“Happiness feels warm, almost like a slight fever; it has a smell and a heartbeat that goes like the second hand on the kitchen clock.”
★★★★✩
The thriller that starts where others end. Lena has been missing for 13 years. Her life in the shack in the woods has been defined by her abductor - he sets mealtimes, learning times, and bathroom times, for both her and their two children. One day Lena manages to escape, gets hit by a car, and ends up in hospital. She is finally free. Or is she? Her captor seems to be following her, he wants her back in the shack where she belongs. And yet, when Lena's father comes to be reunited with her in hospital, he says what no one wants to hear - this is not my daughter. Who is she? And where is Lena?
This book is masterful - the levels of suspense and intrigue throughout are some of the best I've ever encountered in fiction, and not only that, but this book is thought-provoking and emotional. Romy Haussman is clearly an excellent thriller writer. The way plot points were revealed throughout the book was so clever, and the chapters were written in such a way that I never wanted to put it down! If I hadn't been reading this with someone else, it is entirely possible I would've flown through this is one sitting.
Told from the point of view of Jasmin (the girl who escapes), Lena's father Matthias, and Lena's daughter Hannah, the story is drip fed with different opinions constantly clashing. A lot of the characters are inherently real - I was never sure if I liked them or not, and whether they were being truthful or not! Haussman managed to capture each characters intricacies incredibly well, meaning each point of view was very real and believable.
The trauma in this book makes it an incredibly hard read at points, and I found myself shivering and feeling a bit sick at points with what the characters went through.
However, the ending felt rushed. It could have done with being another 10-20 pages (and I don't often say that!) to keep with the way the rest of the book was told. I liked the twist, but I don't think Haussman made the most of it - the development of the antagonist seemed to be an afterthought, which made the ending feel very lacklustre.
Content warnings: murder, death, kidnapping/abduction, trauma, malnourishment.
Buy this book on Hive, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, or Waterstones, or your local!
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