I should be one of the few humans beings in the first world that didn’t read Eleanor Oliphant so I can’t say if there are similarities or not.
What I can say is that I never used the adjective “gripping” for a women’s fiction and this a way I would described this book.
Because it’s a women’s fiction but it’s also an excellent thriller and the mix of the genres works very well making this book a page turner you can’t put down.
The story is poignant, emotionally charged and it moved me to tears more than once as I know a hoarder and I can say that the author did an excellent job in describing this type of persons. Amy sees beauty in discarded objects but she also use the objects to collect to avoid being hurt again. We can read about her past, about what she was and we can read about her current life and what she became.
She try to avoid human contacts and she’s stuck in the moment when her world fell down. She starts to heal the moment some of her objects are destroyed and part of the barriers fall down.
The moment Amy starts to heal is also the moment when she starts investigating the disappearance of her fiancee and her best friends.
This is also the moment when the story becomes a thriller as she’s collecting clues and discovering that not all is what it seemed.
The solution to the mystery part came as a surprise and I was satisfied by it as it’s also the moment when Amy can leave the past behind and starts living again.
I loved the excellent character development: Amy is a complex and interesting woman. We learn she’s very beautiful but this is just an element as the plot is more about what’s going on in her mind.
All the characters are fleshed out and interesting, some are lovely as Richard and the children. Some are quite hateful, excellent villain in this story.
The plot is tightly knitted and the dual timeline helps the reader to understand what happened and who were these persons whose disseverance hurt Amy so much.
I think this is an excellent debut and this book is strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Piatkus and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.