All I Want - Darcey Bell

I enjoyed Darcey Bell's debut novel A Simple Favor. Her latest release is All I Want. 

Emma and Ben are a couple expecting their first child. They want out of New York City and put an offer in on an abandoned mansion in upstate New York. Getting an idea about the plot? Let me add this...the mansion has a storied past, the townsfolk are more than a little odd and Ben is away at work all week. And Emma finds a notebook in the attic....

All the pieces are there for a tale with a Gothic feel - a favorite genre of mine. 

The first part of the book is told from Emma's viewpoint. There is, of course, something quite wrong in Emma's new life as her relationship with her husband has changed. I got caught up in the story and wondered what would happen next.

Well, we next hear from Ben and then a third person. And for me, that's where All I Want jumped the shark. I don't want to provide spoilers, so I'll be deliberately obtuse. The plot was just too far fetched to be bought. But I wanted to see how things turned out. The last chapter? Completely ridiculous and disappointing.

Movies and theatre are a large part of All I Want's plot. Bell takes inspiration from some classic movies. You'll easily guess which ones. 

The prose are quite often short, staccato statements. Narratives end abruptly and then pick up in the next chapter leaving the listener to imagine what transpired in between. The writing just had a choppy feel to it. He said, she said. 

I chose to listen to All I Want. I often find I become more immersed in a book when I listen, rather than reading. If I was reading, I would have glossed over the choppy flow, but listening only amplified this.The readers were Kevin R. Free, Madeleine Maby and Emily Tremaine. They're all talented narrators that I have listened to in the past. They all turned in excellent performances. Their voices were clear and easy to understand. I did find the default speed to be a bit slow and bumped it up to 1.1. Hear for yourself - listen to an excerpt of All I Want.

I think I was expecting so much more after that stellar first book. A passing grade, but just.