I enjoyed We Don’t Talk about Carol but at times it was a bit convoluted and sprawling. I’m not sure if the pregnancy storyline was needed or fit. It took away momentum from her family of origin story, the story of these missing Black girls and the investigation.

I liked the main character and she was fully fleshed out but these parts dragged. Examining what it means when you keep everything in the family was a good hook.

I felt like the ages/timeline was odd at times. Their sixty year old cousin had 3 yr old twins? At first I thought I misread and they were his grandchildren but then there was a scene where she sees them in a photo and repeats they are his children. He explicitly says he is 60 in the email.

Did the author change her mind about his birth and not correct things? His origins are not really addressed as much as you’d think. His mother vaguely talks about not having had a chance to have him had she not escaped (which could work both ways but she doesn’t mention pregnancy at all) but timeline wise, she should have had him at around 15 in 1965. Which doesn’t quite work because we are also told she started dating at age 15 and was with Michael at least over a year because he gave her his school ring for their anniversary. Who was this man’s father?

It made me think that the first draft was that she was pregnant and left because she knew what was going on (trying to be vague here!) but then the author decided to go in a slightly different direction (an a later pregnancy) and then didn’t go back and edit.

The sister going for internships at 35 was weird, are internships even available for people who aren’t in school or recent grads? Especially in competitive fields like film?

I read an ARC thanks to NetGalley so maybe this was addressed but judging from some comments on GoodReads, I don’t think it was.

There were a few other oddities-

Sydney acts like she doesn’t know about the Walnut Creek park/swamp when she is talking to the victims’ relatives but she had gone there earlier in the book with her mom and sister.

They retcon the grandmother a bit, she was so awful that Carol wanted to run away and bring her 14 yr old brother with her but later on they tell their cousin that she was fine and they had a nice upbringing? Then where did all the dad’s issues come from? Why did Carol want to take him away from their mother?

The twist was dark compared to the tone of the rest of the book.

That said, it was a solid concept and I enjoyed the characters. I’d read another book by the author and hope it ties together a bit better.