Summary: From the author of critically acclaimed What Alice Forgot comes a wonderfully fun, insightful novel about the crazy things we do for love. ~penguin.com
Review: I've been sitting on The Hypnotist's Love Story
for a few months and it's not because I didn't want to read it but because I had a few other pressing novels. The premise of the book sounded interesting and while overall it didn't disappoint, the characters did. At first I found Ellen sweet and naive, even though she's in her mid-thirties. By the end of the book I found her annoying and saccharine. I found it hard to believe that a woman would be o.k. with another woman invading her space and her relationship. Even if Ellen was intrigued by Saskia at first, I would have bet overtime she would have tired of it, but she really never did. I found this to be unrealistic. I found Ellen herself to be doing some things out of character after falling in love with Patrick. The things she did bothered me more than Saskia stalking him. Although it does come back to bite her at certain points in the novel.I found Patrick to be annoying. For most of the book I believed that even having a stalker annoyed him that he actually gained pleasure from it as well. I thought he liked the attention and that is why he didn't ever go to the police. It wasn't until towards the end of the book that we found out why he let the stalking carry on for so long. It was interesting to hear his reasoning even if I didn't believe it.
The most interesting and well-written character was Saskia. As Patrick's ex-girlfriend and stalker, she was the most flushed out. You didn't agree with her tactics but you almost understood why she was so consumed with not letting go. You wanted her to get the help she so obviously needed. She just wanted to be loved and to love. In some relationships there is always one person who cares more and loves more, in Patrick and Saskia's it was her.
I found the practice of hypnotherapy to be intriguing and one of the best things I came away with from the book is that the power of the mind is extremely strong. The power to influence people can be tapped into. I liked that it was central to the novel. If Ellen hadn't been a hypnotherapist I definitely don't think the story would have worked as well.
I know that quite a few people loved this book but I didn't. I didn't dislike it but it's not one I'll be recommending to people. I will be checking out Ms. Moriarty's other novels because I did appreciate the way she told this story. I imagine her other novels are written/told in a similar way.
Final Take: 3/5
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