The Things You’ll Never Know by Ashley Audrain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Fiona and Adam are a married couple in their 40s with two children, Astrid who’s 16 and Pepper, 6. Adam takes Astrid on a weekend overnight camping trip at Fiona’s urging, while Fiona stays home with Pepper. Father-daughter/ Mother-son time. While Adam and Astrid are away, Fiona dies. Pepper is alone in the house not realizing Fiona is dead, thinking his mom is just asleep.

This is Fiona’s story, told by Fiona while she is dead.

I was engaged right away; it felt otherworldly with the dead narrator voicing the story, telling us her opinions and seeing everything unfold from her perspective. We see what she sees and hears in the present as if she’s a ghost in the room. We listen as she tells us about her memories, and her background. There are also chapters in flashback that round out the book bringing in other characters, her best friend Leah, her younger sister Nell, her husband’s therapist as he’s dealt with mental health issues from before their marriage.

What is this, a psychological murder mystery; a study in motherhood, parenthood, being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend? It’s about marriage, trauma, what happens when you’ve been in a long term relationship ; fantasies, dreams, everything on the surface seems pretty normal.

Some of the chapters are pretty gritty; there is some explicit sex described tastefully, the flashbacks weren’t always so clearcut so as a reader it can be a tiny bit confusing. There are twists and turns as you try to figure out how Fiona really died.

The five star rating – I gave this because I absolutely did not expect the ending. I usually always see foreshadow – at the end I did do a “oh yes, I should have seen this coming”… but I was so engrossed in the storytelling, I was busy feeling what the author was describing, that my logical brain did not process. I understood Fiona, have felt some of what she’s felt during that period of my life.

This is the second book I have read by Ashley Audrain – a CANADIAN author (yay). I read her debut “Push” about motherhood. I will have to go out and read the one that I missed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an ARC – happy to write a review as I absolutely flew through this read!



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