Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsa psychological thriller with an excellent twist
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 July 2018
You’ll remember that I gushed about the amazing The Other Side of The Wall (seriously, read the book! Review here) from the creator of the brilliant Office Mum blog (here) . In fact I’m pretty sure that it was my most recommended read that year. I loved the creepiness of it and the ending that was a lesson in how to grip! And here we have it again, a book that I really enjoyed with a twist I didn’t see or perhaps I did but I discounted it and had moved on by the time the explosive ending had come about. But sorry, as usual, I’m running on.
We begin with imagery that is impeccable, and puts us right there enjoying the holiday with Lauren and her daughters. Our lead, Lauren, is on a beach and sees a woman that is the definition of relaxed and it makes her think back to how she spent her time before the daily grind became a grind. So she starts a hashtag and shares the photo.
I love that it was her teenage daughter that called her out on it and Lauren trying to backtrack and justify something she warns her children about. It was hilarious that I jumped straight into their holiday, enjoying the vividness of all of it and then, as I often do with thrillers, suddenly remembered (and noted on my Kindle) ‘crap, this is going to get bad.’
There was so much I loved from the start-the ease of the interaction with the lead and her daughters, the background to her work as a single parent psychologist, and soon all was muddied by tweets by an unknown wanting to know who the girl in the photo was. Saying that I have to admit as much as I enjoyed the first half for the everyday, when I got to the jumps and the scares I realised I could have done with just a few more, and a teeny tiny bit less about the morality of use of social media, although that is supposed to be the talking point of the book so I’m probably in the minority on this.
Speaking of the thriller aspect to the book, it’s funny that I decide what way I want a book to go and so I was very excited when we came across the girl a second time, as suddenly, as I’d prayed for (YES!), we’ve got her pov too!
There’s a series of unpalatables in the book, giving us some choices as to who the person who is now openly stalking Lauren, not only online but in real life too, and I was all over the place trying to figure out our culprit. We were led around and about every garden path and I savoured it, adoring the unease created (at one stage there’s a home alone scenario that had my eyes wide and my heart actually thumping as I was reading at one o clock in the morning in the silence of our own home!) and gobbled up the latter part of the book, in particular a conclusion that was right up my street. Beyond enjoyable, and a book that has (if she hadn’t been already as I do know her from IWI) most definitely cemented Ms. Mara as an author I will continue to read and shout about.
Rating: 4.5/5