Readers Guide to a Simple Favor

My Readers Guide to a Simple Favor discusses very rare that I pick up a book again after ditching it. But a comment from a friend got me to try this book again. Did my mind change? Will I see the movie?

Readers Guide to A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell

Table of Contents for Readers Guide to a Simple Favor

Jen’s Quick Take on a Simple Favor

Review of A Simple Favor (book)

Differences Between A Simple Favor: Book Vs Movie

A Simple Favor: Jen’s Quick Take

• Mom drama, friend rivalry, domestic suspense
• Great concept, not great execution
• Maybe destined to be optioned as a movie, which did the story better
• Published on March 21, 2017 by Harper

Review of A Simple Favor:

I love thrillers and stories with complex female characters. But I’ll cut to the chase: I didn’t find this book thrilling enough, mostly because it seriously lacked character development and didn’t make enough sense to build up enough suspense to thrill me. (Given the book’s 3.2 Goodreads rating, I guess I’m not the only one who felt this way.)

I started A Simple Favor back in March and stopped reading. Fast forward to August when a friend commented on my Goodreads review that she was reading it and convinced me to give it another try. So I looked for my ARC, couldn’t find it anywhere, and requested the book from the library.

My opinion didn’t really change. Stephanie is a “mommy blogger” so tedious and humorless that she had to be a parody. Or was she?

When Stephanie’s best friend goes missing, she decides to confide in her blog readers with a play-by-play. I kept wondering what her readers thought. Were they confused? Did they wish she’d drop the CSI routine and go back to posting first day of school photos?

The book could have made more of the dichotomy between the aspirational quality of lifestyle blogging and the increasing messiness of Stephanie’s life, but it didn’t. At times Stephanie would wonder what her readers would think of the various things she was doing irl, but we never knew what they thought about anything.

I also didn’t appreciate the tired mom stereotypes of glam “working” mom Emily vs. drab, dreary stay-at-home Stephanie. Being a mom is work. Blogging is work. I don’t recall the book mentioning whether Stephanie makes money from her blog – her “blogging” seems mainly like an excuse for the book to use her blog posts for narration.

Emily was just as flat a character as Stephanie, but with better clothes and different secrets. Again, that was the main problem with this book for me: no characters to get invested in.

Stuff did happen in the book, stuff that, if better handled, could have had the potential to be interesting.

Good plot reveals need to be set up — they should be both shocking but somehow inevitable, making you annoyed that you didn’t see them coming. The events of this story were sort of just … there. Plus,  a lot of them had already happened in the past. Not exciting.

Spoilers for A Simple Favor

Sean and Emily and her husband Sean had a harebrained plan to fake Emily’s death, and collect the insurance money to start a new life somewhere else.

But Emily’s body is found in a lake near the family’s cabin, her death is ruled a suicide. Sean really thinks that Emily is dead and starts an affair with Stephanie. But then Emily shows up alive.

How is this possible? Emily has a secret twin sister, Evelyn, as one does.

Evelyn is the dead woman from the lake.

Emily then convinces Stephanie to help her get rid of Evelyn’s body by telling her that Sean was abusive AND she murders the insurance agent investigating her (Evelyn’s) death.

It’s a LOT.

A Simple Favor Book vs Movie

• In the book, we get three POVs: Stephanie, Emily, and Sean. The movie is told through the droll narration of Stephanie, played by Anna Kendrick. Much better choice!
• In the movie, Stephanie is a much more creepy and layered character. Is she just quirky, or is she up to no good?
• In the book, Stephanie gets Emily to confess to her crimes on camera (that mommy blogging and vlogging came in handy)

Have you read the book? Seen the movie? Tell me what you think!