The Stuff That Never Happened

The Stuff That Never Happened

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3.57 of 5 stars 3.57  ·  rating details  ·  1,062 ratings  ·  187 reviews
What if you were married to a wonderful husband for twenty-eight years but in love with another man? What if you were in love with them both?

Annabelle McKay knows she shouldn’t have any complaints. She’s been in a stable marriage that’s lasted almost three decades and has provided her with two wonderful children, thousands of family dinners around a sturdy oak table, and a...more
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published August 3rd 2010 by Crown (first published July 28th 2010)
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Rhiannon
This book freaked me out: it was the first package that was delivered to me in my new apartment. The apartment I just moved into with my boyfriend. With only my boyfriend. Now, I knew when I moved into this boyfriend-only apartment that it would lead to marriage. And I hate marriage. Just generally. Now, I know, I know... "don't hate it til you've tried it," and all that. If you say so.

So, The Stuff That Never Happened arrives, and here's this empty-nesting lady-mom deciding that she's going to...more
Girls Gone Reading
The Stuff that Never Happened took a hold of me early, and it never let me know. I was initially intrigued by the mystery of the plot: What could their big secret be? What could be so bad in your marriage that you would rather just ignore it? But the mystery aspect of the novel was just enough to get me into the plot. Then Annabelle and the fantastic story took over.

Usually, I have a little trouble with narrators. Sometimes I find them frustrating. Sometimes I wish they would turn right when the...more
Tammara
Oct 07, 2010 Tammara added it
Shelves: favorites
This is what Women's Fiction is supposed to be. The story built slowly, alternating between Annabelle's past as an early 20-something, and her present late-40s self.

An affair with a friend - her husband's mentor - early in her marriage pulls her out of a floundering rut of day-to-day existence, shakes her up, and makes her question everything she'd ever thought or assumed about love and marriage. Her marriage survived, but at what personal cost? Now she has grown children, a career her husband d...more
Karen Skinner
"I know this feeling: It's a cousin of the mood that made me cry among the pork chops." This book may not resonate for you if you have never wept in the aisles of Whole Foods, but so far I am eagerly picking it up in my spare moments. There's a mother who dabbles in art, and there's a daughter who is going to be a mother. There's a lot more but those are my basic requirements.
Christa Sgobba
I'm not really sure how I felt about this book--if I had to pick an adjective, I guess I would say it was pleasant.

The writer had a good pace with the book. She sucked me in fast, and pretty much held me interest throughout. There was never a time I actively didn't like the book, but it wasn't one of those that I couldn't wait to rush home and get reading.

Maybe it was the storyline that didn't win me over. It was about a middle aged woman, who, since she became an empty nester, starts to see her...more
Joan Hanna
The characters that Dawson weaves together are the characters in all of our lives: mothers, fathers, husbands, girlfriends and children; tempting acquaintances, misunderstood affections and all of the confusing and dramatic influences that each personality brings into Annabelle’s life. The real testament to this story is that, on one hand, it is so accessible. On the other, the people and the story are uniquely portrayed and so well rounded by Dawson that the reader never feels as though they ar...more
CC
I think I wanted to like this more than I did. The cover, for one, is beyond awesome. And the setting, New Hamsphire, is just different enough to evoke intrigue. With those two things going for it I didn't even read the jacket copy, I just swooped it up.

New Hampshire resident Annabelle McKay is having a midlife crisis. With her kids gone and her professor husband Grant working on a novel, she finds herself thinking about an affair she had in her twenties with a man named Jeremiah. The book alter...more
Sonia
Credo che a volte, tra le centinaia di letture in cui siamo immersi durante l'anno, sia un bene trovare una storia che non appartiene al nostro genere, che non avremmo preferito se qualcuno ce ne avesse parlato, di fronte a cui forse avremmo storto il naso.
La trama di Facciamo finta che non sia successo niente mi aveva attratta a suo modo, ma ritrovarmi in quella storia mi aveva fatta sentire un'intrusa: non voglio leggere di storie quotidiane di amori che si trascinano, che forse sfociano in tr...more
Jo Anne B
I ended up really loving this honest portrayl of a woman torn between two men. I almost put it down in the beginning because I didn't think the characters clicked but I am glad I stuck with it. Turns out the reason I almost stopped reading this was the reason for the story in the first place.

