We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

Read by Becca Tobin

Published August 2021 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary:

Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice? 

Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life?

My Thoughts:

Some mystery/thriller books that hold up long after they're first published. Despite getting great reviews, I'm not sure this book will be one of those, although it's certainly a wild ride. 

Emily and Kristen become best friends in college and, because they both have families their in no rush to spend time with, they'll travel the world during breaks from school, trips that continue years after they've finished school. But as a trip to Chile devolves into burying a body in the middle of nowhere, Bartz gradually reveals that this is not the first time these two young women have found themselves getting rid of the body of a man who attacked one of them only a year earlier. And here's where I first started having problems with this book. 

If you'd found yourself hiding the body of a man because you felt certain that a foreign justice system wouldn't buy that it was self-defense, how quickly would you be willing to travel to another foreign country? Even if you're answer is a year, and even if you're not yet thirty-years-old, would you even remotely considering going to your room with a total stranger in yet another foreign country? Or even in the same city you live in, for that matter? 

The two young women head home, Emily to Milwaukee, Kristen to Australia WITH A FAIRLY LARGE PIECE OF EVIDENCE IN HER LUGGAGE!!! Ok, yeah, you don't want it lying around to implicate you. But maybe drop it in the trash in the airport? These are only a couple of the things that raised questions for me within the first 100 pages of the book. Even after the young ladies returned home, there were so many times I wanted to slap Emily to wake her up. 

Normally I'd feel bad if I gave away this much about a mystery novel, but the publisher's summary gets you well into the book before they decide they've finally given you enough to lure you in.

Here's the thing, though - even with all of the issues that I had with this book, I raced to make sure I finished it before it automatically was returned to the library because I really needed to know how Bartz was going to resolve this. Was Kristen gaslighting Emily? Had Kristen killed before? Or was Emily burying memories that would acquit Kristen? The tension ratchets up and up and there seems to be no way either of these young women is getting away with what they did in Chile. Bartz did manage to keep me wondering until the end and she managed to throw in a couple of surprises I did not see coming. 

The verdict? Despite all of the issues I had with this one, there was still enough here to keep me reading and there's certainly a lot that book clubs would find to talk about. 

Bonus for me: Emily lived in the very neighborhood that my son and his wife lived in when they were in Milwaukee, she went to a beach we'd been to, and Bartz described the city in very much the same way that I would describe the downtown. It's always good to find that kind of connection in a book. 

Life: It Goes On - October 12

Happy Monday! We finally got the courage up to head out of town for a long weekend away and headed north to see my sister and her husband and only just arrived back a couple of hours ago, tired but feeling renewed. It was absolutely beautiful up there - we couldn't have timed it better for fall foliage. Although we couldn't stay with Mini-me and Ms S (did I tell you about the fire they had?), we also got to spend a few hours with them yesterday enjoying dinner and a fire. Everything in my suitcase smells like smoke after all of the time around fires this weekend but it was well worth it! 

Last Week I: 

 Listened To: It was all about the road trip playlists on Spotify this weekend - mostly the NPR Roadtrip Playlist. 

Watched: A fair amount of sports in the background but that's about it. 

Read: As usual, I didn't read nearly as much as I thought I would in the car. I always feel guilty if I'm reading while The Big Guy is driving. 

Made: Some brownies to take with us that I probably won't make again. My sister made delicious meals for us: crockpot chicken potpie, instant pot lasagna, and a beer cheese soup that I would eat once a week.

Enjoyed: See above! All of those trees are at my sister's house. That's us in the middle, taking our annual sister picture. You'll notice that she kindly let me work on a project while I was there. It was almost as hard for me to leave a project unfinished as it was for me to leave my sister! But she knows exactly what to do from here on and my brother-in-law will get the final Danish oil coat on and the brass hardware cleaned up - can't wait to see it when it's finished. 

Of course, loved spending time with my kids, too. Mini-me whipped up a mean potato leek soup, Ms. S taught me some about sourdough bread and gave me some of her starter, we got to see the smoke damage from the fire (although we couldn't go in the room where the fire actually happened), and our grand pets were all happy to be loved on. 

This Week I’m:  

Planning: My sis and BIL were getting rid of a bookcase (I have the mate already - they were built-ins in a lawyer's office and are at least a hundred years old) so you know I was happy to take that off their hands. It's going to go in my office and means I'll need to rearrange things quite a lot. But first I'll finally get around to getting those green walls painted white! My goal is to get it all put together by this time next week but BG is quick to remind me that my projects always take longer than I plan on them taking!

Thinking About: Going to bed early. Twenty hours of driving and three nights sleeping in beds that aren't mine have me longing to crawl into my bed early even if it means I'll be awake early. 

Feeling: Like I'm finally in the fall spirit. I might just join the R.I.P. Challenge after all. 

Looking forward to: Hoping for some warm evenings this week so we can catch up with friends. 

Question of the week: What did you do last week that brought you joy?

Life: It Goes On - October 4

We finally got to my sister's and brother-in-law's new house this last weekend (hence, no post on Sunday). Just the Big Guy and I were able to go but it did give us a little more flexibility; made a bit of an adventure of the trip north that included a trip to a book store where the owner gifts you a free book on your first visit. He asks about your reading preferences than chooses a book he think you'll enjoy from his inventory of used books. I think we both got winners. Of course, the benefit of this for him was that we felt obligated to buy a couple of books as well (as if I weren't already going to buy a book!). If you're ever in Red Wing, Minnesota (also home of Red Wing pottery and Red Wing boots), I highly recommend you check out Fair Trade Books.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: The Big Guy and I tried to listen to Jonis Agee's The Bones of Paradise on our trip but with our meandering up and semi-stressful ride home, we only got through one disc. So I'm listening to it this week as a read/listen combo.

Watching: Over the weekend we spent a good deal of time watching that river that my sister's property backs on to, a bonfire, and some football.

Reading: I have soooo many books to finish this week, between a library book due back soon and Netgalley books that are about to expire. I'm hoping to finish M. C. Beaton's The Witches' Tree today then it's on to Alice Hoffman's latest, The Rules of Magic, which is a sort of prequel to her Practical Magic.

Making: Tacos, coleslaw, steaks, fried apples, salads, and BLT's. We seem to be fighting the end of summer eating.

Planning: On spending most of the rest of my free time this week reading.

Thinking About: Getting my Halloween decorations out today.

Top to bottom, left to right: looking up at my sister's house from the river, getting love from one of their dogs who kind of loves me, the river my sister's house backs onto, on a wagon ride through an orchard, the guys at winery #1, BG and I at winery #2, and my sister and me at winery #1.

Enjoying: See collage.

Feeling: Like Menomonie is too far away, especially with winter just around the corner.

Looking forward to: Seeing The Avett Brothers in concert tomorrow night.

Question of the week: When someone asks you what you like to read, what's your quick answer? Can you even narrow it down?