You Should Have Known

Grace Sachs is a successful therapist, mother to a young son and wife to a pediatric oncologist at a major cancer hospital. Grace is also the author of You Should Have Known, a book about women valuing their intuition and first impressions. It all hits the fan when the Grace's own marriage is in headlines. A bloody murder, a missing husband and unbelievable revelations rock Grace's world. She must heed her own advice and piece together what she knows and does not know. I am the type of reader that reads every word. I don't want to skip pages or miss any reactions. But this novel? Seriously encouraged me to skim. Of the 383 pages, 183 pages are unnecessary. There is so much background information and detail that gets in the way of what comes next, what really matters in the plot. While the formula of psychological thriller plus not knowing who your spouse really is had all the makings of a good novel, it was a struggle to finish reading. Literary Marie of Precision Reviews

This was one of the best books I've read in a while. The author did a great job of creating the thoughts and feelings of the main character, Grace. It was almost painful to keep reading at times but yet you wanted to know what was going on. I am going to look for more books by Ms. Korelitz.

In a word...wordy. Could have been good with about half the pages. Found Grace to be an out of touch self absorbed snob and very unlikeable. Only warmed up to her a little at the end.

Too wordy and tedious, I couldn't finish it.

I wanted to give it zero stars, but website wouldn't let me!! Wow, it has been years since I had to abandon a book, but this one was one of the worst books I have ever not finished. The grammar with all the parentheses was just too much!! I can do "wordy" when the text is relevant!! I cannot believe this was recommended by anyone!!

Could have been a really good book but is definately marred by really long irrelevant descriptions.

Although I found this book hard to put down, I feeel that the plot was bogged down with too many rambling details

I didn't like this book...I kept reading it and thought it would get better, but it never did.

This was the book that was chosen by my book club. I thought it was pretty predictable. It was also annoying that you never hear anything from the husband which would have given this story more dimension. Not my cup of tea, but if you like fictional stories, then maybe you will enjoy this.

Says it all. Lois

Great story and I was pleased with the ending.

The author's premise of a woman who writes a book telling women that they have only themselves to blame if their husbands aren't who they thought when they got married made my group not like the character of Grace initially. I know I didn't. As the book goes on, and Grace has become the pupil her book is directed at, instead of the teacher, you start to feel bad for her. I don't want to give any plot points away, but at one point you really wonder how, as a Counselor to others, she missed all of these signs in her own relationship. It was only after she rallies around her son, and her relationship with her father is repaired do I start to believe that she has learned her lesson, and I'm able to embrace her character. I truly believe that this was the author's purpose. Jean Hanff Korelitz put the ring in my nose and led me down this psychological pathway. We, the reader are supposed to hate the protagonist, even though she isn't a horrible person. Bravo, because all of my book club did, and some carried it through to the end of the book. This doesn't mean we hated the book. Far from it, in fact! We were all uncomfortable witnessing the naïveté Grace exhibited, and angry that she wore such big blinders. I was fascinated with the fictional book that Grace was writing. Do we women also put blinders on when we enter a relationship? Are we so happy to have found a man to settle down with, who will accept the faults we see in ourselves, and hope he doesn't see them, and overlook his faults? It made all of us think back to the beginnings of our own relationships. Of course, at our table, none of us disclosed those faults, but we all nodded in agreement that some were deemed not as important. That was a fascinating side note to the book club discussion, which is part of what makes them so fun. The unwinding of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Grace's husband was exacting in its precision. I recommend this book to those of you who love psychological thrillers. This is a very good one, and the author makes every detail count, so don't skip anything!

I'm 63 pages in to this book & wondering what this book is about.  So far, no discernable plot has materialized.  Had to re-read the overview on the B&N website to remember why I thought this was a book I wanted to read.  So...63 pages in, you will still be wondering where this book is going. 

Author couldn't decide if she was writing a psychological thriller or a meandering meditation on feelings. Feelings won out to the detriment of the plot. Also, although the main character is only supposed to be about 37 or 38, she acts like she's completely ignorant of all technology. What 38 year old doesnt know how turn on a computer? Reads like the author was remembering her own time living in NYC, in an era before the iPhone, which leads to a weird sense of time disphoria. Like the story should have been taking place in the mid eighties. One example is the European violin teacher who came to the US with his wife after "the war"--anyone old enough to do that would now be in their 90s! Not completely outside possibility that he would still be teaching violin, but not very likely either. Also, giving someone a hedge fund job at Bear Sterns. That was one of the first Investment Banks to go down after Lehmann Bros. A quick Google search could have cleared that up. The ending was a complete let down. The main character just skips out of NYC, abandoning her therapy practice in the process, with not a SINGLE consequence! Not one! A long series of happy-happy serendipitous coincidences solves all problems without the main character making any meaningful changes or having a single original thought! Disappointing. The comparisons to "Gone Girl" are hyperbole. Don't be fooled.

As many have mentioned, this book needs editing. I had to stop reading it less than halfway thru. The amount of reading someone has to go through this book is not worth knowing the outcome of the story.

too wordy and boring, could not connect to characters

Interesting storyline, could have been told in a shorter book.

Grace Reinhart Sachs is a therapist, and she has written a yet-to-be-published controversial book about relationships between men and women. Her book states basically that women should trust their instincts better, and recognise the signs that will lead to trouble later on in the relationship.  YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN is a very well written book, very literate. Grace, her husband Jonathan, and their 12-year old son Henry live in Manhattan. The author relates in detail their daily life and that of their wealthy and often superficial acquaintances. Grace is not really an active participant in her own life; life happens around her, she mostly goes through the motions although she’s an excellent therapist. Then a shocking and totally unexpected event shakes Grace’s world, and she must re-evaluate everything she believed in. Indeed, they should have known. YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN is an introspective look at a professional woman’s life and how she reacts to an earth shattering event.

Ok