Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced eARC and an honest review. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t like this. At all. And I’m not sure if it’s because the overall story felt flat and very slow, or if I felt incredibly triggered as a Black woman while reading it, or both. I didn’t find any of the characters to be likable, but the main character, Rachel, was the most insufferable of them all. 

This book explores the harsh realities of what happens when you’re Black and in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case, Claudia, the Black nanny to the affluent Corbin family, is accused of a horrible accident. Rachel, the narrator, is a manipulative 17 year old who develops a very intense obsession with Claudia and becomes “casually violent” towards Claudia when things don’t go her way. 

I’ve been on the receiving end of a white woman’s unmitigated wrath when I didn’t do something they felt I should do, wanted me to do, felt entitled to it. In that regard, I sympathize with Claudia, but only then. 

I’m not entirely sure of what the author is doing here, but if causing a trigger is it, she was successful in that regard.