Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent ★★★★

The first sentence knocks you off your feet and has you latch on until the end. Oliver Ryan has just slugged his wife Alice and surprises himself but not in ways you may think. The rest of the story is a journey back in time to learn more about how Oliver and Alice arrived at this point.

It’s not always a traditionally linear look back but it’s never, ever confusing. Sort of like how someone would tell a story and take detours that matter and make the telling more engaging. There are quite a few characters taking the narrative and I’m so very, very glad multiple narrators were used in the audio performance. They all seemed to nail their characters (personality, attitudes, accents and dialects) and I always knew who was sharing. The story itself was just fascinating, challenging my opinion of Oliver at very juncture and ending with me having mixed feelings about him, even fighting with myself about where I landed.

This would be an excellent book for discussion and I wish I’d partnered with someone. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel as the writing is seamless and the charactizations are outstanding. While it’s pretty short, it definitely unravels Oliver almost perfectly as well as most of those who came within his orbit. I highly recommend this psychological thriller as it surpassed all my expectations. And, don’t miss the opportunity to listen to it if you decide to add it to your shelf. That experience was excellent and I finished it in one day.