A gripping debut domestic suspense novel, The Favor explores with compassion and depth what can happen when women pushed to the limit take matters into their own hands.
Staying is dangerous. Leaving could be worse.
Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives.
They don’t—ever—find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop. They don’t—ever—discuss their problems and find common ground. They don’t—ever—acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped.
Because Leah understands that what’s inside a home can be more dangerous than what’s outside. Driving past McKenna’s house one night, she sees what she knows only too well herself from her own marriage: McKenna’s “perfect” husband is not what he seems. She decides to keep an eye out for McKenna, until one night, she intervenes.
Leah and McKenna have never met. But they will.
The Review
THE FAVOR By Nora Murphy
The Favor by Nora Murphy is a recent read of mine and it’s so much like other books it really doesn’t have an identity on its own.
In one pov, we meet Leah. Leah is an alcoholic who frequents liquor stores and has a real affinity for vodka.
One morning, while at her favorite store she sees a woman (McKenna) who captures her attention and fires up a rapid obsession.
Ultimately she decides to follow this woman home from the store. And while on this stalker expedition something happens that only increases the obsession.
The other pov, McKenna is a struggling housewife. Her husband is strict and controlling. Her character is written like a fawn. Obeying him and swaying in his wind. She doesn’t know if she’s coming or going or if she has permission to do either.
What McKenna doesn’t know is that she and Leah have a lot more in common than would seem and that commonality is exactly why Leah is obsessed with McKenna and more specifically McKenna’s marriage.
The characters lack depth and feel one-dimensional and flat. It’s possible that they are written too similarly.
And there’s a turn(not a twist) that doesn’t make sense to how the characters’ stories were constructed. And once that happened I doubted everything the characters did and said.
Overall, it was very unbelievable even for a thriller.
THE FAVOR is a ⭐️⭐️ read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy!
Leave a Reply