Pieces of Her: A Novel
Now on Netflix! Starring Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote!
Mother. Hero. Liar. Killer. How can you tell when all you have is... Pieces of Her.
What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?
Andrea Oliver knows everything about her mother Laura. She's knows she's spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Gullaway Island; she knows she's never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she's never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don't we?
But all that changes when a Saturday afternoon trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she's been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one will ever find her. But now she's been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.
Twenty-four hours later Laura is in the hospital, shot by an intruder who's spent thirty years trying to track her down and discover what she knows. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumbs of her mother's past. And if she can't uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
This plot was just so well planned out. The schemes, story lines, background, evolution of it all was magnificent.
Slaughter definitely is one of my favourite authors thus far.
Andrea Oliver is drifting. She failed to complete her degree in theater arts or establish a thriving career. Before she moved back home to assist her mother, Laura, as she struggled to survive cancer, she was floundering in New York. Now she's working as a police dispatcher and is mistaken for a police officer when a deranged gunman opens fire in a restaurant. As if the attack isn't shocking enough, Andrea is stunned when her mother takes charge of the scene with amazing calm and reserve. And then gives Andrea specific instruction about what not to say to the police. And orders Andrea to move out of the garage apartment on Laura's property. Immediately.
Before Andrea can process those events, she overhears an intruder's conversation with her mother. Once again, Laura's composure does not waiver, even as she is again give Andrea specific instructions. To run. And stop at a storage facility where she will find a vehicle with which to do so. Once Andrea navigates her way to that storage facility, she finds much more than a vintage vehicle that appears to have barely been driven. She learns that the vehicle is registered to a woman whose name she has never heard before with a Canadian address and her mother stores a lot more than the car in that facility. Andrea is also certain that she is being followed, but has no idea why.
Thus begins Andrea's pulse-pounding adventure -- a journey across several state lines during which she meets people from her mother's past and gradually learns the truth about Laura's life before Andrea's birth, as well as her own history as she comes to realize that everything her mother told her as she was growing up was fiction.
Slaughter's alternating chapters detail Andrea's contemporary experiences and the events that took place in 1986 when Laura had a different name, career, and a mission at odds with the woman she later became. Her family's history and dysfunction are explored, as are the strengths and weaknesses of character that propelled Laura to became involved and align herself with a group of individuals determined to bring about change. Slaughter reveals that Laura was not an unwilling participant, although she was young, gullible, and lacking in self-esteem. Much like Andrea. And she has spent every day since the events that unfolded more than 30 years ago living with the consequences, among them an inability to be her authentic self. "She had dozens, even hundreds, of friends, but not one single person knew all of the pieces of her."
Slaugher's characters are complex, deeply flawed, and, bluntly, sometimes difficult to care about, much less relate to. But the are always fascinating and intriguing, even as they are engaging in behaviors that are ill-conceived and, worse, downright despicable. Are they redeemable? Readers will have to decide for themselves. They are undeniably products of their upbringings and environments. Laura was surrounded by tragedy as a young woman and then shrouded her daughter in deception and lies. Who was she trying to protect? Herself or her daughter? Slaughter keeps readers guessing about the full truth right up to the riveting, clever, and extremely satisfying conclusion.
Slaughter always delivers an engrossing and thought-provoking story -- and Pieces of Her is no exception.
Thanks to Harper Collins Publishers for a copy of the book.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.