Customer Reviews

Still Life

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall? Unfortunately for wealthy, beautiful and happily married Casey Marshall she has become that proverbial fly. After being hit by a van at 50 mph and breaking nearly every bone in her body she is left in a coma. The police suspect foul play and since this is Joy Fielding of course there's foul play. Casey cannot move her body and cannot open her eyes. Imagine how terrifying that must be. Trapped! But Casey can hear. She can hear everything. Her two best friends, her troubled younger sister, and her adoring husband come in and out of her hospital room for months. Conversations, arguments and confessions are open for Casey's ears. Between visits, Casey spends her time remembering childhood moments with her dysfunctional family and many nannies, as well as, how she met her best friends and her husband. The stories are both touching and sad. As Casey struggles to open her eyes and make contact with the world the attempted killer becomes clear to the reader. I was shocked by the revelation. The suspense in this book is sometimes too much. I was literally on the edge of my seat. I wanted to scream "Wake up now!" The ending was a little disappointing. I wanted more of a confrontation between the attempted killer and victim. Overall, loved it! Great suspense.

Here is yet another Fielding novel, after Charley's Web: A Novel that has not lived up to my expectations. I've been quite disappointed in the past several books by an author whose novels I used to automatically purchase. One of the publisher reviews called Still Life "a heart-pounding mainstream thriller"" - I'm not sure what book with that title the person was referring to, but it wasn't this one.

In still another tired "damsel in distress" tale, this one features Casey Marshall (typical stunning rich talented young woman of contemporary romance fiction with a wealthy, handsome lawyer husband) who has the misfortune of being the victim of a hit and run accident. Premise: was it really an accident or was it attempted murder?

The story really never gets much out of the starting gate. During most of the book, Casey lies in a bed in the hospital or at her home - completely motionless and without any ability to see or interact with the characters that gather and talk around her bed. (As a nurse I've often been told that persons in coma can hear and that they could possibly understand what is happening around them although there is a lot of speculation as to whether or not that is true since the only cases that provide evidence are the ones where the person eventually wakes up and then can related their personal experience and tell whether or not they were aware during their coma state.) Regardless of the medical accuracy, I just made myself suspend any disbelief at the description of Casey's injuries and just read the book discounting the science.

The accident occurs early in the novel and then we meander through some back-story of Casey's childhood (which incidentally has nothing whatsoever to do with the development of the characters or furthering the plot) and learn about her absent, alcoholic mother and philandering playboy father. It was as if the author was adding some fluff to an old tried and true formula of the "accident disguised as attempted murder" and/or "dastardly acquaintance after the money" plot lines. We learn who arranged this "accident" very early in the book and then we figure out that the rest of the book is going to be predictable and that it's going to end just as we suspect it will. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that everything turns out exactly as guessed before reading page two.

All in all it was an OK read. If you must read it, borrow, don't buy.

I started this book on a lazy Saturday morning and read the day away and late into the night, finishing around midnight-thirty. And then I lay awake, looking at the dark ceiling, trying to imagine what it would be like to be in a coma and being able to hear everything that's going on around you, but not being able to do anything about it. You'd feel so vulnerable. And that's what happens to Casey Marshal. She's in an accident and winds up like that.

However, while listening to everything that's going on around her she finds out that someone had tried to kill her, but she doesn't know who. Could it have been her sister Drew, who resents Casey for controlling her inheritance? Could it have been her friend Janine, who seems to resent Casey for pulling out of their business partnership and forming her own very successful company? Or could it have been her loving husband who cheats at golf? Could that be the only cheating he's been doing? Does he want her money?

There are plenty of good suspects here and I was guessing, changing my mind, then guessing again throughout the book. This is a terrific mystery thriller, one I couldn't put down, one I think will keep you up burning the midnight oil.

If you like Cosmo magazine, soap operas or cheesy romance books with unrealistic characters...you'll find something to like about this book. If you like realistic characters with depth and genuine personality, you might want to pass on this one. I almost stopped reading it after the first few chapters because of how one-dimensional the characters were. But I carried on and the pace did pick up some and mid-book I was thinking well, it's not that bad. Even though the dialogue and plot were still highly unlikely, at least the plot kept me guessing a little. But towards the end it just started to nosedive. At the end I rolled my eyes and was already looking for a new book to read that would hopefully leave me feeling more satisfied than this one did.

As you probably know from the product description, this is the story of a woman who is in a coma after a car accident that, we soon learn, was not really an accident. She can hear people talking around her but otherwise can't see or move. In this way she can try to figure out who tried to kill her (as people either don't realize that she can understand them, or don't care since they are planning to finish killing her anyway).

