My Rating: 4 stars
Wow, this was an awesome read! As far as psychological thrillers go, this one
was absolutely top notch! From the very
first sentence, I was captivated by the story of the Tanner sisters: 17-year-old
Emma and 15-year-old Cassandra (Cass), two teenagers from a dysfunctional
family who suddenly disappeared one fateful night. Three years later, one of the sisters returns
– Cass, now an 18-year-old woman, shows up on the doorstep of her mother’s
house with an urgent message: “Find Emma!”
From there, a three year old
investigation is re-ignited and the FBI agents who were deeply involved in the
case previously – special agent Leo Strauss and forensic psychologist Dr. Abby
Winter -- are pulled back into the fray.
As they interview Cass – who spares no detail in recounting everything
that happened the past 3 years in the hopes that they are able to save her
sister – Leo and Abby once again become deeply entrenched in the story of these
two sisters and the unconventional, oftentimes tumultuous, relationship they
had with their narcissistic mother Judy Martin.
As the family history is slowly unraveled, secrets are discovered that
all end up playing into the mystery of the sisters’ disappearance and Cass’s
subsequent return.
Prior to reading this book, I had no idea what narcissistic
personality disorder was. Sure, I’m
familiar with the term narcissism,
but did not know that it was actually a diagnosable illness and that its
real-life impact could be so devastating.
I was definitely impressed with the way author Wendy Walker was able to
build such a compelling, gripping tale of suspense around a disorder that many
of us either didn’t know about or if we did, probably misunderstood. It was obvious that Walker did a thorough job
with her research into narcissistic personality disorder – so much so in fact,
that if I hadn’t read the Acknowledgment page at the beginning of the book, I
honestly would have thought that Walker was able to be so detailed about the
disorder due to personal experience with it in her family (she clarifies that
this is not the case and the characters are not based on anyone in her family).
The story itself was cleverly written and kept me guessing right up
until its shocking and completely unexpected ending. I don’t intend to write a detailed review on
this book because I want people to read and experience it for themselves, as this
is one of those books where it’s best to go in with as little information as
possible. After I finished the book, I
was compelled to go back through and re-read some parts and it was then that I
realized Walker actually did drop quite a few clues about the ending but it was
hard to recognize at first due to the brilliant way the narrative was laid
out. The writing was also exceptional
(very few mistakes despite my version being an uncorrected proof copy), which,
in my opinion, definitely contributed to how absorbing the story was – I found
this book hard to put down once I started reading it.
Definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy well-written
thrillers, though a word of warning that there are depictions of mental and
emotional abuse and manipulation that are quite disturbing, in case that’s a
deal-breaker for anyone trying to decide whether to read or not. The book also isn’t without flaws, the main
one being some repetitiveness with certain parts of the story (which it looks
like other reviewers pointed out as well), but to me, this was a minor issue
that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book itself. I am definitely interested in reading more
works by this author!
Received
ARC from MacMillan via NetGalley
No comments:
Post a Comment