Review: In Her Words by J.S. Ellis

In Her Words by J.S Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sophie is an alcoholic; because she is always under the influence she has the feel of a very unreliable narrator. This book is told from the perspective of Sophie’s diary entries. She is a successful woman, with a good husband, but something is missing in her life. As the book goes on we come to find out what she is missing and why she drinks all the time. While her husband is away on business she goes out with her best friend for a girls night, however the next day she finds herself in a ripped dress, covered in bruise,s and unable to remember anything from the evening before. As she tries to unravel the mystery from her crazy night out, she learns that she met up with the young men that live next door and they tell her she just drank too much and fell. She can tell they are hiding something and she is determined to find out the truth. As she searches for more information on her wild night out, she meets beautiful Michael who immediately captivates her. Their relationship quickly escalates from neighborly chat to something much more. Sophie continues to spiral out of control in her personal and professional life, especially when it comes to Michael, and then someone starts leaving her cryptic notes and following her. Michael eventually becomes possessive and jealous of her husband and they fight constantly. They are the definition of a toxic relationship.

As far as character development goes, I think given the fact that this was told via diary entries we really get a good glimpse into Sophie and her inner self. Michael was well developed, and for the small parts they played the side characters did their jobs. I found none of the characters to be particularly likeable in this book, despite that I found them oddly compelling and was completely invested in Sophie and her story. The twist at the end was creative.

I’m going to hide this next part because of potential spoilers. I enjoyed this book but there were a few things negatives that bothered me. (view spoiler)[ The main character is an alcoholic and that is used as a plot device. Many times her husband, lover, and best friend all call her out on her drinking and tell her she needs to stop, get help, or threaten rehab and then it is just left to continue. Alcoholism is a very real and serious disease and I’m probably taking this a little too personally, but I didn’t like the portrayal of an alcoholic main character that gets zero support from her loved ones. I also have an issue with the way the sexual assault in this book was handled and the victim shaming that took place afterwards because of the aforementioned alcoholism. (hide spoiler)]


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