More Than You’ll Ever Know: A Novel by Katie Gutierrez

What a very unusual novel! I loved it. I loved the story, but above everything the author’s writing. She made me ‘feel’ so many of the interactions between Lore/Fabian/Andres. Part of me can understand how Lore absolutely loved both Duke and Andres. Put aside the ‘morality’ question- i.e. how could a woman deceive two men (& families), and just enjoy the descriptions of her journey. This novel is sweeping in the author’s writing style, her character portrayals, the flavor of Mexico, the suspense of learning the truth behind Andres’ death.

And oh, the description(s) of the earthquake….heartbreaking.

Per other reader’s comments, I was not put off by the Spanish words/phrases…I just would highlite for Translation to come up and if it didn’t I moved on…I got the ‘gist’ of most of them.

And I did not find 400+ pages too long for this novel…if a story keeps me interested throughout, I’m lost in it. (And I actually prefer novels over 300 pgs…especially if I’m paying $15! I want my money’s worth!) Which I got in spades with this beautiful story.

I love when I get to the part in a novel where I immediately understand where the novel’s title comes from…it’s beautifully apparent in this one as soon as you come upon it. And love its reference one more time in the author’s (beautiful) “Acknowledgements” at the end.

I am an avid crime novel reader, but seek out ‘interesting’ stories (fiction) as well….this to me was a real ‘find’ and I highly recommend.

Some of the passages poignant to me that I highlighted:

“A simple misunderstanding, an incomplete sentencer, leading to a moment when everything that will happen has not yet happened, and so every possibility still exists.” This is just before Lore’s life ‘forks’-when she accepts to dance w/Andres in the very beginning.

“In the course of my double-life research, I came across only one other American woman known to have been secretly married to two men at once, and it had nothing to do with money. The writer Anais Nin……..” then she goes on to reveal what that was all about. Fascinating.

“But my plans, my dreams, would have died there. I could feel it, the way paper curls away from a flame before its edges blacken with burn.”

“Men who need control are so easy to manipulate. All you have to do is give them what they want, right up until the moment you take it from them.”

“It’s easier for men to dismiss a woman than attempt to understand her-especially a woman like Dolores, who didn’t just cast off societal expectations but burned them to the ground.”

“She’d disappear in a crowd the way older women do, the adventures and passions of their youth tucked far from view of a society that’s lost interest in them.”

“For every story told out loud, there is the story we only tell ourselves. And behind that-somewhere, often out of reach-is the truth. The trick is telling them apart.”

“Because people aren’t just murdered in moments; they’re murdered in all the moments leading up to that final act.”

“I remembered what my mother had once told our class: History is written by those who have power and want to keep it. So when you read your textbooks, ask yourself who is telling the story-and what they have to gain by your believing it.”

“She sees how the lies will build, brick after brick into a fortress designed to protest, but protection means separation, means they will never be as close as he thinks or she wants, and one mistake, one misremembered detail, will be enough to take down the whole thing, burying them both beneath its rubble.”

“Perhaps not every affair is about lack in the primary relationship; perhaps some are about a complement. Perhaps multiple relationships can illuminate different parts of the self, like a prism turned first this way, then that, toward the light. Perhaps to love and allow love from only one person at a time is to trap the self into a single, frozen version, and it’s this that makes us look elsewhere.”

“When we’re shocked someone isn’t who we thought they were, it’s usually not because they hid it so well-more like, the closer we are to a person, the less clearly we see them.”

Cassie: “I’d wanted to investigate the crime-if you could call it that, which was, confusingly, less obvious to me than when I’d begun this project-of Lore’s heart.”

RELISH the author’s “Acknowledgements”. One of the loveliest I’ve ever read-especially the very last sentence(!)

The premise was interesting, like reading a Dateline episode. Basically i liked the story but i almost DNF several times for two reasons. First, i know a few words in Spanish and it went back and forth between Spanish and English but it wasn’t enough to keep up if you’re not fairly fluent in Spanish. I thought i could pick it up through context but was afraid i would miss something important in the murder mystery story line. I agree with another comment that this should have been explained in the synopsis or maybe two versions. It really stops the flow when you have to stop and translate. I’ve read other books where the other language is explained in a way you can keep up. My second issue was it was just too long! There were many instances where unnecessary details were given, such as that two had Dr Pepper for thanksgiving dinner and two had water…didn’t make a difference in the plot. If the story hadn’t been intriguing, I would’ve given it 3stars.

⭐️ R E V I E W ⭐️

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/ 5

📖: More Than You’ll Ever Know
✍🏻: Katie Gutierrez
📄: 431

Mood: Bigamy Meets Murder

“The dance becomes an affair which becomes a marriage which becomes a murder” (Intro)

This book was 400 something pages too many. I appreciated the multiple POV’s and the time lapse – I even enjoyed the Spanglish that’s sprinkled into almost every sentence. But this story could have easily been told in 200 pages.

A part of me feels that it was my mistake reading this story now. It’s summertime and I’m in the mood for light and breezy love stories and this is anything but. Still, I was too intrigued by the synopsis to not pick up and start reading immediately. I was hoping that I could get through it rather quickly, instead however, it took me the entire month of June to finish 😬 😓

I also have to be transparent and note that although I think Gutierrez was trying to make a loud point on how women can feel suffocated in marriage and motherhood and are desperate to unbury their old selves…she made the main character look like a narcissist and extremely difficult to be liked which made the overall story hard to relate to in any sense – even figuratively.

I feel Gutierrez took a very valid battle that women face and she tarnished it by making our needs look cheap. It’s not just that Lore committed bigamy (not just 😅) – it’s that she felt NO remorse – not to the children – nevermind the husbands. She felt entitled.
Cassie – the other main character was also a confusing one for me – unwilling to heal her childhood trauma and almost being comfortable to use it as an excuse to be hyper self focused.

Bottom line – I don’t think women overall are designed to be self centered and both of these women are the epitome of (dare I say), a man’s world.

Parts of the storyline were intriguing but overall I struggled to enjoy much of this story. Still – I didn’t hate it.

Fantastic, beautifully written, engrossing story. I stayed up all night and read it in one go. Incredible layered characters and I was so invested in their life. I will definitely buy anything else by Gutierrez.