No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall

e-Audio, 10:19:53
Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
Release Date: January 23, 2024
Published by: Flatiron Books
Read from: January 3-5, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received a copy of this audiobook from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Child Abuse, Murder, Death of a Parent, Drug Use, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Mention of a Miscarriage (not on page and not the MC)
For Readers Interested In: Thrillers, Bombshell/Cliffhanger Ending, Realistic Fiction, Adult

     The author of What Lies in the Woods returns with a novel about three sisters, two murders, and too many secrets to count.
     Emma hasn’t told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn’t spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she’s pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.
     That’s when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents’ house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can’t sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.
     Were murdered.
     And that some people say Emma did it.
     Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

*MY THOUGHTS*

Kate Alice Marshall is so weird and I love it. I really wouldn’t have her any other way. I think I would have enjoyed this a little more if I hadn’t read something similar at the end of last year, but here we are. It wasn’t bad, but it just seemed too similar to something else.

Ok so boom, you just found out that your partner has been lied to you about a significant amount of money and at the worst possible time, because you just found out you were pregnant. So the only thing left to do is go to the house where you lived as a child. Back to the house where they suspect you of killing your parents. And that’s basically the synopsis of this book. And man let me tell you, what you think you know…. You don’t lol

So I was able to guess who the culprit of each mystery was, but it pissed me off because of the way they did it. When you read it you’ll understand what I mean. Like how did no one figure out this? And the fact that all of the dominoes depended on one thing? That was crazy. And the way the rest of the story played out was just crazy. And then when all the answers start coming out, it was nothing that I thought it was. So basically I got the person, but the reason why was outta nowhere.

The characters in this were all crazy. And I mean every single one of them. From every person in town to the people that were involved, to just every last one of them. They were all terrible. Their parents more so than the others. This is a character driven book, so if you’re more into the plot movement, you might not catch on, but by watching them and the way they interact, will tell you everything you need to know. But I will say Marshall writes it in a way where you won’t really know for sure until she wants you to. (Unless you’re me lol)

The audio was really good as well. I’ve listened to other audios from her and I liked them all as well. Vacker is a great narrator and does well with making sure the feelings and intonation is there. Definitely makes each story she narrates feel real.

This was kinda weird, but I still enjoyed it. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give it away, but just know if you want to read this, you’ll have to pay attention to the characters to figure things out before the other people in the story. Now the other book, if you’ve read it, let me know if you drew the same parallels as me!

Overall, I give this