4/5 stars.
ebook, 225 pages
Read from August 28, 2017 to September 1, 2017
It is books like this that make me love Netgalley more than I already do. If you need a creepy read that will make sure you never look at your next door neighbours the same way ever again, then look no further. I highly anticipate that this book will become the topic of much conversation and popularity once it is published (September 26, 2017).
Marion is a meek, simple-minded spinster in her mid-fifties who has never had to work a day in her life thanks to the money left from her family’s company. She is very content to live out her days watching television, day dreaming, snuggling teddy bears and avoiding confrontation at all costs, especially from her overbearing brother, John. John has always been smarter than Marion and was always favoured by her parents. John could do no wrong, even when he started to show dark and unnerving behaviour, while Marion was constantly reminded of her simpleness and inability to accomplish anything.
The two of them have lived together for some time, as neither of them is married, but John likes to have ‘visitors’ come over occasionally. Marion never knows where these visitors go as they never leave the cellar once they arrive. She continuously turns a blind eye to the sounds and movements she hears coming from these ‘visitors’ while trying to comply with John’s demands and rules. She is soon forced to deal with the ‘visitors’ when John suffers from a heart attack and needs to be in the hospital for an extensive amount of time. Marion, momentarily free from her overlord brother, starts to discover what she is truly capable of.
You are not sure whether you should love or hate Marion, You initially feel sympathy for her with her atrocious upbringing and with the way that John treats her, but that nearly turns to revulsion with her inability to be anything but passive and eventually selfish and unfeeling. The reader, like Marion, doesn’t have a full understanding of her character at the beginning of the book and as the story slowly heats up, things begin to unravel in some pretty sickening twists and turns.
While not a necessarily a full fledged mystery or thriller, this novel and the author’s writing style, has an ability to appeal to anyone who doesn’t mind getting inside the heads of borderline psychopaths. While the story does not start off with a bang, Marion and John are too intriguing to walk away from ensuring that the reader is hooked and not ready to put the book down until it is finished.
This book has been one of my more enjoyable reads of 2017 and a good reminder to go out on a limb for books sometimes as surprises can be awesome. If you loved
Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train then this book will be a must read for you.
The Pluviophile Writer 
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