, and it was intriguing to see how despite feeling as though Jack did love her, she always had the nagging feeling about Eve, always wondered if he loved her (Eve) more. I found Eve’s part of the book truly fascinating. Eve’s story is the one that really gives the novel its backbone. It sets it all up for the ending, it explains everything that happened, and it was the catalyst for everything in the book, basically. It’s like it all began and it all ended with Eve.

I found the characters to be very fascinating, Dorothy Koomson is a wonderful character writer. Libby was just the right side of sympathetic. Her love for Jack was real and palpable and I did feel sorry for her that she always felt she was second best. Much like her, I could understand completely why she was desperate to know everything there was to know about Eve; who wouldn’t be in her position? Like I already mentioned above, I did expect Jack to be some kind of monster but I was pleasantly surprised to find actually, he wasn’t that bad a person. I mean, it’s not entirely his fault that he loved Eve as much as he did, and despite Libby’s reservations and despite Jack’s wonderings too, I did believe he loved Libby on some level and I felt sympathy for him, too. Eve, though, was by far the most fascinating character. Her live, how she lived it, was compulsive reading. The revelations about her life stunned me, and I’m still not 100% sure how I felt about Eve. There’s part of me that understands her life choices, understands everything she went through but there was a part of me – a very large part of me – that was disgusted with it all. I think Koomson balanced it nicely, but it did still make me feel slightly uncomfortable, just through the choices Eve had to make.

The Woman He Loved Before was an excellent read. Usually I’m fairly good at ‘making’ the endings of novels. I didn’t make this one. I had no idea that twist was coming, although when it was revealed there’s part of me that did say “Well it had to happen, didn’t it?” but still, it was a total and utter shock. Although the novel was brilliant, I do have to question a few points. I know it’s fiction, so Koomson has creative license, but at the beginning of the book there are some police mentioned, they come to see Libby in fact and after that, they disappear. I found that baffling. The reasons they gave for coming to see Libby tell me they wouldn’t have given it up and I found it very strange that that particular plot line wasn’t put to bed properly. Either Koomson should have given it its due or she should have scrapped it because the way it was, was nonsensical and it felt unfinished. Apart from that, this was another gripping, excellent read. It must be draining to write a book like this; I was drained just reading it. I’m happy I read it though, Koomson is a master storyteller and I can’t wait for her next novel. Her books are absolute must-reads.