Deciding what audiobook to listen to requires its own special calculus, related to but distinct from the factors we consider when picking a book off a shelf. From the Book Review’s own endless listening, we will select and review a different title each week, from a range of genres, to help you decide. See you next Friday.
GONE TONIGHT, by Sarah Pekkanen. Read by Kate Mara.
Ruth Sterling, the mother in Sarah Pekkanen’s twisty, often jaw-dropping thriller, keeps a firm grip on her own life, and on that of her adult daughter, Catherine. But with Ruth in the throes of a health scare, Catherine begins to uncover the dark truths her mother has kept from her.
Pekkanen, who began her career as a best-selling author of literary fiction before going on to write multiple blockbuster thrillers with Greer Hendricks (“The Wife Between Us,” “An Anonymous Girl,” “You Are Not Alone”), expertly weaves the tales of Ruth’s and Catherine’s mutual deceptions. The two speak in alternating chapters, all narrated by the “House of Cards” actor Kate Mara, who switches seamlessly between both points of view, infusing each with distinct senses of mounting tension and unease.
Seeing the mother through the eyes of the daughter, and vice versa, allows for a layered reflection on intergenerational trauma. The unraveling of Ruth’s carefully constructed lies triggers a game of cat and mouse in which the cat and the mouse love each other — truly, deeply — but whose love is inescapably flawed. We spend as much time wishing for the women to escape each other as we do hoping they find their way back to each other. The “family secrets” category gets a triumphant update.
Clémence Michallon is the author of “The Quiet Tenant.”
GONE TONIGHT | By Sarah Pekkanen | Read by Kate Mara | Macmillan Audio | 10 hours, 9 minutes
