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Chloe is your classic unreliable narrator, often referencing her difficulty separating what's real from what isn't, which isn't helped by her pharmaceutical habits. She's paranoid, convinced that these new victims are someone specifically toying with her, setting her on her own amateur investigative path to find who's copying her imprisoned father's past actions, since virtually no one else believes her suspicions.
Thank you to Macmillan for providing a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 1/11/22. Also, about Tyler participating in Cooper’s plot out of the sheer charisma of his personality. That was … ehh. I think with the right setup maybe I could have bought it, but either way it’s definitely a weak point in the plot. Now Chloe Davis grabs her second chance: working with teenagers as a psychologist and she’s doing far better job than her colleagues because she knows how to be troubled kid. She also found her loved one, is about to tie the knot with Daniel even though her brother Cooper has still suspicious about Daniel’s motives. Does he really know the real Chloe and does he know how she still struggles with her past? This was a stunning debut novel. I loved everything about it; The characters, the writing style and how naturally the story flowed from the past to present. Many books divide the chapters into now and then, embellishing what happened before. There were jsnippets from the past here and there, and that kept the pace, making me forget I was reading a book, instead feeling like I was living inside Chloe’s head.So Chloe is the star of this anxiety-inducing show. When she was really young, her father got arrested for the deaths of teenage girls. This is something that really traumatized her, and we see a lot of the effects in her adult years. Her brother and mother were also traumatized and they both also exhibit effects of this. Nevertheless, she is doing better: she is getting married to a really good guy, she has a great job, and she can honestly see her past getting behind her. What could possibly go wrong? Well, teenage girls start getting missing, and the clues being left behind are quite similar to when she was younger when those teenage girls went missing. Are they connected in a way? the sex scene with Chloe and Aaron, the “journalist”? I mean, come on. Guys. Like , really?! Her issues with her fiancé notwithstanding, here’s barely a hint of sexual tension between her and Aaron leading up to that moment ( I would know) and there’s nothing to suggest that something so out of character would ever cross Chloe’s mind until they’re suddenly tussling on a dirty hotel comforter. All because he said she’s not crazy? Sure, she was desperate for that validation, but it was a bridge too far and came off as a huge eye-roll moment for me. Aaron needed to be a lot more fleshed out (as did her interactions with him — staring longingly at his biceps? More emotional conversations that show they have some sort of genuine link or attraction? An appreciation of his cologne, even? Literally anything, I don’t care), or Willingham needed to show that Chloe was circling the drain faster, and therefore such a rash decision would’ve made more sense. The premise: a loving father of two children was a serial killer of teenaged girls, convicted of the murders after confessing (with little proof); now 20 years later there is a copycat. From the first chapter, I had a strong hunch who was doing the killing. I was correct. This doesn’t necessarily ruin a novel for me, as I find entertainment in the clever way that authors create their story. I’ll give credit to Willingham in some of her crafting of the story. There were a couple reveals that I did not anticipate.
While I found certain aspects of the story toed the line of predictability, I nonetheless had a fun time reading it. I think this is definitely worth reading, and I will definitely read a book by this author in the future. I thought I had this figured out so many times, but the twists kept coming!!! The ending is stellar, believable, horrible and yet satisfying. Does that make SENSE?
He was convicted and jailed when she was twelve but the bodies of the girls were never found, seemingly lost in the surrounding Louisiana swamps. The case became notorious and Chloe’s family was destroyed.
Four stars might seem a lot for a book where I had figured out the main plot twist a couple of chapters in, but I had such a fun ride reading this that all is forgiven. It pulled me out of the book slump I'd been sinking into. There are many ways to find out whether a person is emotionally unstable. The author is sharing a few of them in this book. I would say the main strong points of this book are the compelling premise and a mostly solidly plotted-out mystery. The killer is pretty guessable, but there’s also enough other suspects and possibilities to keep you on your toes. I think it did a good job of planting clues while offering up enough snarls in the plot to make it a little less obvious. Some of the smaller details make less sense than I’d ideally like, but those were mostly more minor aspects of the story. The ending is Chloe arriving at her former(?) fiancé's sister's house. She drove to Mississippi to return the ring (certified mail anyone?), but she doesn't actually want to talk to Ken-doll. In retrospect, and aside from not asking permission for the choking, he wasn't so bad. He's a pharmaceutical rep and she's a drug "addict." Match made in heaven, DUH. Chloe has spiked Cooper's drink, so he gets drowsy and is soon arrested. Chloe's father is released from prison. The book ends with Chloe going to visit Sophie in Mississippi to return her ring to her.
There’s always that shred of doubt, that sliver of hope. But false hope is worse than no hope at all.” That alone is stressful enough, but when local teen girls begin to go missing, one of them a patient of Chloe's, she's triggered into a really dark place; her past. Chloe Davis is a damaged woman. She was only 12 years old when her father was convicted as a serial killer!! The girls murdered were girls she knew, girls from her small town. Chloe had found damaging evidence. Her father is in prison.
I've read plenty of serial killer stories from the perspective of investigators, the victims and their families, and regular townspeople, but I'm not sure I've ever read one from the killer's own daughter. And coming at it from that angle makes this story feel fresh and unusual. Chloe still suffers from the fallout of her childhood, and her narrative envelopes the whole story in her dark and foreboding mood. Sometimes eerily descriptive: “It’s as if the answers have been in front of me all along--dancing, just out of reach. Twirling . . .like that ballerina, chipped and pink, spinning to the rhythm of delicate chimes.” Chloe Davis, a thirty two year old psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge, has a family past that will haunt her for the rest of her life. What her father did, when she was twelve, tore families apart and terrified a small town. A serial killer kidnapped and killed six girls, that killer was her father, and he's now rotting in prison, having ruined the lives of so many people.I was twelve years old when those shadows started to form a shape, a face. Started to become less of an apparition and more concrete. More real. When I began to realize that maybe the monsters lived among us. And there was one monster, in particular, I learned to fear above all the rest." Then, revelation time. Chloe has solved this puzzle! The dang murderer is obviously taking these girls to Chloe's childhood home. She also apparently used to know him, because he's from her home town. EYE ROLL. She is going to drive right to the house and not tell anyone about it. She is also going to leave her phone in the car because why would you need that? (Aside: a famous serial killer's house has been sitting empty for 20 years and it's somehow completely intact, not vandalized, burned down...?) In what world?
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