The Therapist
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☠️ Murder Mystery 🏡 Gated Community 👁️🗨️ Trust Issues
👤 Stalker 💔 Grief Representation 🌪️ Paranoia
Synopsis
Alice and Leo have just purchased their first home within The Circle, a beautiful and tightknit gated community. While Alice is eager to settle in and meet their neighbors, Leo is finishing a work contract that requires him to stay elsewhere for a few weeks. Alice takes it upon herself to host a welcoming party and introduce herself!
Things quickly take a turn when an unexpected guest arrives and Alice finds out about the woman who was murdered within her new home. Nina, an admired member of the community was killed two years ago, and it appears that no one wants to share the details. As Alice tries to piece together the truth, her relationships seem to crumble and she’s not sure who she can trust.
“Do you know what Henry David Thoreau believed? ‘Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
Favorites
From the very first chapter, this book took off! It was so fast paced, uncovering lies and mysteries within the first 30 pages! It really drew me right in and continued with this pacing throughout the rest of the book. Every single time you thought you might have pieced it together, something new was uncovered, veering your mind elsewhere.
In many instances, a book with too many characters can become overwhelming. Though there were many side characters in The Therapist, the author introduced them and reiterated their place in the novel many times. This allowed me to easily navigate each relationship and make my own assumptions about any possible suspects. I also enjoyed how we got a piece of the “aftermath” towards the end and how Alice’s relationships were affected once her living nightmare was finally over.
This book was extremely unsettling and everything I look for in a thriller novel. The feeling of being watched was mentioned and hinted towards so many times, that I really started to feel this way alongside Alice. Even the method of lies and truths unraveling was so unexpected and entertaining. Each conversation that Alice had with a neighbor or friend seemed to hint towards a new development, leaving her consistently shaken in a place that was supposed to become her home.
“She is a woman at peace with herself. But we all have darkness within us and the deeper it’s buried, the more interesting it is.”
Final Thoughts
This book gave me SERIOUS trust-issues. I went through all of the emotions with Alice as she became more and more paranoid throughout the book. If you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller that isn’t graphic but can still give you goosebumps, this is most definitely the read for you. Every thriller has its twists, but I could never have predicted the intricate details that unraveled towards the ending! Lights on with this book - for sure.