Anabelle, a fifty year old empty nester, takes a look back at her marriage of 28 years to Grant. With the kids gone she is not getting the attention and love she needs from her husband who is a boring, rigi...more
Pam
This was an excellent book, I feel like I could go on reading about Grant and Annabelle forever. I want to read about them growing old together. The story is told in alternating chapters between the beginning of Grant and Annabelle's marriage in the 1970's and currently, 2005 as they face the trials of begin married 20+ years.

What makes this book work so successfuly is the characterization. I really feel that Grant and Annabelle are fully fleshed characters. I understand why they do what they d...more
Debbie
I liked it a lot. I really enjoy books that delve into the human psyche in a non-judgmental way. This book is about two imperfect people. Annabelle is a self-absorbed, extroverted narcissist, like her own mother. Both woman seem to have no real problem with committing infidelity in the name of passion. Annabelle's husband, Grant, is a introverted, intelligent, dorky, but morally impeccable guy who absolutely loves and adores her. But she is blind to that love. In Annabelle's mind he is not payin...more
Chris
I loved this novel, about the "what-if" person who enters our minds unbidden but can't be forgotten--and almost every woman I know has a person like that. It reads so true.

"Maybe this is common. Perhaps the whole human race goes around with an ache like this. Maybe we're all dreaming of a person from the tantalizing past who sits there, uninvited, watching from the edge of our consciousness, somebody you find packing up and moving out of your head just as you're waking up in the morning, and wh...more
Michelle
A book about a mother, Annabelle, who is experiencing "empty nest" feelings when her kids leave home and husband delves back into work full force while paying little to no attention to her. Oh and they have scheduled sex every Wednesday. Yawn.

Hard to imagine I could relate so well to a book about a mother who has grown children, but I did. This book was able to put quite a few things in perspective for me. Especially the part when she visits her pregnant daughter, Sophie, in New York. Annabelle...more
Becky
Thanks to Ashley for mentioning this book! I am not married so I don't have any expertise I can point to for this opinion, but I believe the author very truthfully and realistically portrayed a story of couple who have been married for 26 years. They are still individuals, still misunderstand each other, have had to schedule sex into their weekly calendar and aren't sure how to live with each other now that their children have flown the coop. But the elephant in the room during the entirety of t...more
A. R.
If it hadn't been for the language in this book I would have given it four stars. I'm picky in how much profanity I will tolerate in a book and this was one had a little too much.

But putting that aside - I thought The Stuff That Never Happened was a very interesting look at marriage and extramarital affairs. An interesting look at what constitutes real solid love over the passionate, rip your clothes off kind of excitement. I found myself asking if the later was truly love or just an adrenaline...more
Laura
I really enjoyed this book. Annabelle is about my age and going through some of the same things (not the affair...I promise!) Just that empty next thing. Here's a funny passage:

"...let me tell you: the one with the most free time loses in all marital discussions. It's a given. So, if you're the less busy person, take my advice and fake extreme busyness...."Well, that leaves me out, I'm afraid, because nobody on earth could be busier than Grant"... then you'll have to go to Plan B, which is just...more
Michelle
Hmmm, not sure how to rate this (two stars? three?) It started pretty slow even though the writing itself is strong. I guess I just don’t relate to the whole unrequited love thing. It’s hard to buy into Annabelle’s deep feelings for Jeremiah because we learn from the outset she wants to leave her husband and it’s because of this guy and she hasn’t seen him in twenty-six years. It’s a conceit I had trouble buying. Sure, her marriage is a little strained, but nothing major. Maybe this happens. May...more
Jennifer
The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson is an artfully crafted story of Annabelle McKay, a wife and mother who, by outside accounts, has all the reasons to relish in her life. But Annabelle, after her two children were grown and moved from home, begins to think of days long past when she, in the very first years of her marriage to Grant, had a secret affair. Exploring the emotions invoked when pondering how things may have been under different circumstances, Dawson tempts readers through...more
April
I am not quite sure what to think of this one. I was immediately drawn to it after opening the front cover only to discover that someone had taken the time to pencil in "GREAT book" on a LIBRARY book *gasp*. Seeing it as a *sign* that this book must be read, I took it home.

