Before I Let You In
Crime, Psychological Thriller, Thriller
Jenny Blackhurst
Headline
August 28th 2016
eBook
358
English
March 11, 2021 March 20, 2021
Beat the Backlist, Cloak and Dagger
From the No.1 bestselling author of HOW I LOST YOU, which Clare Mackintosh called 'utterly gripping', comes a chilling new novel. Perfect for fans of Louise Jensen's THE SISTER and Katerina Diamond's THE SECRET, Linda Green and Paula Hawkins.
Karen is meant to be the one who fixes problems.
It's her job, as a psychiatrist - and it's always been her role as a friend.
But Jessica is different. She should be the patient, the one that Karen helps.
But she knows things about Karen. Her friends, her personal life. Things no patient should know.
And Karen is starting to wonder if she should have let her in . . .
About the book
Three friends, three women linked to each other, a mother, a single, a mistress. A psychiatrist, a housewife and a career woman. A new patient arrives at the clinic where Karen works, a woman who seems to know facts about the three women that no one but the trio has ever known, only they know the secrets never told, so how does this woman know? Are they in danger?
What I think
I didn’t like the book that much. It’s not bad but I didn’t love it, especially because I understood the final twist almost immediately after the introduction of the characters. There is another fact that I didn’t like about the book but I can’t say so as not to spoil (in case you don’t understand the twist at the beginning of the book like I did). I can only say that I don’t like the main character so much that at one point I even wrote as a note “I think that the psychologist must be psychoanalysed too”. Also, because I don’t like the main character, I can’t say that I liked the book. Even though if I liked the case and thinks it’s original.
The story, however, is a bit all over the place, especially at the end of the second part. At the beginning of the third an event happens, but it is not clear how we get there even though throughout the story it was obvious that that event would happen. The author presents us with the fact that has already happened, but we do not know how and why. Or rather we know at the end, but as it is told it is too detached, eh I cannot explain better without saying what actually happens and it is a salient point of the story so I cannot write it. But I did find myself a bit lost at the beginning of part 3.
They also did not explain why Karen cannot have children. Right at the beginning this is said and I immediately thought that the “dark past” mentioned in the synopsis was something related to this, but no. I also can’t believe Karen doesn’t know that her lover has another daughter when her friends find out right away. Either it’s an oversight, or it’s something that doesn’t make sense.
Then the Italian title fits the book, the English one doesn’t.
Style
The chapters are short but they are not too short. Or rather, the last book I read (two reviews ago), had short chapters, but often the narrative did not flow although the brevity may be a reason for flowing reading because the scenes were too fragmented between the chapters. Here, however, the scenes are not at all fragmented even if some chapters are just a few pages.
Characters
As mentioned, I didn’t like Karen as the protagonist. I understand why she was like this, but if I don’t like the protagonist of a book, even if I understand why the are like that, in the end the joy of reading fails.
I don’t even know whether to talk about her friends even if they are present in the book, they seemed more like knick-knacks than real characters…
Conclusion
I gave 3 stars because the book is not bad anyway (the case), there are worse ones, but it didn’t give me that sense of amazement reading it.
