Book Review : Jennifer Hillier - Things We Do in the Dark (2022)
Airport thrillers have a bad reputation. They’re perceived to be fluffy, easy reading that exist solely to kill time on a plane or around a pool in some exotic destination. Well, they’re exactly that. But it doesn’t mean they can’t be good or even intelligent. Canadian author Jennifer Hillier has proved over and over again in recent years that her brand of thriller can be riveting and memorable even if it relies heavily on genre conventions. She does it again in her new novel Things We Do in the Dark.
It's fun, completely fucking outlandish and yet loaded like a Beretta.
Things We Do in the Dark tells the story of Paris Peralta, the mysterious, much younger wife of famous comedian Jimmy Peralta. No one knows exactly who she is. She just appeared in her life a couple years ago and seemed to make him pretty happy until his assistant Zoe, who convinced him to make a comeback at the ripe age of sixty-eight years old. A couple months into it, Jimmy is found dead in a bathtub full of blood with Paris standing over him, holding a straight razor. I know. Not good.
The Subtle Charms of the Mysterious Underdog
The first two chapters of Things We Do in the Dark completely pulled my pants down and here's why: it presents a character who is obviously concealing another identity in a situation she could escape by changing her identity again. But she doesn't. Paris Peralta wants to fight for her name even if it technically isn’t her real name, which underlines a killer assumption : she's been through a lot worse than finding her husband dead in the tub and being formally. accused of her murder. Now THAT is a character introduction.
I'm a sucker for resilient characters who are taking complete responsibility of their destiny and Paris did it to the point she changed her name and started her life over. There's another lead characters to Things We Do in the Dark (who’s identity I won't spoil) who mainly serves to explore the underlying story of Paris' true identity. He’s a lot less interesting than her, but the main appeal of reading Things We Do in the Dark how insanely Paris beat the odds in order to reinvent herself and his segments deliver that.
Things We Do in the Dark is filled with GREAT twists and all, but it really is the story of a woman who just refuses to let adversity crush her. It's a mostly plot-driven affair lead by a charismatic protagonist. It may fall just short of being Jennifer Hillier's best novel (Jar of Hearts still holds that title for me), but Paris Peralta is, by far, the best, most complex and endearing character. Memorable, but relatable leads are a staple of Hillier’s writing. It is why her novels standout in the mainstream thriller market.
Storytelling 201
I’ve followed Jennifer Hillier’s career since her debut novel Creep and the mesmerizing thing about her is that she gets ridiculously better with every book. This is especially true since her fourth novel Wonderland. Although Things We Do in the Dark is really on par with Jar of Hearts and Little Secrets, it shows flashes of the author taking another step in storytelling mastery. Especially in regards to smoking guns, misdirections and all the little intellectual games thriller writers love to play with their audience.
Hillier has become so good at this aspect of thriller writing that she hides clues in plain sight and you don't even understand they're clues until the big, dramatic reveal. That's fun. Thrillers are supposed to be half emotional experience and half sport and Things We Do in the Dark very much hits the golden ratio in that regard. If you measure a good thriller by the boldness of its twists, it has to be the thriller of the year because it got me squeeing and yelping in public transportation.
The only major problem I had with Things We Do in the Dark is that every storyline is almost too neatly wrapped. Every miscreant is punished. Every betrayal happened for clear reason. Given the ugly, heartbreaking predicament of Paris, it felt a little bit Disney-ish that within maybe 60 pages or so, that everything unfurled perfectly, allowing her to live the happily ever after. Paris is a woman used to function without answers. I don’t know if overresolution is a thing, but it definitely felt like a thing in Things We Do in the Dark.
*
So, who is Things We Do in the Dark meant for? Probably not people like me. It really is a poolside read meant for people looking for an entertaining break from reality. It reads like a Netflix show. But I loved it anyway because of its absurdly seamless storytelling and masterclass in plot twists that eschew the very conventions thrillers are built around. It’s not because a book is available to buy in places where books are not usually sold that they’re dumb. Airport thrillers rule and so does Things We Do in the Dark.
