One Hundred Names
By: Cecilia Ahern
Published Year: 2014
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Pages: 496
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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Scandal has derailed journalist Kitty Logan's career, a setback that is soon compounded by an even more devastating loss. Constance, the woman who taught Kitty everything she knew, is dying. At her mentor's bedside, Kitty asks her, "What is the one story you always wanted to write?"
The answer lies in a single sheet of paper buried in Constance's office—a list of one hundred names—with no notes or explanation. But before Kitty can ask her friend, it is too late.
Determined to unlock the mystery and rebuild her own shaky confidence, Kitty throws herself into the investigation, tracking down each of the names on the list and uncovering their connection. Meeting these ordinary people and learning their stories, Kitty begins to piece together an unexpected portrait of Constance's life . . . and starts to understand her own.
First Impressions
Yay! Another new Cecilia Ahern book! I read a bunch of her books shortly after I first read P.S I Love You and then forgot about her for a little bit. Earlier this year I read Time of My Life (and loved it) and it renewed my love for her books. I was really intrigued by this summary, but not as much by the cover. I definitely would not have picked it up based on the cover alone. Case and point, while looking on the New Books shelves at my library, I passed it up even though I was trying to keep my eye out for it.
What I thought
This book was very interesting and unique. I really enjoyed it and it was a nice refresher from a lot of the heavier books I’ve read. It’s not one of my favorites by Ahern. I would definitely recommend a few of her other books before I recommend this one, but if I don’t judge it against her other books, I think it would get a higher rating.
As I mentioned above, the concept behind the book is very interesting and unique. I really loved the idea of an author trying to write a story without knowing what she was really writing about. I do feel like the book moved a little bit slow and it can be a bit frustrating. Both Kitty and the reader do not figure out what the story is meant to be about until the end of the book. I found this made the book a little bit boring at times because it wasn’t even something that had enough clues that you could figure out what the story was supposed to be about on your own. I think because of this, it was hard for me to connect with the main character. I was more concerned with the other characters in the book and finding out what was going to connect all of them and didn’t feel much of a connection with Kitty.
I really enjoyed getting to know all of the characters in the book and all of their stories. I wish that Kitty could have met more people on the list so that we could have met more of them. Ahern came up with some very unique story lines and even though we didn’t see much of the characters, I felt a connection with them very quickly.
The one thing that seemed odd to me was the timeline. It seemed like a lot happened over a VERY short period of time. I think the book was meant to span about 2 weeks and it just seemed like there was a lot going on. It was an odd combination with the slow movement of the book. Overall, the book just had a slow pace and because of that, I never found myself dying to pick the book back up or unable to put it down. I really enjoyed the story and would never have put the book down without finishing it, but it was definitely a slower read for me.
I would easily recommend this book. It isn’t a light, quick read, but if you’re looking for something with a bit of substance that isn’t heavy, this would be the book for you. The story line is intriguing, as well as some of the secondary characters. It’s not one of my favorites from Ahern, but I really enjoyed it and am glad that I picked it up. I look forward to more from her.