Woman Down
Sounds like classic Hoover ... But reading this novel feels like walking through a house that got a quick flip before hitting the market ... Hoover’s style could be most neutrally described as 'unadorned' ... Woman Down dials her efficiency to an almost avant-garde extreme ... The erotic scenes are more choreographed than described; emotions tend to be telegraphed, not evoked ... This is writing as pure plot delivery ... Yet Woman Down could also be read as Hoover’s most personal work to date ... It’s hard not to notice that Hoover waxes most lyrical when her characters reflect on literary life. The monologues grow longer. The scenes are more richly grained.
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We’re not supposed to read too much IRL significance into the story of Petra, the author who’s the heroine of bestselling novelist Colleen Hoover’s new thriller Woman Down. This, even though Petra, like Hoover, is an author of novels in a range of genres, who starts writing as a hobby, gets popular and famous from it, earns more money than she ever expected, then has a brush with online controversy around a film adaptation of one of her novels and suffers a tremendous, emotionally debilitating, income-drying-up case of writer’s block ... Hoover’s prose is typically uneven, jumping back and forth from the general to the specific and the vague to the lurid in a way that you may find either charming or unprofessional, and that has often been ripe for online cherry-picking ... But the larger problem is the inciting issue in Woman Down. What Hoover has done in this latest novel—taken this stressful real-life situation she’s experienced and used the feelings it produced as the backdrop for a truly bonkers plot about deception and betrayal—is understandable but, despite the universality of people’s negativity about Online, feels a bit out of touch with the human experience ... Woman Down lacks the full Gothic savor of Hoover’s back catalog, and is worse for it. Hopefully we can get back to classic CoHo, and more interesting secrets, the next time around.
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A gripping romantic suspense that will keep you turning pages long into the night, or… morning. I’ve read Hoover’s work before, but the true genius of this novel is the artfully placed plot twists that propel you forward, right over the edge ... And it’s definitely the kind of rollercoaster thrill ride that results in an adrenaline rush and a wildly beating heart. I have this relationship with many of Hoover’s books. I’m thinking, is this a good idea? until I’m strapped into my seat and, by the time I get to the peak, I wouldn’t get off, even if I wanted to.
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