| Title | : | The Things We Leave Behind (The Girl Who Stayed Book 2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 22 |
| Publication | : | First published September 18, 2016 |
This stunning short story, the prequel to Tanya Anne Crosby’s remarkable new novel, THE GIRL WHO STAYED, is tense, poignant, and deeply satisfying – exactly what readers have come to expect from this New York Times bestselling author.
The Things We Leave Behind (The Girl Who Stayed Book 2) Reviews
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3.75 stars
▣ Amazon freebie
▣ Suspenseful
▣ Nicely written
▣ Great snapshot of a full-length novel -
Until the end this little story will keep you on the end of your seat. You want to know will she make it? Will something happen? Is she out on time? During these few pages you will discover what is going on and why she is making the decision she is making. It got me interested to read the prequel, a well deserved 4 points!
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Short story and free on Amazon. The plot concerns a woman, Zoe, about to leave her abusive husband. She is wondering if she really has the strength to go through with it.
If my review seems short well..this story is just a few pages..it is short even by short story standards. That does not mean it was not suspenseful because it was. It was just a "blink and its over" type story.
Apparently it is the prequel to another book, this one full length. And I would like to read the full length one, because The things we leave behind, while short,left an impression on me and was quite well written. Highly recommended for short story fans. -
Quick teaser that is currently a free book on Kindle. A woman is fed up with the way she has been treated by her abusive partner and the short story takes readers through the final hours before she leaves him behind for good.
Trigger Warning for Domestic Violence. -
This could be very helpful to a woman in a similar situation. Nothing beats seeing your life reflected to see what it really looks like. A woman is deciding that this is the day she leaves her sociopath partner.
I think she would either have booted the man out - why leave her house? and got a restraining order, or if she was scared of him she would have left earlier in the day. This is so much like 'Sleeping With The Enemy' and if the idea is that the lady is similarly going to disappear and change her name - we are not told for sure - then she would have left hours earlier. Anyway the tale is well written, and we feel the emotion and tension very strongly.
This is an unbiased review. -
The highlights of this story are good writing and two well drawn characters, although I found neither sympathetic. The story is essentially the decision making process a woman goes through to leave her abusive partner. Hard not to provide extensive spoilers as this is all there is to the plot. Zoe has reached her limit with her drunken, womanising partner Chris. She has provided everything in the relationship (mostly in a material sense, i.e. home and contents as he can’t hold down a job), yet she decides to leave and take only the things most precious to her—hence the title.
I couldn’t understand why she doesn’t kick him out (or leave and seek refuge), get a lawyer, and split things down the middle like most people do when there aren’t other influences in play. At 40, she just drops almost everything to start again, leaving Chris with everything else. That’s extremely generous since he has been such a pig to her. Other readers may very well find the story emotionally powerful and engaging, but I was left feeling unsatisfied and unconvinced. -
Would you give everything up to escape?
In Zoe's case she has tried, she's given everything and now she's giving everything up.....leaving it all behind to live -
Could take It or leave it
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This is the free prequel to
The Girl Who Stayed. Fast read, about 18 pages. I definitely want to read the sequel. I have to admit, my heart was pounding, urging Zoe to get out while she could. I hope
The Girl Who Stayed is just as good. -
A good start for a new story. This is a prequel novella for 'the girl who stayed'. The story felt good and interesting. I would like to know what happens to Zoe when she leaves her house. What is the reaction of Chris when he finds out about Zoe. I can't say much about it because it was too short to form any further views. But whatever I read, it was enough to make me intrigued.
I would like to check out the next part of this book. -
It wasn't really necessary, but just an in-depth look at just before the other book.
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short story about abuse
A very short story about Zoe, who is trying to leave her husband because the history of abuse. This is a prequel to The Girl Who Stayed. -
Mesmerizing
Sometimes word count is extraordinarily hard. In this case I could relate when I was accused of keeping all the good stuff. When I left I left everything because in the end what I carried with me was inside of me. I was the thing that was most important and most valuable. I could relate to this story and this time I smiled rather than being in tears. -
Familiar.
This is the story of so many women. Good enough I was telling Zoe to go woman leave before he gets home. -
GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!! GOOD !!!
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This book is a short prequel to another, presumably much longer book, and offered for free as a “reader magnet”. The author makes no bones about this, and starts this book with a chapter explaining about the other book and why she is proud of it.
This story, once it actually starts, opens with a disturbing image of a woman staring at a splatter of her own blood on the ceiling while she waits for her husband to go to work. She counts down the minutes until he leaves, then sets about scouring the house for whatever she wants to take with her. It soon becomes apparent that she plans to leave her husband while he is at work. While she is packing, we get a series of flashbacks and memories, explaining why she has come to this point, and the things they both have said and done.
