Review: I Know Who You Are (by Alice Feeney)

My Rating:  3.5 stars

Alice Feeney’s debut novel Sometimes I Lie was one of my favorite suspense/thriller reads last year – that book was dark and twisty with an ending that was both shocking and explosive (and frankly left me reeling), but yet still within my “acceptance” level for books in this genre.  As I said in my review of that book, I was so blown away by the story and how cleverly written the whole thing was that I went online and tried to read everything I possibly could about the author and the book afterwards.  Not only that, I was also super-excited to read Feeney’s next book, which I already knew she was working on and would be out some time in 2019.  Indeed, her sophomore novel, titled I Know Who You Are, was published last month (April 2019) and I made sure to get my hands on the book as soon as I possibly could.  Going into it, I already anticipated it would be full of twists and turns (which it was) and that there would likely be a big shocking twist at the end (which there was) that would likely upend the entire story that came before it (which it did).  But that’s about where the similarities end -- now that I finished reading this one, I have to say that my reaction to this book is very different from how I felt about her previous one. 

In the interests of not spoiling the story for those who are interested in reading this book, plus it’s always best to go into a suspense / thriller novel knowing as little as possible, I don’t want to say too much about the plot or the characters.  Rather, I’m going to focus on my reaction after reading this book, which I’m going to be honest in saying that the story was a bit too extreme for my tastes.  Sure, Feeney’s previous novel also leaned more toward “dark and twisty” and the “shock factor” with that one was also high, but I felt like the story progressed a lot more naturally and the ending, while shocking, was perfectly executed.  With this book however, the overall story went in a direction that I have to honestly say was more disturbing than I would’ve liked, and the ending actually left me feeling uncomfortable (and if I’m being honest, a bit queasy too).  I know I’m being a bit vague here but I don’t know how else to describe it without giving away the plot – basically, this was like a wild and crazy roller coaster ride that had plenty of thrilling, suspenseful moments (as it is supposed to), but instead of coming to a satisfying stop at the end, it crash lands and the rider disembarks feeling shaken and perhaps even a bit unsettled.

My reaction aside though, the writing in this one was on par with this author’s first book and the plot was just as intricately and cleverly laid out – the story held my attention throughout and definitely had me at the edge of my seat the entire time.  Regardless of what I thought about the ending as well as a few of the other plot points, this truly was a top-rate psychological suspense novel in my opinion, and many of the elements were also truly well done, which is why I couldn’t bring myself to rate this one too low.  While this one obviously leaned a tad too much on the “creepy” side for me, I still think it’s worth a read, especially for thriller / suspense fans.  And no, despite this reading experience being a little less than pleasant, it has not deterred me from wanting to read more of Alice Feeney’s works in the future – I just hope that her next novel is more along the lines of Sometimes I Lie rather than I Know Who You Are.