![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Disclaimer by Renee Knight
The Blurb On The Back:
When an intriguing novel appears on Catherine’s bedside table, she curls up and begins to read.
But as she turns the pages, she is horrified to realise she is a key character, a main player.
This story will revel her darkest secret.
A secret she thought no one else knew …
It’s spring, 2013. Catherine Ravenscroft is a successful documentary filmmaker, happily married to Robert (a lawyer) and with a grown-up son, Nicholas who has recovered from an adolescence lost to drug abuse and is now working at John Lewis while living in a flat share. When she and Robert downsize into a new house, Catherine finds a book entitled THE PERFECT STRANGER, which she doesn’t remember buying. It’s only when she starts to read it that she realises that the novel plays out a secret that she’s been keeping for the past 20 years, a secret that she never wanted to get out. As Catherine tries to identify author (E. J. Preston) and how they know her secret – she realises that they have a personal connection to what happened and that they’re not going to rest until they’ve destroyed her and everything she has …
Renee Knight’s psychological thriller is a page-turning why-dunnit that kept me so engrossed that it wasn’t until after I finished it that I started to think about the flaws. Catherine is a believable character and I found myself caught up in the gradual disintegration of her character and career as she’s forced to confront not only her past but the apparent willingness of her friends and family to believe in the events as portrayed within the book. Stephen (who the reader knows from the outset is responsible for the production of the book) is equally fascinating – particularly the slow reveal of his relationship with his deceased wife and absent son and I enjoyed the slow unveiling of secrets that he’d rather keep hidden. Where the book fell down for me though was in the reaction of Robert to the revelations in the book. I could understand it in part because of Catherine’s refusal to discuss it, but then he equally shows no willingness to question her more forcefully to at least try and understand and that, combined with the viciousness that he demonstrates seemed too much of a jolt given what little we see of their marriage. I was equally unconvinced by Nicholas, who doesn’t get much development and is there primarily to reinforce the idea of Catherine being a bad mother. For all this though, I did keep turning the pages and I was genuinely invested in the resolution – so much so that I am really looking forward to reading what Knight produces next.
The Verdict:
Renee Knight’s psychological thriller is a page-turning why-dunnit that kept me so engrossed that it wasn’t until after I finished it that I started to think about the flaws. Catherine is a believable character and I found myself caught up in the gradual disintegration of her character and career as she’s forced to confront not only her past but the apparent willingness of her friends and family to believe in the events as portrayed within the book. Stephen (who the reader knows from the outset is responsible for the production of the book) is equally fascinating – particularly the slow reveal of his relationship with his deceased wife and absent son and I enjoyed the slow unveiling of secrets that he’d rather keep hidden. Where the book fell down for me though was in the reaction of Robert to the revelations in the book. I could understand it in part because of Catherine’s refusal to discuss it, but then he equally shows no willingness to question her more forcefully to at least try and understand and that, combined with the viciousness that he demonstrates seemed too much of a jolt given what little we see of their marriage. I was equally unconvinced by Nicholas, who doesn’t get much development and is there primarily to reinforce the idea of Catherine being a bad mother. For all this though, I did keep turning the pages and I was genuinely invested in the resolution – so much so that I am really looking forward to reading what Knight produces next.
When an intriguing novel appears on Catherine’s bedside table, she curls up and begins to read.
But as she turns the pages, she is horrified to realise she is a key character, a main player.
This story will revel her darkest secret.
A secret she thought no one else knew …
It’s spring, 2013. Catherine Ravenscroft is a successful documentary filmmaker, happily married to Robert (a lawyer) and with a grown-up son, Nicholas who has recovered from an adolescence lost to drug abuse and is now working at John Lewis while living in a flat share. When she and Robert downsize into a new house, Catherine finds a book entitled THE PERFECT STRANGER, which she doesn’t remember buying. It’s only when she starts to read it that she realises that the novel plays out a secret that she’s been keeping for the past 20 years, a secret that she never wanted to get out. As Catherine tries to identify author (E. J. Preston) and how they know her secret – she realises that they have a personal connection to what happened and that they’re not going to rest until they’ve destroyed her and everything she has …
Renee Knight’s psychological thriller is a page-turning why-dunnit that kept me so engrossed that it wasn’t until after I finished it that I started to think about the flaws. Catherine is a believable character and I found myself caught up in the gradual disintegration of her character and career as she’s forced to confront not only her past but the apparent willingness of her friends and family to believe in the events as portrayed within the book. Stephen (who the reader knows from the outset is responsible for the production of the book) is equally fascinating – particularly the slow reveal of his relationship with his deceased wife and absent son and I enjoyed the slow unveiling of secrets that he’d rather keep hidden. Where the book fell down for me though was in the reaction of Robert to the revelations in the book. I could understand it in part because of Catherine’s refusal to discuss it, but then he equally shows no willingness to question her more forcefully to at least try and understand and that, combined with the viciousness that he demonstrates seemed too much of a jolt given what little we see of their marriage. I was equally unconvinced by Nicholas, who doesn’t get much development and is there primarily to reinforce the idea of Catherine being a bad mother. For all this though, I did keep turning the pages and I was genuinely invested in the resolution – so much so that I am really looking forward to reading what Knight produces next.
The Verdict:
Renee Knight’s psychological thriller is a page-turning why-dunnit that kept me so engrossed that it wasn’t until after I finished it that I started to think about the flaws. Catherine is a believable character and I found myself caught up in the gradual disintegration of her character and career as she’s forced to confront not only her past but the apparent willingness of her friends and family to believe in the events as portrayed within the book. Stephen (who the reader knows from the outset is responsible for the production of the book) is equally fascinating – particularly the slow reveal of his relationship with his deceased wife and absent son and I enjoyed the slow unveiling of secrets that he’d rather keep hidden. Where the book fell down for me though was in the reaction of Robert to the revelations in the book. I could understand it in part because of Catherine’s refusal to discuss it, but then he equally shows no willingness to question her more forcefully to at least try and understand and that, combined with the viciousness that he demonstrates seemed too much of a jolt given what little we see of their marriage. I was equally unconvinced by Nicholas, who doesn’t get much development and is there primarily to reinforce the idea of Catherine being a bad mother. For all this though, I did keep turning the pages and I was genuinely invested in the resolution – so much so that I am really looking forward to reading what Knight produces next.