I am back with another book review, today it is Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
This book was insane. I cannot remember the time I read a book and had my heart pound as much as it did while I read this one.
The synopsis is pretty vague and simple: Kate, a young woman has decided to do an apartment swap with her second cousin, whom she's never met, Corbin. He will stay at her place in England and she will live in his apartment in Boston for six months. Kate, having lived through a horror struggles with the decision, but upon arriving in America beings to see this as an opportunity for her to start fresh. However, this certainty quick evaporates when she arrives at Corbin's apartment to find the woman in the flat next door has been unresponsive to her friends. The next day, Kate finds out the woman, named Audrey, has been murdered. Soon the police show up, taking statements from the whole building, but Corbin/Kate's apartment is the only one they search. Corbin denies a relationship with Audrey, even though Alan, a peeping-tom neighbour from across the building had seen him enter Audrey's apartment a number of times.
Corbin continues that he is innocent, and Kate tries to trust him. But things aren't what they seem. She remembers sending the apartment's cat out at night, yet in the morning he is back in her room. And the sketches that she has done are smudged like someone rubbed their finger across the page. Is someone messing with her? Or are these blank spots in her memory a result of her paranoia?
I will leave the synopsis there, there is so much more I could say but I don't want to spoil anything.
Firstly, I want to start off by mentioning the similarity between this book and Caroline Kepnes' book YOU. This book also deals with murder and stalking - something that book does as well. Alan basically confesses to spending hours watching Audrey through his window, and some of the other characters do some cyber-stalking. I think both of these books bring up an interesting message of what happens when a simple Facebook search or glance out a window turns into something more. There is also something fascinating about the way in which the characters rationalize their actions. There is a difference between watching someone innocently, something that just happened, and the obsession that the characters have.
The plot itself was really well done. There was mainly Kate's perspective, but there was also some moments where it switched to Corbin or other characters, giving background information and filling in gaps where the storyline was lagging. Most of the time, I enjoyed this switch, but there were times when things were getting really intense where I just wanted to get back to the main storyline.
I think I got about 180 pages before I was able to guess the true identity of one of the characters, Jack. When things came out and the twist was revealed, I got the outcome I was expecting, but there were other, deeper, elements within the identity that were shocking. Especially everything that happened with Kate towards the end, I was terrified for her - I'll definitely be checking under beds if you know what I mean!
The one aspect I didn't love about this book was when things were coming out, we got the POV of the 'bad guy' and he revealed everything he had done, and why. Part of me was glad that these things were explained, I'm not sure I would have gotten everything figured out myself, but I think it was a little too well wrapped up. A good magician doesn't reveal his secrets because it takes away from the show. I think getting all the explanation was almost too fulfilling. I would have preferred things be a little more open, even the reasoning as to why the 'bad guy' was the way he was, that just seemed a little too scripted.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book and would highly recommend it for a thriller fan!