AUTHOR: Sara Shepard
PUBLISHER: Atria Books
PUBLISHING DATE: April 17, 2018
FROM GOODREADS: When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.
Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?
The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.
MY THOUGHTS: I was super curious about "The Elizas" when it first came out but then quickly forgot about it. However, my library recently got a copy so when I saw it on the "New Releases" shelf, I quickly snatched it up. Eliza Fontaine has had a troubling past. She has just recovered from a brain tumor and the book she wrote during her recovery is about to release and is touted as the next bestseller. Yet, despite all this reason for joy and celebration, Eliza is fished out of the bottom of a pool by a Batmobile-driving man (seriously I can't make this stuff up) and all of her family and friends see this as just another failed suicide attempt - because Eliza can't swim. In fact, she also seems to have a habit of jumping in pools.
There is a serious mystery wrapped up in "The Elizas" which is complicated by, dare I say it, an unreliable narrator. Add in the whole book-within-a-book trope and it's amazing that I liked this book at all - but I did. Eliza thinks someone is out to kill her and as the book continues, the reader learns that apparently a lot of people are in on the conspiracy - and I mean A LOT.
"The Elizas" was full of twists and turns and although I had one of the major plot twists figured out about midway through, it didn't deter my enjoyment of the story. I couldn't wait to figure out what was going on and overall pleased with how Shepard was able to make such a crazy tale make sense in the end.
I've been burned by thrillers in the past (yes, I'm looking at you Final Girls and Chalk Man) but thankfully "The Elizas" doesn't fall into that category. Oh, and I hope Eliza invests some of her book money into swimming lessons because with all the "crazy" going on, she may need them again in the future.
RATING: 4 PAWS
