Pieces of Her (Andrea Oliver #1) – Book Review

What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?

Andrea knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?

But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.

The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .

Have you watched the Netflix series? Well before I dwell into the differences between the Netflix and the book, let me tell you about the book.

I think this would be my fourth or fifth book written by Karin Slaughter. And so, when I read this book, I can guarantee that this book is the least violent book written by Karin Slaughter as most of her books are too gory and disturbing at times to read (but I enjoyed reading her books though)

The story starts with Andy Oliver who is working as a 911 dispatcher meeting for a brunch with Laura Oliver in a diner. While the mother and daughter duo are having brunch, a shooting incident takes place, killing another mother and daughter and Laura tackling the shooter, instantly killing him. This became a widespread news coverage and soon an unknown assailant comes and attacks Laura and Andrea with Laura giving directions to Andy to a garage and where she should go. And soon, Andy finds the car and finds a car, loaded with cash and polaroids of her own mother and state identities. Who is her mother actually?

To be honest, I did like this book but not as much as the other books. This was more like a cat and mouse chase game story dividing between present day set in 2018 and past set in 1987. I do like reading about the past scenes as I found these parts more interesting than the present day ones. I do like how the relationship between Andrea and her mother became better and some of the parts in the book kept me at the edge.

Now there’s a TV series based on this book and if you have watched the series, it is slightly different from the book. I will not tell what the differences are but I found the book better than the TV series in general. Overall this book worth four stars.