Told through alternating chapters of the past and modern day, you learn about the life and loves of Annabelle McKay. A habitual fall-in-love-with-your-whole-heart kind of woman: you know with the man who carries her groceries...more
Jessica
I tell my writing students about the neessity of hanging in a few pages longer than wanted with books. I know after one not-so-wonderful page, they are ready to throw in the towel on the whole thing. They look up, covet the television, the wii--anything but what they are holding in their hands.

My examples of two books I wished to cast aside are Beloved and The English Patient, excellent, beautiful books each. But after a chapter or two my first go around with both, I was ready to throw said book...more
Jennifer
I totally loved this book. I was hooked pretty quickly and every time I got a moment to read, I would take it. I was intrigued by the marriage between Annabelle and Grant, but loved the flashbacks even more. It was nice to see how they got started, how he proposed, etc., to really build the story. It got me wondering a lot about what could be so bad that your marriage would suffer the way it obviously had.

I will say that I was pretty much uninterested in the "current" plot once Sophie took over...more
Shannon
This book was full of amazing quotes that will resonate with me for awhile. My favorite parts: "I tell her the thing I truly believe - that sex and love and parenthood and complications can coexist, that you can be happy even when sex is something you steal away for once you've gotten the last of the dishes washed and the kid with the fever to finally go to sleep. But then my throat is suddenly clogged up with so much sadness and longing and regret that I think I will choke. It's because of toda...more
Terri Jacobson
A touching story of a 50 year old woman looking back on her marriage and reflecting on its positives and negatives. Annabelle McKay's 2 children have left home. Her son is in college and her daughter, recently married, is living in New york expecting her first child while her husband works on a documentary in Brazil. Her daughter has problems with the pregnancy which require her mother's attendance. This give Annabelle time to reflect on the early days of her own marriage, which included infidel...more
Jody
I was happy to receive this book from the First Reads giveaways. Maddie Dawson tells an intriguing story going back and forth between 1977 and 2005. Annabelle is married to Grant in 1977 without knowing him very well. They move from California to New York and live with another couple. Of course, a love trinagle ensues. The story bounces back and forth from their early days of marriage (the tumultuous 70's) to an empty nest, midlife crisis kind of life in 2005.

The novel is fast paced and catches...more
Ivy Krill
I highly recommend THE STUFF THAT NEVER HAPPENED over many books. Maddie Dawson's great talent as a writer stands out. Her book was truly a joy to discover and read. She has an excellent sense of story, wit, humor, plot, and people. What else can I say? It deserves an average user rating of no less than between 3.8 and 4.0. If there is anything keeping this book from being 5 out of 5 stars, it is.... It's hard for me to say. I have a vague feeling of wanting more drama and emotion at the very en...more
Laura
I cant believe how many people rated this book so favorably and said they enjoyed and even liked the characters. I found the main character incredbily self absorbed and selfish. The betrayal of her young husband was just disgusting to me and the fact that she continued to perseverate on the other man for so many years while she was still married, seemed so unfair to her husnad. However, I didnt really like Grant or Jeremiah that much either.
The book was an easy read and had some enjoyable parts...more
Meghan Lamm
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Heather
In her head, Annabelle knows that she's lucky. She has a faithful husband a career that she loves, and two loving grown children. Her heart, however, can't let go of a man she loved more than twenty-five years ago. Her feelings for Jeremiah never really left, but they've intensified as her husband, Grant, has begun writing a book and become completely engrossed in his work, leaving Annabelle lonely and isolated. Then Annabelle leaves their home in New Hampshire to take care of their daughter in...more
Kathy (Bermudaonion)
When Annabelle and Grant got married, they really didn’t know each other all that well. They moved across the country and lived with another young couple and their two children. Something happens in those early years that will haunt their marriage for the rest of their lives. Rather than talk about it, Grant makes Annabelle agree to never mention it again, and in effect, pretend that it never happened. On the surface, that seems to work – they move to New Hampshire, raise two children and seem t...more
Sarah
the subject is a bit dismal - a married woman who has an affair and stays a little in love with this man from her past. The book alternates between present day and the years leading up to and during her affair - the in between times are summarized briefly. As much as the main character annoyed me at times with her angst, self absorption, and betrayal, there were many illuminating moments - while I hated what this character did and her flitiness at a time where she should have been fully committe...more
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The Stuff That Never Happened (ebook)
The Stuff That Never Happened (Paperback)
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Facciamo finta che non sia successo niente (Hardcover)

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