| Pub. Date: | Oct 11, 2016 |
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Narrator: | Alison Larkin |
| Length: | 6 hrs 56 min |
| Source: | Publisher |
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This is such a hard review to write because I don't want to give anything away! So... bear with me if this seems a little vague, but I really do think it would be preferable for you to find out everything for yourself.
Sophie is a primary school teacher living with her mother in Yorkshire. All-in-all, she has a pretty sad life. Sophie is in her 30s. childless but wanting a child, no dating life to speak of, and very few friends. Don't get me wrong - I am not knocking childless single heroines in their 30s (I am one myself!), but I would hope they are single and childless by choice, evincing a girl-power-type independence and rocking their single life. Sophie is none of those things. She is a victim that is co-dependent on an abusive and caustic mother. Sophie is so beat down that she seems to have given up on living her own life. While normally this would irk me, I actually found her to be a sympathetic heroine. Sophie's mother was truly awful... suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's has not improved her life-long bitterness and scathing treatment of other people. I can't imagine growing up with such a vile person and then voluntarily remaining in the toxic relationship as an adult. But Sophie really was a good daughter despite her mother's behavior. While she seems to have given up on obtaining her mother's approval for anything, she has continued to care for her after the onset of Alzheimer's and despite the repeated abuse.
Then things start getting very weird in Sophie's life. She seems to have acquired a stalker... but who in her very limited life would suddenly develop such an obsession? Sophie isn't sure who to trust and starts to think she may be going a little crazy. The mystery kept my attention, and it did have a good psychological feel. I didn't start getting an idea of who the shadowy figure might be until fairly late in the book, which was nice. For a book on the shorter side, I felt like the mystery was still drawn out for a good while and was not immediately predictable.
The narrator, Alison Larkin, did a good job holding my attention. Her British accents sounded spot on to me, but she was also able to change easily into other accents when needed. There weren't many male characters in this story, but she also slipped into a male affectation that was believable. So overall, a thumbs up performance.
I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this audiobook that I received from the publisher, Tantor Audio.
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