This is a fast-paced, totally unpredictable, creepy, yet entertaining story, which is also well-written and suspenseful, but its believability factor for me is zero since having been married to a psychotherapist for 54 years, I know in no way, a therapist could get away with such an experiment, let alone try it. Still, my enjoyment of the book was 100%.

Even with that unbelievability factor, I think this novel would make a great movie. I hope some movie person takes notice.

Although no synopsis could cover everything or anything here, the story begins with two people (Daphne and Heath) falling in love, both with heavy emotional baggages. They decide to marry and they become engaged, but without telling each other about their pasts. Those pasts the reader finds out through their experiences inside a claustrophobic mansion for the couples’ therapy operated by the psychotherapist Matthew Cerny who takes away their electronic equipment like keys and phones. Yet, he has his own surveillance equipment all over the place. This, however, is only the setup and the beginning of the story.

While reading the novel, I thought that, at first, Daphne Amos had to be paranoid, but the weirdly twisting events that followed my suspected paranoia of hers to be as light as a feather.

As to the characters, Daphne’s character is thoroughly drawn. Heath is not who we think he is at the end, but this is explained well enough. As to the psychotherapist, he is far-out unbelievable as is his mission.

The pace is fast to begin with but it speeds up as the story advances, and at the end, it literally zooms, so much so that, at Goodreads, some people missed some of the events at the end and were asking questions about what happened, although what happened was right there inside the novel. Some of their confusion, I think, is partly due to the storyteller’s going back and forth a little too much. Although the suspense was excellent, this back and forth in several time periods took away from the enjoyment and the comprehension for some readers. In my opinion, some back and forth in chronology can add to a story, but when overly done, it confuses the storyline.

Damaged people, a somewhat Gothic setting and plot, and a well-thought-out foreshadowing that announces future struggles for the characters have all come together to make this a dramatic page-turner, which also made me read the book in one sitting.

entertainment.

how nobody was what they seemed to be at first.

is Emily Carpenter, a former actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated from Auburn University with a degree in speech communication.

its highly dramatic and exciting.

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Created Jun 15, 2020 at 5:56pm • Submit your own review...