I recently read an ARC of One Tuesday, Early by Annalisa Crawford. This book, which comes out on May 14, was odd and confusing at times. If you like paranormal books, you may like it, though.
What You Should Know
This story is told in alternating chapters. Lexi wakes up one Tuesday, and everyone has disappeared. The only other living thing that she sees is a black cat. She wanders aimlessly around town. Finn, her boyfriend, wakes up that same Tuesday, and Lexi is missing.
My Thoughts
This is a hard book to really rate. It’s one of those books where I kept reading because I wanted to know how it would end, but the whole time, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be disappointed by the ending.
While this is a fairly short book, it dragged on in places. I’m generally not a huge fan of novellas, but I feel like this could have been a novella with most of the book being Finn’s story. While I get why Lexi’s part of the story was included, I think it easily could have been put maybe once every five or six chapters instead of every other chapter.
Lexi’s part of the story was also written in second person, (you, your, and such), which was a bit odd and confusing. Maybe, we were supposed to feel closer to her by becoming her, but it didn’t work for me.
Why It Felt So Confusing
One big issue for me was that Lexi’s family (an aunt) and friends didn’t push more to find out what happened to her. Along with that, even though her disappearance was in the news, it never felt like the police took her disappearance very seriously. Also, the way things are resolved in the end felt a bit too convenient and very anticlimactic.
I realize that the overall plot was meant to be a bit confusing. We weren’t meant to make the connection between the two stories too quickly. Yet, I feel like some parts of it just felt completely illogical. Those parts needed some work.
Reader Warning
As a warning to readers, there is quite a bit of swearing in this book. It’s not on every page, but it happens throughout the whole book, probably on average about 2-3 times per chapter. There’s no sexual content. I don’t even think you get any kissing between characters. The violence is mild at worst.
Was It Worth the Confusing Elements?
I would not recommend this book. It honestly wasn’t the story that I was expecting. Without going into too much detail, I will say that it doesn’t have a happy ending. Don’t read on if you don’t want the ending ruined.
SPOILER ALERT
It’s clear early on that Lexi’s dead. I thought maybe she’d gone out with friends and been murdered on the way home. Nope. She got into an argument with Finn. Let’s just say that they don’t appear to have a healthy relationship at all. During the argument, she falls down the stairs and dies. After her death, both of them blame themselves. He pushed her. She exaggerated the extent of the push to try to make him feel guilty. Because she overexaggerated the push, she ends up falling to her death instead. When he realizes what happened, he buries her body in the backyard.
This is the really confusing part for me. There’s definitely blood at the bottom of the stairs. It even talks about it. When Lexi goes missing, I feel like Finn would have been the top suspect in her disappearance. After she goes missing, he doesn’t even report her missing for several days. Yet, he’s never seriously investigated as a suspect until the very end of the novel, which is years after her death.
