My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.”
----George Bernard Shaw
Sarah Pinborough, an English-born horror writer, has penned a creepy psychological and domestic thriller, Behind Her Eyes that revolves around the lives of three individuals, one single mother and a married couple, whose paths cross in the most unusual way possible. The single mother gets tangled up into that couple's life in the worst possible way when she falls for the husband and at the same time, she befriends the wife and she can't betray any one of them. Gradually the couple's complex past surfaces up and that threatens to destroy the single mother and the life around her.
Synopsis:
Why is everyone talking about the ending of Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes?
Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.
When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.
And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?
As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.
Little did Louise, the single mother, knew that the handsome man, whom she met and kissed in a bar, is going to be her new boss, and that his glamorous and psychotic wife would become her best friend. David, the successful psychiatrist, who just moved to London along with his wife for a fresh start, has already fallen for his secretary, Louise and his wife must not know about his feelings. Otherwise? Adele, the perfect housewife to David, meets Louise, his husband's new secretary just outside his office, and instantly the pair strikes up a friendship. And what about Louise, who gets so terribly caught up in the flawless life of this couple, David and Adele, who intimidates her and intrigues her both at the same time. Can she stay out of their lives and what secrets are this couple hiding?
Told from the perspectives of two women, this blood-curdling psycho thriller is one hell of a page turning book that will not let its readers to look away from it even for once. Well the readers can afford to miss the compelling drama that every chapter of this book has to offer. All the while reading this book, I felt like I was holding in my breath for something terrible or some mind-twisted game changer to occur and when I came across those parts, it blew my mind away, since the twists are so well devised and kind of unpredictable. Although seasoned crime fiction readers can kind of easily guess way those major twists in the story line.
The characters are so well structured, layered well with their evil and the good sides. The characters are bound to have that psychological grip in the minds of the readers all through out the story line, and when the story ends, they will leave a lingering essence of their messed up minds. The author has vividly brought out the darkest sides of a human being and how dreams can control our reality is also very convincingly explained by the author. From Louise's point of view, Adele seems like someone who is perfect not only as a woman but also as a housewife, although gradually their friendship makes Louise thinks otherwise about the picture perfect married life of Adele and David. But when Adele's perspectives are rolled into the story line, the readers will realize that much psychotic this perfect woman can be, and how far she can go in order to protect her sacred marital bond with David. Not only that, through the snippets of Adele's past, the readers will get a thorough view of the back story of Adele, thus making her characterization very dynamic.
The author's writing style is really strong and emphatic and is laced with intense darkness that is enough to drown the readers into its depth. The narrative is catchy, mystifying and very much genuine, hence the readers will find it easy to comprehend with the story line. The pacing varies, from being very fast to being moderate, as often the readers will be curious and vouching for something worse to happen with the characters, until the very shocking climax that will completely blow off their minds.
In a nutshell, this dark and compelling story will turn out to be a hypnotic and extremely captivating read for all the readers. This is the book of the season that you can't afford to miss.
Verdict: #WTFthatending! Grab now to learn more.
Courtesy: Thanks to publishers from Harper Collins India, for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
Sarah Pinborough is a critically acclaimed adult and YA author based in London.
Sarah was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and also the 2010 and 2014 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and she has four times been short-listed for Best Novel. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC and has several original television projects in development.
Her next novel, Behind Her Eyes, coming for HarperFiction in the UK and Flatiron in the US (January 2017) has sold in nearly 20 territories worldwide and is a dark thriller about relationships with a kicker of a twist.
Visit her here
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