Behind Her Eyes
Author: Sarah Pinborough
Grade: D Level/ Not for Me
I picked this book from Book of the Month because I heard people talking about the amazing twist at the end. There’s definitely a twist at the end of this but that and everything else was just- it was just a big fat nope for me. I was blaming myself for not doing due diligence on a book I wouldn’t usually read but according to Goodreads I’m not the only one that felt that way.
I try to keep it vague spoiler wise:
Louise meets a guy in the bar. Nothing happens except a kiss but she goes into work the next morning and finds out he’s her new boss. Once she gets over that she also befriends his beautiful wife Adele and begins to realize there is something very wrong with this marriage.
I’ll give the writing one thing. It was interesting. I plunged in. I thought wow- it’s revealing a lot fast and headed off in a strange direction but we shall see.
Problems:
The Cat Thing. No. I try to stay away from any books with animals being tortured, harmed and abused and worse. If I can’t or don’t know about it I want it quick and preferably implied. There was an implication about one cat at the beginning of the novel but then there was the brutal death of another cat. Described in high-heeled detail.
Just no. I have cats. I work with a rescue group especially of older cats if I had known about that being in there I definitely wouldn’t have chosen this book. (And sadly none of the reviews I did read on Goodreads mentioned it even the unhappy ones.) But just no.
It’s also heavily implied that the child is going to meet a grizzly fate which was unsettling as well.
The Characters. Holy crap, they were unlikeable. I mean I guess you could say David was the best of them but he was an angry, passive-agressive, drunken idiot. Louise bounced back and forth between him and Adele without seemingly any capability to make up her own mind. She doesn’t actually attempt to find out anything or do anything for herself until near the end of the book.
Plot/Twist This book is not a straightforward psychological thriller. There’s a heavy element, indeed it hinges on, let’s just call it special powers to as not give so much away. Once that started cropping up I thought okay, interesting. But then it careened into that territory and it wasn’t just it’s inclusion but execution. I was asking too many questions like, “How is that possible?” “How many people can do this?” “Everyone! Oh, okay. Sure.” At that point it just wasn’t working for me on any level.
So the twist was certainly a twist the problem was by that point I was rolling my eyes and too annoyed to care.
I get the feeling opinion on this one is very divided so even though you may want to stay away from any spoilers I think it’s still worth looking into and reading what a few other people have to say about it. It was most definitely not for me.
Recommend: No.