Unraveling Oliver
Ratings6
Average rating3.8
"In this "compelling, clever, and dark" (Heat magazine) thriller, a man's shocking act of savagery stuns a local community-and the revelations that follow will keep you gripped until the very last page. This work of psychological suspense, a #1 bestseller in Ireland, is perfect for fans of Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Ware. "I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her." So begins Liz Nugent's astonishing debut novel--a chilling, elegantly crafted, and psychologically astute exploration of the nature of evil. Oliver Ryan, handsome, charismatic, and successful, has long been married to his devoted wife, Alice. Together they write and illustrate award-winning children's books; their life together one of enviable privilege and ease--until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers a blow to Alice that renders her unconscious, and subsequently beats her into a coma. In the aftermath of such an unthinkable event, as Alice hovers between life and death, the couple's friends, neighbors, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such a horrific act. As his story unfolds, layers are peeled away to reveal a life of shame, envy, deception, and masterful manipulation. With its alternating points of view and deft prose, Unraveling Oliver is "a page-turning, one-sitting read from a brand new master of psychological suspense" (Sunday Independent) that details how an ordinary man can transform into a sociopath"--
"A brilliant, compulsively readable debut novel -- and a #1 bestseller in the author's native Ireland -- about the truth behind a shocking act of savagery, and the profound lies and deceptions that come to light in its wake"--
Oliver Ryan, handsome, charismatic, and successful, has long been married to his devoted wife, Alice. Together they write and illustrate award-winning children's books; their life one of privilege and ease-- until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers a blow to Alice that renders her unconscious, and subsequently beats her into a coma. As Alice hovers between life and death, the couple's friends, neighbors, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such a horrific act.
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The book starts off with Oliver confessing that he has hit his wife Alice so badly that she has gone into a coma and might never come out of it. After that, we get to know their story through multiple POVs and timelines – young and teenage Oliver, Alice's first boyfriend, their neighbor, Oliver's old friends, Alice's mentally challenged brother and the details of the summer of 1973.
I really had high expectations from this book and I was disappointed. We are told that Oliver is a psychopath in the beginning itself and the book is supposed to unravel the truth about him, but I did not get that. The story is well written, multiple timelines are managed quite smoothly, and overall it was a good read. It never got boring and I really enjoyed a couple of the side characters. I also especially liked the subplot in France. But the book promised so much more, so I am a little dissatisfied.
I read this right on the tails of finishing The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronsen. Though not planned, it felt like the perfect warmup read before encountering Oliver. I appreciated how the author focused this story on the slow makings of a psychopath, how nature and nurture contribute to corrode human empathy.
I listened to this in audiobook format which was a great choice, as all the readers are Irish, and I'm really fond of audiobooks read by people who have lovely accents. Each POV got its own narrator, which also distinguished when the POV changed each time.
The story is overall one of those that relied intensely on withholding major plot items deliberately to create suspense. The story begins at the end, and slowly over the course of the novel, the pieces fall into place and you learn what actually happened and why. I do wonder how interesting this story would have been had it been told in order – surely beginning with Alice's attack and unraveling why it happened was a better choice than ending a novel with it. So for the choices the author made, the out-of-order nature of the story was probably necessary for it to work overall.
This book also suffers a little bit from unlikeable characters – there are two that I was genuinely fond of, and neither of them had a particularly good story arc for themselves, but were rather side characters that were unfortunately caught in the web of Oliver's story.
Overall I think I enjoyed it as much for the narrators on the audiobook as I did for the story itself, which was perfectly fine as suspense thrillers go, but not overwhelmingly good or unpredictable. I did find that I figured out some of the “twists” before they came, but it was overall still enjoyable. I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone, though.
