The Soulmate - Sally Hepworth - ★★

AUTHOR: Sally Hepworth

NARRATORS: Barrie Kreinik and Jessica Douglas-Henry

GENRE: Domestic Suspense

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: No soul, no mate. Better if read as a family drama than as a domestic thriller. Even better if you skip it. Hello once again from Outlier Island!

Story Synopsis:

Gabe and Pippa live in a cottage by a cliff along with their two little daughters. This cliff-side is unfortunately a suicide hotspot, and Gabe has become something of a local hero by rescuing people from jumping off to their deaths. But he doesn’t succeed in saving the latest person, a woman.

When Pippa learns that Gabe has not told her the entire truth and that he actually knew the victim, she begins to ask questions and discovers many new secrets. But Gabe is her soulmate, and it is her duty to keep him safe, isn’t it?

The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Pippa in two timelines – Then and Now, and also in the first person perspective of Amanda (the victim) in two timelines – Before and After.

Bookish Yays:

😌 The proceedings were quick. I didn’t even realise how the story went by. (That’s also because there was hardly any ‘story’, but let me not get into that in my ‘Yays’ section.)

😌 Amanda’s perspective is slightly better than Pippa’s in terms of impact. I like her and Max (her husband) better than Pippa and Gabe. (Which is quite a poor comparison, because I couldn’t stand Pippa or Gabe. Whoops…this is still the ‘Yays’ section!)

😌 The two little girls Freya and Asha are the only rays of sunshine in the murky mess of a book.

😌 The epilogue. The only sensible element in the whole book.

Bookish Nays:

😤 Pippa seemed to be living her life like a horse wearing blinders, with her eyes only on hot-hubby Gabe. Whatever he did is pardonable just because he is a gorgeous hunk with a mental health issue. Her family seems to have a distrust towards Gabe, but they too go with the flow and don’t say anything to Pippa.

😤 Amanda’s ghost seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Her ghostly voice serves as a convenient way of filling in the blanks that still-alive Pippa cannot tell us in her narration.

😤 No suspense, no mystery, no thrills, no logic! Only secrets and more secrets, that get sillier as the plot goes ahead. The whole novel would be over within a few chapters if everyone revealed the truth at the right time.

😤 The number of secrets in the book was closely matched by the number of coincidences. Imagine bumping into someone at just the right time, or finding an object that should have been near impossible to find the very day you decide to look for it! If only some of that luck rubbed off on me in my real life…Sigh!

😤 So many silly things in the plot! Who in their right mind would buy a house next to a cliff that is a suicide hotspot, especially if they have two four-year-old children? When the body of the wife of one of the richest men in town, a woman whose photo is clicked regularly by the paparazzi, is found, how come not a single police person recognises her immediately? What lawyer would keep things from the police and hope that they don’t find out about it, forgetting that the “secret” is not even a secret but the next logical step in the police investigation and it WILL come out!? I don’t want to go into spoilers, but many of the later revelations had me shaking my head in disbelief and/or rolling my eyes in frustration.

😤 The portrayal of mental health issues in this book is ridiculous, and borderline offensive to sufferers.

😤 The dialogues are also sometimes idiotic. Like, if I am talking to someone of my generation (say my husband or my friend), why would I say something like “We didn’t have the internet then.’ or ‘That was before social media.’ Don’t they know it, duhhhh!

The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 7 hrs 45 min, is narrated by Barrie Kreinik and Jessica Douglas-Henry. I am not sure which of them voiced which character, but both did an okay job. The one narrating Pippa was slightly better, but both narrators failed to narrate emotions convincingly. Their male voices were also not up to par. They were good at voicing the two women in neutral or mildly dramatic scenes, but when the emotions became intense, they didn’t convey the same feelings as the words. I find it very odd when narrators read out parts where a character “yelled” or “cried” in a perfectly regular voice.

Basically, the plot just reminded me of the famous line from one of Walter Scott’s plays: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” The whole book can be summed up in this quote, because that is what every single character does till we reach The End.

This was my first Sally Hepworth novel; so far, I have read only one short story by her (Uncharted Waters, and this too generated mixed feelings.) As of now, I don’t feel like picking up more of her works. Let’s see what the future holds.

I suppose this can be recommended to fans of the domestic suspense genre or of the author, because most of my thriller-loving friends have enjoyed it. The rest of you can join me here on Outlier Island, especially if you love logic as much as I do.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Soulmate”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook. Sorry this didn’t work out better.