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A taut and twisty psychological puzzle, this book, exposing you to “Before” and “Now” timelines, alternatively told from the POV of the two main protagonists, will leave you tense and wondering just who you can trust, what to believe, and ultimately, just what the heck is going on?

Sarah Goldman, a forty-one year-old photographer, mother and wife lives in a Vancouver home that is both gorgeous and cozy, with her COO husband Daniel, and their six year-old son Jacob. Sarah’s first-person POV crackles with intimacy as she shares her anxieties, insecurities, and shakily exhausted attempts to cope, readily admitting that her “mothering is smothering” as “everywhere I look I see danger”.

Holly Monroe is a twenty-two year-old auburn-waved beauty, who enters the Goldmans’ lives as a summer-term babysitter for Jacob. Holly is a strange (and perhaps sociopathic?) character – her third-person POV is chilling, matter-of-fact and coldly disturbing as we watch her somewhat dispassionate account of her wildly dysfunctional home life, behavioral adaptations and growing obsessions. It’s difficult not to feel empathy for Holly, whose escalating tactics are as horrifying as they are undeniably reflective of a terrible emotional void.

Recommended for lovers of character-based psychological suspense, claustrophobic tension and mounting unease, this book is destined to keep you guessing, right up the dramatic ending with a twisty “reveal” you may or may not have seen coming.

A great big thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.