Audiobook Review: Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica

 

Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica

Narrators: Kirby Heyborne 

Kate Rudd

⭐⭐⭐

I have some mixed feelings about this book. There were a lot of things that did not seem like realistic reactions and behaviors of characters in this book. 

Spoilers ahead:

Quinn and Esther are roommates in Chicago and then one day Esther disappears. The police are not eager to help her and tell her that Esther will most likely turn up on her own in a few days.

Meanwhile, Alex lives in a small Michigan harbor town living his boring life until a new girl comes to town. 

I really liked Quinn at the beginning. She seemed like a normal girl with normal struggles. Then, her roommate disappears. At first, her behaviors are what I would consider typical of a person whose roommate disappears, but then she quickly becomes so self-absorbed and more concerned about herself than her missing roommate. The conclusions she makes about the clues she finds about Esther's disappearance don't always make any sense. For example, if your roommate wanted to kill you or have you killed, making it seem like you were kidnapped would not be an effective or successful way to go about it. Quinn confides in her coworker/crush, Ben, and he helps her try to piece together the mystery of Esther's disappearance, only, when the conclusion of the story is happening, he is nowhere to be found and then just suddenly shows up at the end. 

I did and do not really like Alex. From the beginning, he was "poor poor me" and "I'm too good for this boring small town". He finds all the local girls to be boring and uninteresting, yet he himself does not seem to be very interesting either. He gives all the women/girls around him nicknames because he can't be bothered to call them by their real names. The nicknames themselves aren't even very original or creative. He calls one girl "Braids" because she braids her hair. He also at one point claimed that smoke breaks were "sexist" because his coworkers who smoked got more frequent breaks and they just happen to be female. 

Also, he was a total creeper. Not only did he stalk and follow around "Pearl" (named because she wore a pearl bracelet) for several days, he also followed and stalked the local psychologist because he jumped to some false conclusions about him. 

I did stick this book out until the ending because I was dying to find out what happened and I did start to figure out the ending before the big reveal, but I don't know that I would have guessed that ending from how the book started out. 

Narrator reviews: 

Kirby Heyborne: Kirby has narrated over 200 books. I recognized his voice right away from a couple of Abbi Glines books I had listened to in the past. He has a great voice, speaks very well, and has a great accent which makes listening to him very enjoyable.

Kate Rudd: Kate has also narrated over 200 books. Her voice also sounded very familiar to me, but I have not been able to figure out from where as of writing this. I also enjoyed her narration and she gave great voice to Quinn's character and I thought she was perfect for the part.