It's a good story idea, but the book is a bit too lightweight for my taste. The characters are kind of one dimensional and spend too much time talking about money and clothes. A bit hard for me to identify with.

It gets somewhat better after the protagonist learns who tried to kill her, and slowly regains the ability to move. There is then a suspenseful race: can she save herself before the villain returns to finish the job?

However I was hoping for something a little more complex. The villain could have been less purely evil. Even better, there could have been more ambiguity and confusion in the protagonist's mind as to what she is really hearing as opposed to what she is dreaming or hearing on TV, with everything then getting more or less cleared up at the end in a series of subtle revelations. (I'm thinking in the direction of the movie Mulholland Drive here.) This could have led to a much more interesting book, although it would have been a lot harder to write and wouldn't sell so many copies.

Anyway, this book is good for a quick, amusing read, if one is either tired from reading more challenging material, or in a high distraction environment.

I was very disappointed with this. It's the second book I've read by Ms. Fielding...I'm trying to get a "feel" for this new author in my sphere. (Didn't particularly care for THE WILD ZONE but have to admit I was wowed by the ending.)

From the start in this book, I suspected the suspect. I expected some kind of "twist" to prove me wrong, but was disappointed at the end. The sister was too over-the-top to be believed so it was no surprise that she kinda saved the day. I felt there was too much digressing into Casey's past...details that really did not propel the story or make it more interesting.

Am about to start MAD RIVER ROAD and HEARTSTOPPER. If I'm not satisfied, that's it for me.

At 32-years-old Casey Marshall is beautiful, intelligent, extremely wealthy, and married to a loving, dedicated husband. Life is great until the day her life is forever changed after being struck by a car; an event that leaves her in a coma.

But Casey isn't your typical coma patient. While she can't move, see, or feel, she can hear everything going on around her.

While police determine that what happened to Casey wasn't an accident, her husband, sister and two best friends can't imagine who would want to hurt Casey - especially to wish her dead.

As Casey struggles to let those around her know that she is indeed in their presence - even if in audio only - and regain her other lost senses, she learns that she doesn't know her loved ones as well as she thought she did.

Surprises abounded in Still Life: A Novel, an edge-of-seat, can't-put-it-down thriller from Joy Fielding.

I absolutely love a mystery and too often these days I am able to figure out the "whodunnit" long before the end. So what I particularly liked about Still Life was that the "who" was answered early, as well as they "why," but the real cliffhanger includes "whens" and "ifs." I was left guessing until the next to the last chapter.

Still Life: A Novel is most definitely in the top 10 of my favorite thriller novels for 2009. If this is a genre you enjoy, you'll want to read Still Life by Joy Fielding.

Joy Fielding's latest book Still Life has just been released. And like many of her previous novels, it's sure to be a bestseller.

Casey Marshall is 'that' girl. Beautiful, wealthy, successful in everything she attempts - business and love, with a great life and wonderful friends. She is leaving a restaurant after lunching with friends when she is hit by an SUV that flees the scene. Miraculously Casey isn't dead - but she is in a coma.

Here's the great twist - she can hear everything going on around her, but can't respond, verbally or physically. Once Casey had thought it would be great fun in life "to be able to eavesdrop, to listen in on private conversations, to find out what people were really thinking, to discover their deepest secrets, witness what they did when they assumed they were alone."

But then she hears the detective in charge of her case say that it may not have been an accident, it may have been an attempt on her life. Who could want her dead? Her loving husband, her troubled sister, her two best friends, someone from work?

"How bitterly ironic... that her main reason for living had come down to finding out who wanted her dead."

The entire story is based around Casey - what she can hear and what she learns about those closest to her. We learn the back story through her memories.

If you're looking for a terrifically entertaining read this is definitely a good choice. Not an overly elaborate whodunit and the characters are a bit formulaic, but a satisfying page turner, perfect for a bit of escapist reading on the beach or on a rainy day.

This is one of those quick beach reads with predictable characters and plot. Casey's predicament is interesting and has potential but the cookie cutter characters here left me wanting. There's enough tension to keep the plot moving quickly but the cast of characters came across rather flat and one-dimensional. The ending is also a bit convenient. I've enjoyed Fielding's previous works. This one just didn't deliver.

Wow! As an author, I thought this was an ambitious and well-done book. Most of the novel was written from the viewpoint of a woman in a coma - a very difficult project for a writer to undertake, but Joy Fielding pulled it off. It's not easy to create suspense, compelling description, and snappy dialogue when the heroine is in a coma and unable to communicate, see, or move. This was a page turner that kept me glued until the ending.