Name: Absent in the Spring
ISBN: 9780754054795

Ann Beach

Agatha Christie

Absent in the Spring

Absent in the Spring (Westmacott)

This book… this book.. I don’t really know what to say. It was eternally frustrating reading all of Joan’s thoughts and seeing all of the lies she told herself. Utterly transparent, she was judgmental and only cared about living life at a surface level. She wasn’t a likeable character. The way she describes her family, her friends, without knowing anything about them. 

I was waiting for her breakthrough, for her to finally realize the error in her ways. We finally get this on her escape to the desert. She was finally confronted with her demons and with everything she’d been trying to avoid. This great moment of enlightenment. I said “FINALLY” she’s realized, she’s late but she can still change.

 Her whole journey spent thinking on getting Rodney’s forgiveness for loving him but STILL stifling his hopes and dreams. I knew it would be too good to be true, but not in the way it happened. I thought Rodney would be dead and her chance for forgiveness gone. That would have been better. I should know better than any how easy it is to get sucked into the life you’ve been living. How challenging it is to change who you’ve been. It takes courage. You have this amazing moment of clarity but then you go right back to the shitty person you were before. It’s who you’ve been for so long, how do you escape it?

When she visited Averil, god I still thought then that this would be her redemption, the conversation was stagnant. I was hoping at any moment she would blurt out her revelation, but no. I STILL had hope for her when she visited Rodney, hoping that if anyone will make her face herself it would be her treatment towards him. 

Then she just slipped right back into who she had been all along. She didn’t have the courage to admit it to him. She started doubting herself and calling herself crazy for those thoughts. That there’s no way that her epiphany meant anything. But it’s just effortless to return to the comfort of who you were. You have to actively challenge yourself or you’ll just be stuck. 

God this book just wrecked me. It’s just so awful. So awful to get so close to a great happiness. She had it within her grasp but she just couldn’t hold on. So awful to just return to the shell of a person you were before. So much potential wasted. 

I loved this book because of the ending though. It shows you human nature for what it is. All the lies we tell ourselves to feel better about the shitty existences we’re living. This is an annual read moving forward. 

Jael Gibbs

This book… this book.. I don’t really know what to say. It was eternally frustrating reading all of Joan’s thoughts and seeing all of the lies she told herself. Utterly transparent, she was judgmental and only cared about living life at a surface level. She wasn’t a likeable character. The way she describes her family, her friends, without knowing anything about them. 

I was waiting for her breakthrough, for her to finally realize the error in her ways. We finally get this on her escape to the desert. She was finally confronted with her demons and with everything she’d been trying to avoid. This great moment of enlightenment. I said “FINALLY” she’s realized, she’s late but she can still change.

 Her whole journey spent thinking on getting Rodney’s forgiveness for loving him but STILL stifling his hopes and dreams. I knew it would be too good to be true, but not in the way it happened. I thought Rodney would be dead and her chance for forgiveness gone. That would have been better. I should know better than any how easy it is to get sucked into the life you’ve been living. How challenging it is to change who you’ve been. It takes courage. You have this amazing moment of clarity but then you go right back to the shitty person you were before. It’s who you’ve been for so long, how do you escape it?

When she visited Averil, god I still thought then that this would be her redemption, the conversation was stagnant. I was hoping at any moment she would blurt out her revelation, but no. I STILL had hope for her when she visited Rodney, hoping that if anyone will make her face herself it would be her treatment towards him. 

Then she just slipped right back into who she had been all along. She didn’t have the courage to admit it to him. She started doubting herself and calling herself crazy for those thoughts. That there’s no way that her epiphany meant anything. But it’s just effortless to return to the comfort of who you were. You have to actively challenge yourself or you’ll just be stuck. 

God this book just wrecked me. It’s just so awful. So awful to get so close to a great happiness. She had it within her grasp but she just couldn’t hold on. So awful to just return to the shell of a person you were before. So much potential wasted. 

I loved this book because of the ending though. It shows you human nature for what it is. All the lies we tell ourselves to feel better about the shitty existences we’re living. This is an annual read moving forward. 



Absent in the Spring

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