Book Review: Black And Blue, by Anna Quindlen

Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Black And Blue, by Anna Quindlen
★★★

Synopsis: In Black And Blue, Fran Benedetto tells a spellbinding story: how at nineteen she fell in love with Bobby Benedetto, how their passionate marriage became a nightmare, why she stayed, and what happened on the night she finally decided to run away with her ten-year-old son and start a new life under a new name. Living in fear in Florida—yet with increasing confidence, freedom, and hope—Fran unravels the complex threads of family, identity, and desire that shape a woman’s life, even as she begins to create a new one. As Fran starts to heal from the pain of the past, she almost believes she has escaped it—that Bobby Benedetto will not find her and again provoke the complex combustion between them of attraction and destruction, lust and love.
In A Sentence: Thought-provoking and sad.

My Thoughts: Well that was depressing. I knew this was going to be a sad story, since it’s all about a woman getting physically abused by her husband, but I guess I was kind of hoping for a happier ending. Instead, I got a much more realistic one.
Someone wrote in their review that it read like a movie for the Lifetime channel. I have to say that’s true. It’s drama for women. It’s like one of those TV movies with no happy ending or sad ending; it just ends.
I also read that this isn’t Anna Quindlen’s best work. This is my first time reading this author, but I think this statement is probably true. I liked it but I wasn’t particularly impressed by it. And I did get bored at times.
I’m not sure I would recommend this read, but try it out if you like. It is interesting and a little heartbreaking, and it does make you wonder: what would you do in her shoes?


View all my reviews