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A clever and compelling story with plenty of pathos and charm, refreshingly unlike anything this reader has encountered between the pages.

The story is told through narratives alternating in the first-person voices of five people: a therapist, Genevieve Dempsey; and her four subjects: Freya, Victoria, Mischa, and Callum; each of whom is dealing with an emotional crisis anchored around grief that is to be treated with an experimental (and mysterious) process, delivered through weekly sessions scheduled at seven o’clock.

Freya, a thirty-one-year-old tiny sparrow of a woman, had a perfect childhood, but now clearly wishes she had never grown up.

Mischa, a vulnerable, fragile, twenty-year-old, struggles with an innocence that leaves her unable to understand why awful things happen to good people.

Victoria, fifty-two-years-old, is a perfectly kitted-up partner in a law firm, with an outward perfection that belies her ongoing internal turmoil.

Callum, twenty-nine-years-old — a mega-watt idolized rock-star — has emerald eyes and a gift for both music and storytelling, along with a haunted hollowness that is impossible to ignore.

With impeccably snappy pacing, the authors narrators unwind personal backstories into traumatic revelations, each of them deeply emotional and engrossing, intermingled with several plot twists (at least one of which is massive) a reader would be impossibly challenged to predict.

A terrific read (and a quick one), this book is highly recommended for lovers of psychological suspense, tricky and skillful storyline maneuverings, and heart-rending, character-driven insights.

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