Had really high expectations cuz Sarah Pinborough’s previous book is one of my all time faves. While this didn’t live up to that book, it’s still a very clever, twisty thriller with some creepy supernatural elements. Scarier than some horror books iv read tbh. The twist didn’t twist as much as I wanted it to but it was very well crafted and so hard to put down at the end. 

I'm not gonna lie, the main reason I read this book was because the twist for "Behind Her Eyes" was spoiled for me and I thought it was the craziest twist I've ever heard about. So I decided to see if her other books were the same.

This book was pretty slow in the first half in my opinion, but it kept my intrigue enough to continue. I have to admit it did take me a while to get used to her writing style. The book was kind of like a slow burn with many leading plot elements. It was entertaining enough.

I love how we really got into the main character's head.

At one point I seriously thought she was going crazy. I'm so happy she left her no good unsupportive husband. He really got on my nerves. And I'm also glad she was able to gain a better relationship with her sister and finally understand her mother.

Also, the twist (many might think it's outlandish) but I really liked it. It bumped the book a 0.5 star for me. 

This was hard to rate because it's a book I have super mixed feelings about. As a thriller, it's really strong, and I loved the absolutely batshit turn that it takes and I just know that, like Behind Her Eyes, it's one that's going to stay with me and continue to haunt me every time I think about it. I also really loved the way the protagonist's complex relationships with her mother and sister are dealt with, and appreciated the look at difficult childhoods and generational trauma.

However - and it's a big however and potentially a little bit spoilery - there is one fairly prominent element of the book, outside of the main thriller-y storyline, that is just dealt with so, so, so fucking awfully and that I cannot in good conscience neglect to mention, and that's the way the grooming of a teenage girl is portrayed and dealt with. The way one character in particular, and one we're clearly supposed to root for, reacts to the situation is both ridiculously unbelievable and insanely infuriating. I was so mad and it ruined so much of the reading experience for me that I probably would have rated this lower had there not eventually been one whole character who finally points out how horrific what's happened is. That redeemed it just enough for me to still come away feeling like I enjoyed this overall, but this whole aspect of the book still let it down a lot for me. What makes it even worse is that plot-wise the book still would've worked absolutely fine had the grooming storyline either not been included or been included but dealt with appropriately.

I have another gripe with this book - though this one is more personal preference - and it's what happens in the epilogue. It's infuriating because in a way it's really clever and adds another haunting dimension to everything that's already happened, but it also does something that I just absolutely hate in any book that it happens in. I'm just going to pretend that the book ends at the end of the last chapter, as everything still would've made sense and I'd still have been left absolutely mind-blown.

So yeah, a mixed bag. I'm not sure whether I'll pick up anything by this author again, which is such a shame as her mind is clearly incredible and I love that I can go into her books just knowing that whatever I predict, the whole truth is going to be so much wilder than I could ever guess. But the grooming thing just so badly rubbed me up the wrong way and isn't something I can forget or brush over.

This book is nonsense. It's quick, entertaining nonsense, but nonsense nonetheless.