Name: Lindsay's review of More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez
Item: More Than You'll Ever Know
Rating: 4
Author: Lindsay

Katie Gutierrez

An evocative drama about a woman who’s caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other, and the true-crime writer who becomes obsessed with telling her story—this masterful work of literary suspense marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer. A dance leads to an affair, leads to a marriage, leads to a murder . . . In 1985, Dolores “Lore” Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two men—until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, while trawling the internet for the latest, most sensational news reports, struggling true crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored: why would a woman who seemed to have it all lead a double life? Cassie sees an opportunity—she’ll track Lore down and capture the full picture, the choices, the deceptions that led to disaster. But the more time she spends with Lore, the more Cassie questions the facts surrounding the murder itself. Soon, her determination to uncover the truth could threaten to derail Lore’s now quiet life—and expose the many secrets both women are hiding. Told through alternating timelines, More Than You'll Ever Know is both a gripping mystery and a wrenching family drama. Presenting a window into the hearts of two very different women, it explores the many conflicting demands of marriage and motherhood, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone—especially those we love.

A Novel

More Than You'll Ever Know

Lindsay

But the stages of grief are a luxury of the innocent.

Because that’s the thing about money— once you have it, you can afford to have a moral center.

And I liked making her talk about the things that made her uncomfortable. There’s no sense hiding from yourself, mija. There you’ll be anyway.

“I think there are things we carry in our bodies and in our souls that don’t need to be explained to be known by others.”

That perhaps not every affair is about lack in the primary relationship; perhaps some are about a complement. Perhaps multiple relationships can illuminate different parts of the self, like a prism turned first this way, then that, toward the light. Perhaps to love and allow love from only one person at a time is to trap the self into a single, frozen version, and it’s this that makes us look elsewhere.

The earth rich with mothers’ secrets and daughters’ unanswered questions.

For every story told out loud, there is the story we only tell ourselves. And behind that— somewhere, often out of reach— is the truth. The trick is telling them apart.

But women have no such magazines, nor do they have dedicated spaces to act out their desires, should it come to that. La “zona de tolerancia,” a walled compound of brothels, strip clubs, and cantinas only three miles south of the border, is nicknamed Boy’s Town for a reason. Women have only the potent force of their imagination.

“Mami once told me it’s impossible to get everything from one person. That at best, we get eighty percent. The other twenty, ni modo, we have to find it somewhere else.”

It’s easier for men to dismiss a woman than attempt to understand her—

That’s the thing when you discover another side to a person you thought you knew. No memory is safe from cynical revisiting. You search for clues with the benefit of hindsight, desperate to believe your intuition hadn’t failed you so catastrophically.

thrilled in the closeness of the wolf’s breath against a home made of brick. 

Except it turns out brick walls don’t matter when the wolf lives inside.

Genesis (@whisperingchapters)

A bit difficult to rate, I loved how it explored the commentary on a number of different subjects, and the writing had some really strong moments, but I'm not sure it needed to be as long as it is.

Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &
More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez

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Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez

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Join the club

Genesis (@whisperingchapters) &
More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez