This is the first thriller that's ever made me cry, so there's that.

I honestly was going to give this book a three star rating because while it was good, I wasn't all that excited to read it. I do much prefer Slaughter's cop thrillers. Her psychological thrillers feel second tier to me (although second tier Slaughter is still better than just about any other thriller author I've read). Reading it felt almost a little meh, despite the great writing and well developed story and characters.

But the further it went, the more I cared. The more real the characters felt. The more human they all were. I love when characters feelso much like real people that you can't help but to connect to them and feel your pain.

Something I really loved about this book was that Slaughter toned down the horror. I feel like some of her books have a tendency to go over the top and feel ridiculous and unreal (Pretty Girls is the obvious comparison,but I think her over the top violence works better in the cop thrillers), but here she kept it real. I bought into everything that was happening. I felt for the characters because she didn't desensitize me. Because she kept that sense of reality, everything that happened hit me really hard and I loved that.

This book is by far my favorite of Slaughter's psychological thrillers. It doesn't rely on plot twists or unraveling mysteries. Instead it's about the characters themselves and it allows them to drive the book, and the characters are so fantastic.

I'd highly recommend this if you like psychological thrillers or have been wanting to try Slaughter. It's great. She definitely stands as my favorite thriller author.


A note for people who may be concerned about animal abuse: One of the main characters works as a vet tech and has a beloved cat,

Spoiler

but it's totally fine no animals are harmed. I spent a great deal of this book waiting for something bad to happen. I generally do not trust thrillers with animals, so I figured I'd spare someone else the stress I felt.