'Journey' tells the story of a thirty-something tv news reporter who, on the surface, appears to have it all--the loving husband, the successful career and the best of everything in between. But it's only seven years into her marriage and things begin to slowly but surely fall apart. Little by little Maddie Hunter begins to see, but consequently deny,that her marriage and her husband, are not what she always thought them to be. Her marriage is one in which her husband controls everything with an iron fist, and it doesn't help the situation any more that her husband owns the television station that she is employed with, so technically he runs the show, but unfortunately, it does not stop at work. He carries that attiutude into their marriage. At first, the abuse started out seemingly innocent, such as making fun of Maddie's humble beginnings. But then it becomes unpretentious as her husband Jack repeatedly puts her down and becomes more threatening and aggressive towards his wife when she dares to challenge him.Eventually Maddie gets the strength to find her voice, with the support of a new close friend whom is aware of the situation,from a therapist whom she begins consulting with, as well as from a support group for battered women. What surprised me about this book is that I did not get the type of abuse story that I was expecting, which was physical. But the story goes to show that verbal abuse is just as severe as physical abuse.Additionally, the various series of events surrounding the main plot of the story was very unexpected but also interesting.I was glad that Maddie was able to leave, although not without consequence, but nevertheless she did so anyway. I was also happy that she and her close friend were considering taking their relationship to the next level at the end of the story.
I hate to give Ms. Steel a so-so rating, but I wasnt impressed. I didnt read the back cover of this book to know what it was about, but immediately I picked up on the dialog between the main character and her husband as abusive. The message is great, the lesson is there but here is the main reason why I didnt like it... The main character only seems to be secure enough to move on when she has someone else in her life. They say patterns repeat themselves and here we see that again. She leaves her first husband for another man and now her second husband for a third man. A healthy man wouldnt be attracted to someone like this and so we see the pattern repeat again. It had good learning points throughout the book but ultimately the main character continues to repeat her mistake which makes me say "boooooooooooo!"
What do You think about Journey (2006)?
The story's premise showed promise: a popular news anchor (Maddy Hunter) reflects on a bad marriage her current husband helped her escape, and slowly she realizes that her current marriage is also abusive. Though her husband doesn't beat her, he controls her through his position as her boss and belittles her every chance he gets, treating her like dirt. Maddy is in denial for much of the book, yet manages to screw up her courage for the predictable Steel ending. Of course, there is an understanding male friend, suffering his own demons, who eventually becomes Maddy's touchstone and lover and helps her escape.Steel glosses over some scenes which would have been more interesting had she written them as they happened - like Maddy's encounters with the abuse counselor. The constant POV switching and repetitive exposition was also a headache - Steel tends to explain things she had told us in earlier chapters as if she had never written about them before. Maddy's history of abortion is a good example. Overall, this was just disappointing.
—Kathryn
It's summer, which means I get to read as much trash as I want. That means LOTS of Danielle Steel. I been on a pretty bad Danielle Steel binge as of late.Journey, hmmm... Well, lets just say it was a real "Journey" hehe...Sorry, I had to.That aside, I really appreciated Steel trying raise awareness on domestic abuse and especially on Emotional abuse, which isn't as recognized as much other forms of domestic violence. She definitely did her research and I really love that she's raising awareness by writing on a subject that just isn't talked about enough.
—Joshua
Hmm. I keep trying to not read 'women's fiction' but was recently given a huge bag of paperbacks and I'm not ungrateful so thought I should at least give some or all of them a go. This is typical Danielle Steel and I don't doubt that her fans will love it. I found the first third boring and was waiting for things to heat up. I stuck with it and eventually we had a story which has it's interesting places but after a twist becomes just another cliché. I wouldn't burn it but will be donating it to my local book group :)
—Nat
