Sorry, Harlan: A Jersey Girl’s Honest Take
I finished listening to Gone Before Goodbye yesterday, but I needed to sit with it before writing this. I genuinely hate giving one-star ratings—someone put real heart into this story—but unfortunately, it missed the mark for me.
As a New Jersey native, I really wanted to love a Harlan Coben project. The premise had “bones” and genuine promise, but the execution struggled, especially in audio form. The narration felt uneven; at times it was engaging, but too often it felt over-explained, as if the story didn’t trust the listener to keep up.
A major hurdle was the casting. Reese Witherspoon is iconic, but I found it impossible to separate her voice from Legally Blonde. Instead of sinking into Maggie’s world, I kept hearing Elle Woods, which pulled me out of the tension. Ultimately, this felt like a screenplay in disguise. I suspect the pacing and heavy-handedness would smooth out on screen, but as an audiobook, I finished it feeling indifferent—and for a story with this much potential, indifference is the sharpest disappointment of all.