The book is undoubtedly well written. It is engaging and emotional, and it becomes very easy to see things through the eyes of the protagonist, Zoe. The book is written in a third-person close viewpoint, so we only see what Zoe sees, and only have her conjectures about what her husband is up to when he is not her. Whether the things she assumes he has done are true or not, there is always the evidence of the blood to bring us back to the abusive nature of their relationship. The short vignette ends as she leaves for an unknown future with only the things she has been able to grab and stuff into her car and bag.
As a taster of the author’s style this is a great sampler. It is not really a story, though. It ‘s more like a couple of thousand words of exploration of one of those “know your character” questionnaires. The first line of the story gives this away: “If the house were on fire, what would you save?” Even though I probably will not be reading the main book “The Girl Who Stayed” any time soon, but this short story is a good class on how to learn about your characters by exploring such scenarios. -
There may be times when leaving a situation may be a difficult but necessary option in order to have a better life, such as in Tanya Anne Crosby The Things We Leave Behind.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website:
http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
After years of her bank account being drained without her benefiting from the purchases and needing to navigate a minefield of predictable and tiresome manipulation, Zoe has finally reached a breaking point in her relationship and life with Chris. As she prepares to leave, she rapidly thinks through the items she'll take with her and those she'd have to relinquish, if she can only manage to leave.
Brief and well written, this short story explores the mental processing and emotional journey someone might go through when working up to leaving an abusive relationship. Though as a whole the depictions of the emotional states of both characters were presented well and believably, I did struggle with why Zoe didn't just kick Chris out if the house is hers, she seems to be getting nothing but hardship out of her prolonged relationship with him, and she has an awareness of there being a large issue and her exaggerated unhappiness (I realized I'm saying this with the benefit of an outsider's perspective, which is a tricky place to comment from on such incredibly personal situations like this, especially as I have no firsthand experience with a domestic abuse scenario). -
It took me a while to read this but I'm glad I did. I enjoyed Tanya Anne Crosby's writing style. This prequel had just the right amounts of mystery, intrigue, and character growth. I actually want to read the Novel and see what happens to Zoe and hopefully there's some justice and healing that happens.
I suppose one can't truly understand why people stay in abusive relationships. Maybe that's why these stories are oh. They show people what disfunction looks like and hopefully they can help someone get out. -
Despite being a short story, it was very carefully portrayed. So well in fact that it I could feel my blood pressure elevate as Zoe seemed to hesitate leaving abusive Chris. I absolutely condemn any form of violence, and can't imagine what's like to be emotionally and physically abused. Lucky me, many people aren't as lucky. In any event, this short story seems to be a great introduction to its sequel, but I don't have the stomach to read it. I do, however, root for Zoe (and mainly any suffering, real life human being) to find strength inside to free herself and become a whole person.
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A story which, unfortunately, too many people can identify with. I could feel the tension settles in through the pages, my lungs having a hard time doing their jobs, and the fear for the character’s life increasing. This crucial moment - when you have to make a decision that will change your life, when you know that it is the best thing that could happen in your situation but yet it paralyses you - is too relatable. It is too real. It could not have been put in a better way.
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A very intriguing start. Unfortunately it’s just a lead in to her following book which is publicized and is the bulk of “The things we leave behind”. I felt dupped, led to believe I was going to be reading an interesting tale, only to be sold an advertising ploy. At least it only cost me my time, which wasn’t that much of an investment considering the “story” was only a short chapter in length. This book should be the prologue to the sequel “The Girl Who Stayed”.
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Very Very short novella like 22 pages ! It tells us about Zoe Rutherford and her no good boyfriend Chris. She is being abused by Chris both verbally and physical. She has planned everything out time wise to be able to get her stuff and leave but seems to have a hard time doing so.
This is like a short note on the next book "The Girl Who Stayed" . I have started it but so far
its also hard to get into.... -
cw: abuse, blood (description of artery cut and blood spatter).
I probably won't read the full length novel after this as I only read this as it's one of the oldest books on my kindle, but I thought this was good. You are following a character preparing to leave an abusive relationship, looking back at what lead up to that point, at everything she will have to leave behind and if she will actually leave. I thought it was done well. -
Brief but were well written
The Things We Leave Behind should not have stopped where it did. The reader is left with the wish to know how Zoe will reinvent her life after living for so long with an abusive husband. Will she move to another state? Will he stalk her? Will she be able to fend for herself without falling into the same trap again? I would love to know. -
At first I didn't realize that I had selected a short story, or a prequel to The Girl who Stayed. I read a lot, usually late at night, and I was thoroughly confused as to the title of the next book, and why this one was so short. I was kind of sad it ended! So I am currently reading The Girl who Stayed. Zoe has a history, and this book is starting at the beginning. I like it so far!
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Angry! This prequel made me feel angry.
Zoe made me feel angry. She had the car packed, her purse loaded and she still could my make herself get out the door, into the car and down the road to safety and her new life.
I was on edge and frightened that Chris was going to walk into the house early and catch her. I felt anger and fear.
